Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/20/blurred-lines.html
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WHAT?!! There goes my time-traveling-back-to-medieval-Europe fantasy.
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Did people really believe it was okay back then? 
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At least only the ones who engaged in it… and even then there’s the whole “guilt thing”, so…
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Well, the fact that they had punishments for it tells us both that it happened and that it was considered unacceptable… I’m just curious if anyone thought it was acceptable back then.
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Is the misconception because people were just hairier back then?
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Something I read in Archeology (or Nat Geo) magazine (???) a long time ago, about some law somewhere in the Middle East re bestiality and how the do-not law only applies within a particular distance from a village, town…? I recall 40 miles. I’m NOT going to google-check that for fear of what the hell would pop up.
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The existence of harsh laws against something indicates that it’s frowned upon, certainly.
But you also don’t tend to make laws to deal with, and write strongly worded condemnations against something that doesn’t happen very much.
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Well, actually witchcraft was not happening very often, and there were most certainly strong laws against that… so there could also be the perception of authorities vs. the reality at play here. After all, there is still the perception that rural people the world over enjoy relations with their livestock, when it’s probably something very rare.
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because sex was what got humankind kicked out of Eden
Wait, what? Was that apple just a metaphor? 
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But there were plenty of crotchety old widows, many with inconvenient rights to their dead husbands’ land.
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BINGO!!! 
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Of course… they weren’t actually witches, though, which is my point. Same here. There might not have been actual rampant fornication with the barnyard critters, but there were excuses to punish people and expropriate livestock perhaps.
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‘Hey, hey, McCloud, get off of my ewe.’
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In some regions of Europe actual witchcraft was quite popular. Near the place where I live (near Polish-Belarus border), in some remote villages there are still witches, with traditions passed for many generations.
I agree though that actual occurrences of witchcraft weren’t correlated with witch hunts, and accusation of witchcraft was used mostly as an excuse to punish women who were in some way inconvenient to the patriarchy.
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They were not doing the things they were accused of by the authorities, which, again is my point here (that people regularly got accused of crimes they did not commit for other reasons). They were not sacrificing children, flying off to covens with satan, sleeping with satan, etc. You’re talking about pre-Christian folk practices (some of which might still be in use), which got associated with this particular Christian construction of witchcraft.
[ETA] I suspect that such folk practices were not considered “witchcraft” by the practitioners, but instead were just understood as good ways to deal with practical problems. I suspect that most women doing these things considered themselves to be good Christians, even if they kept up older traditions and practices.
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I’m not very surprised. Can I get a show of hands as to who thought this was ever a good idea, and accepted by society?
But here is the kicker –
Whoo man. Tell me about it.
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There are a few christian sects that hold to the sex thing being the original sin, most don’t though so I am unsure why this argument is used here. The original sin could not logically be a ban against sex as Adam and Eve were commanded to have lots of sex (fill the Earth). Original sin was the first couple taking on for themselves the right to decide what was right and wrong, rejecting Gods command to not eat the fruit from a certain tree, not necessarily an apple tree though.
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