Whenever the word "witch" is uttered, we conjure up a memory of "the burning times" when people were being accused of witchcraft and tortured by feverish villagers of 16-17th century Europe. It was an era of heightened paranoia, religious persecution, intense misogyny, and colonisation. This was the dawn of capitalism, as the former system of feudalism was gradually replaced with something more "liberal". Power struggles between monarchs and politicians caused riots, massacres, and sieges. Witches were scapegoats for all of the turmoil, as the wealthy could point a finger "look over there!" and shift the blame. The witch represented an enemy of the state, a cause of mass terror, an invader from the infernal realm. Those accused were usually poor elderly single women. Socially discardable, having outlived their usefulness, the accused witches were easy targets of popular violence. The development of capitalism meant that former peasants became lan...