Persecutory Cultures

Stonings, witch hunts, pogroms, lynchings, heretic hunts, crusades / religious wars. The blood libel and other forms of scapegoating, torture, exorcism, book burnings. Marking the “unbeliever”: Jewish badges and hats, dhimmi garments. Public humiliation of disobedient women and homosexuals: witches’ bridles, “shame-masks,” headshaving, stocks, ducking, sexual punishments. Racialized diabolism as colonizing ideology, massacres, theft and destruction of sacred bundles and masks, stolen generations and “Indian boarding schools"; misogynist and racist epithets and images. Each of these areas: persecution of women, queers, witches, heretics, “infidels,” Indigenous cultures, and the descendants of captives, is an entire study. Here we look at similarities in the Othering and the methods of repression used to Other and keep oppressed groups down.

Visual talk by Max Dashu, live visual presentation (90 minutes) with a break midway and more time for questions and discussion. Tech requirements: digital projector with VGA cable, screen, and mic.

 

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