Witchcraft and Cooking: What Was Found in the Witches' Cauldron?

By Pierre Kapitaniak (member of IRCL)
In early modern Europe, four out of five witches were women, and as they were more or less exclusively confined to the domestic sphere, everything related to cooking (understood both as the food prepared and as the place of this preparation) inevitably fell into the stereotype of the witch. This lecture will first examine the most obvious attributes of witchcraft – the cauldron and the broom – before taking a broader look at the domestic setting they symbolize and exploring the ingredients of preparations that draw from both pharmacopoeia and daily meals. It will then venture into the more dangerous territory of the banquets of the sabbats, ultimately lifting a corner of the veil on the cannibalistic practices of which witches were once accused.
To be discovered in the auditorium.

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