Marks of an Absolute Witch: Evidentiary Dilemmas in Early Modern England examines English legal practice between circa 1550-1750 as it relates to witchcraft trials. In the volume, Orna Alyagon Darr considers different aspects of trial procedure including circumstantial evidence, the use of tests such as swimming and scratching, and the assessment of testimony. At this point, you may be asking yourself, what does a book about the history of legal evidence in the early modern period have to do with folklore? Quite a bit, actually.
First, Darr’s examination connects to an influential period in the development of the concept of the folk. The gradual negotiation of standards for witch trials mirrors the growing separation between folk and official culture, the separation between common knowledge and science. While her studies focus on the developments in the legal system, they can serve as an interesting comparison in the historiography of folklore, showing how the divide grew in legal structures as well as cultural ones.
Second, Darr’s examinations tie frequently into narratives. Several of the chapters deal with the authority given to different sorts of testimony. These examinations relate well to folkloric questions of legend and belief and the trust that society chooses to give to certain stories over others. The examination of oral testimony as an increasingly questioned authority is of particular note in understanding how narratives construct society.
Third, Darr’s analysis points indirectly towards folklore. Witchcraft beliefs and practices lie clearly in the realm of folklife. From a historic perspective, these trial practices are local rather than universal, peripheral rather than elite, and take place in the country rather than the city. From a modern perspective, practices relating to witchcraft trials show both multiple existence and variation. Darr’s analysis shows that while trials were run with a central text, the practices from trial to trial showed significant variation.
So, with those connections, what does Darr cover in this volume? Darr begins with an overview of the procedure of a witchcraft trial, with chapters on the pre-trial procedure, including arresting authority and the nature of accusations, and the trial procedure, looking at the general conduct of the trial. These chapters also provide some overview for a few cases that come up several times in her analysis.
With the overall trial procedure established, Darr’s analysis turns to the various types of evidence that come up in witchcraft trials. Darr begins with an overall examination of circumstantial evidence, as witchcraft was generally proven on circumstantial evidence, before examining three prominent types of circumstantial evidence. In the chapter, “Ritual Acts and Artefacts of Witchcraft,” she looks at the tools and behaviors that were seen as evidence of witchcraft and the way they figured in various trials. In the chapter “The Devil’s Mark,” she explores the use of bodily evidence in witchcraft trials, focusing on the devil’s mark or devil’s teat, which was seen as a “mark of an absolute witch.” Finally, in terms of evidence, she turns to the paradoxical use of the concept of imps. On the one hand, imps were frequently present in accusations of witchcraft, but they were not brought out in trial, with various reasonings being presented.
After her examination of evidence, Darr examines the use of experimental techniques of determining witchcraft. She devotes a chapter to the swimming test, the infamous, but illegal, practice of dunking a witch into water to see if she floats. After that, she examines the use of the scratching test, a test which involved scratching the witch to draw blood with the supposed result of curing the victim. After these specific examples, she explores these tests and their variable results and how they fit into the growing experimental culture of the period.
Finally, Darr turns to various narratives that appear in trials. Testimony gets two chapters of examination. The first explores judicial assessment of testimony, looking at how the court treated different sorts of witness testimony, including the testimony of children. The second turns to the general problem of getting reliable testimony and the problems that plagued witchcraft trials, testimony that was often motivated in peculiar ways. At the end, she turns her attention to the notions of confessions, exploring the ways in which personal confessions played a part in witchcraft convictions.
On the whole, the book is devoted to the development of legal standards through the lens of witchcraft. The changes in witch-trial procedure between 1550 and 1750 was reflective of general changes in legal practice and a move from more local variability to more general standards. What is interesting about the book is how Darr demonstrates the process. At its core, the argument of the book is summed up in a basic quote: “This study concerning the legal conundrums presented by the witchcraft phenomenon illustrates that even physical evidence is neither simple nor direct, but rather socially constructed” (155). All of Darr’s examinations point to the ways in which legal standards were established through acts of social negotiation, through practice, and the ways in which that continues to occur.
In her conclusion, Darr relates witchcraft trial practices to the evidentiary standards of terrorism and sex crimes, but I would actually aim a more pointed critique at what is commonly called the CSI effect on juries. The complex relationship between popular knowledge and evidentiary standards is not simply a relic of the early modern era, but continues to this day. As juries bring popular culture depictions of scientific evidence to bear in their evaluation of actual trial evidence, folk notions are once again influencing the social construction of justice. Whether this will lead to higher standards of evidence and testimony as it did in the period examined remains to be seen.
Overall, this book would be of interest to those who study witchcraft trials, those who study the early modern era and the development of the concept of folk culture, and those who are interested in the history of justice.
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[Review length: 987 words • Review posted on May 24, 2017]