The benandanti - Carlo Ginzburg

Source - serious-science...
Who are the benandanti? How does witchcraft persecution reflect early class struggle? How were inquisition trials conducted? These and other questions are answered by UCLA Professor Carlo Ginzburg.

[@isabellablanchard7993]

My fam is Friulian and it's so nice to see more people sharing info about our history. It's such a small group no one really seems to care about. Thank you

[@jayjones3691]

I love you all for watching

[@leradicideglialberi]

Absolutely one of the most fascinating topics on the history of witchcraft. Very interesting to read also his other book about witchcraft.

[@ExploringtheKawithRa]

Want to have him on my radio show

[@nanelizabethjorgensen7971]

Reading _The Night Battles_ ( _I Benandant_) by Professor Ginzburg in my Berkeley History class.He's so charming!

[@AbandonedVoid]

You're lucky to have a class that recognizes its worth

[@nanelizabethjorgensen7971]

@@AbandonedVoid True! My teacher didn't know his mother was Natalia Ginzburg and his father assassinated by the Fascists. I looked him up, and read her _Family Lexicon_ ( So great!) But _The Night Battles_ was fascinating. I quoted him, many times in my papers! Plus I have fennel!

[@dashinvaine]

Fascinating set of discoveries. It causes problems for the theory that witch cult was imaginary(existing only in the minds of the Inquisitors etc) and not based on any existing groups. Also poses questions about the actual possibility of out-of-body experiences. collective delusions etc. Very interesting and confusing...

[@clintonhaws8984]

Out of bodies are certainly possible. They may not represent another layer of reality, I leave that for you to decide. But I can attest that, phenomenally speaking, they are a reality. Perhaps you meant by the 'actual possibility of out-of-body experiences' the implications of the phenomenon, in which case I apologize for my irrelevant reply.

[@eccoeco3454]

Not really, as Ginzburg explains there's a Stark difference between the Murraist theory of "Witch Cult" as some organized counter religion that had actual real life rites, functions, priesthood and the natural corpus of folklore and belief that survives in a disorganized way through story telling and immersion in the shared everyday beliefs of the community, these people didn't organize themselves know one another or spread their "gospel" if not in the most familiar and limited way possible, they simply dreamed of these events, Ginzburg never claims anything but, they believed that you have such experiences while sleeping thus they did, it's a relatively common occurrance, It happened me many times to dream of things I was obsessing over (exams, bureaucratic problems, etc), or of things I strongly hoped or feared would happen, this is no different. It's a subtle distinction and it doesn't neatly fit in the binary Witch Cult yes or no vision of things, and this is why some few personages in academia are so needlessly hostile towards Ginzburg's work, but academia isn't the domain of approximation.

[@joeyraggs]

Read his book The Night Battles years ago. Really worth it.

[@clintonhaws8984]

Thank you for the upload.

[@Lachlans-i2s]

Born in the amniotic sack? What does he mean by that

[@Gabi_Frank]

It is rare, but it can happen that the baby is born inside the amniotic sac intact, the sac does not rupture until the doctor does. It's called en caul birth.

[@Lachlans-i2s]

@@Gabi_Frank interestingz it's these babies that turned out to be benandanti?

[@Gabi_Frank]

@@Lachlans-i2s Yes.

[@gamerinsociety1450]

Wow I learned absolutely nothing

[@trilithiumnion1558]

This is a 17 minute ad for someones book and almost no interesting or useful information is conveyed, he speaks mostly about his profession and the interest of his discoveries, without enlightening the user to what those discoveries entail. He is like the master of bullshit in Italian. He just talked in circles for 17 minutes and it's pretty obnoxious that he sounds like he's going somewhere and then never achieves a result.

[@onesadyeeyee]

He is one of the greatest historians alive my friend. I'd advise you to read his works before saying those...

[@witchplease77]

I respect the heck out of Prof. Ginzburg, but there are MANY British scholars who wish he'd just go away, with one (Ronald Hutton) who actually misrepresents Ginzburg's views by putting words in Ginzburg's views in an attempt to control the narrative on Witchcraft Studies. Hutton has not only said in interviews that he and Ginzburg are both very good friends and that Ginzburg agrees with his presentation of the benandanti and Ginzburg's other conclusions. Hutton even published a book ("The Witch," Yale University Press) claiming that Ginzburg no longer condones his views on the benandanti, etc. for no other reason than he hasn't written on the subject recently. All of this is completely untrue; and Hutton is the head of the History Dept at Bristol University! I contacted Ginzburg myself who told me a very different tale: Ginzburg had only met Hutton once at a single conference several years ago, and it was enough to demonstrate that they were both on completely different sides of the proverbial isle. Furthermore, Hutton and Ginzburg are NOT friends in any sense! Hutton lied about that to try and control the narrative about how Wiccans view his "take down" of Ginzburg. Oh, and Hutton just made that bit up about Ginzburg recanting on his views because he supposedly hadn't authored anything new when Ginzburg has republished his books in Italian with a new Preface or similar chapter. I hate it when scholars lie about others just so they can manipulate their readers into believing their appraisal of the research, then actually believing what Ginzburg has written and demonstrated!