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WITCHES AND CATS
"The rise of Christianity in Europe heralded a fundamental shift in attitudes
to cats. During the Middle Ages, the cat's links with the ancient, pagan cult
of the mother goddess inspired a wave of persecution that lasted several
hundred years. Branded as agents of the Devil, and the chosen companions
of witches and necromancers, cats, especially black ones, were
enthusiastically tortured and executed during Christian festivals all over Europe. It was
also believed that witches disguised themselves as cats as a means of traveling around
incognito, so anyone encountering a stray cat at night felt obliged to try and kill or maim
the animal. By teaching people to associate cats with the Devil and bad luck, it appears
that the Church provided the underprivileged and superstitious masses with a sort of
universal scapegoat, something to blame for all of the many hardships and misfortunes of
life. Fortunately for cats, such attitudes began to disappear gradually during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the dawn of the so-called Age of
Enlightenment. However, not until the middle of the nineteenth century did cats
eventually begin to regain the popularity they once enjoyed in Ancient Egypt."
LOCUST ON TRIAL
The discussion so far has put me in mind of a terrific book I once read on European
animal trials, which were conducted up until I think the 17th century. One example
especially pertinent to the topic at hand: if a plague of caterpillars or locusts or whatever
infested an area, the local legal community would put the swarm on trial. A locust would
be captured and taken to the courthouse. It would become the "defendant" , and would in
effect stand-in for the whole swarm. The trial would be conducted with all pomp and
circumstance, with a lawyer appointed to represent the swarm and etc. There were a
number of standard defensive strategies, and sometimes the swarm was even judged
innocent if their lawyer was especially able. If judged guilty, however, the locusts were
ordered to get out of town. If the infestation abated, the trial was given credit. If the
infestation continued, this does not appear to have been seen as an argument against
conducting animal trials in the future. I trust the resemblance to the raindance ceremony
is fairly clear here.
The author of the book (I cannot recall the title or author; I remember that it was
published in the early 1900s and the cover shows a reproduction of an old print,
portraying the public execution of a pig by hanging) argues that such trials are an attempt
by the human community to intervene in the natural order, to exert its will over the
world. I think this is a pretty insightful comment.
"Exerting human will over the world" could serve as a definition of the goal of science.
Bacon sometimes describes science as the human "conquest" of nature, and certainly
many modern critiques of science (feminist, for example) have taken this to be the
self-defined goal of scientific inquiry. I'm not arguing for the ultimate truth of this
particular position, but on the other hand if you look at things along these lines than
certain aspects of religious and scientific thought seem to be closely related, at least in
their purpose. Bacon's studies of heat are supposed to yield a (universal) process for
making heat, the shaman leading a raindance is trying to make it rain, the animal trial is
an attempt to bring the plague to an end etc.
Note that the various rituals used for bringing about these interventions don't have to
work very well in each case for the ritual to be accepted within the community. The
community may simply accept that human powers are limited in what they can
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