Witch-Hunts and Revitalization

In this lecture, I want to analyze witch-hunts in terms of the concept “revitalization movement”. This concept, theorized by Wallace in 1956, describes three ways societies to deal with cultural change: by slowly changing; by deliberately attempting to create a new culture (revitalization); or, by stamping out perceived agents of change (reorientation). As we shall see, Schoeneman argues that witch-hunts attempt to stamp out agents of change. Nevertheless, I argue that some witch-hunts are better analyzed as revitalization. Copyright 2013 Nicholas Herriman / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.