When in China, a TV program caught my attention, that focused on demystifying myths. It was about the cultural belief that there are some village women, who are usually very ugly or beautiful, who are witches. The show tells of a case of a guy, who spoke to a woman, who passed him some food. After the encounter, he had splitting aches that would not go away. Even a witch-doctor couldn’t cure him. Expectedly, the woman was labelled a witch who cast some spell on him. A passing herbal medicine man came by, looked at the guy’s condition and administered some medication and left without saying much. Surprisingly, the cure worked. When the guy’s cousin came by later, he secretly took a sample of the medicine to a lab for analysis. It turned out to be simple medicine for food poisoning, from eating bad sweet potatoes, which the guy really ate – from elsewhere, not the woman!
The narrator shockingly reveals that there are a number of such women, who are labelled as witches, whom out of strong discrimination by villagers, choose to outcast themselves and live together for support. Out of exasperation at being taunted, and out of retaliation, some of them openly declare that there are indeed witches, and that everyone better leave them alone. It turns out that the real demons are not them but the villagers, who are the demonisers! Looks like this problem of witch-hunting and demonisation is prevalent in many cultures. In both the East and the West. In both ancient and modern times! Tragic! However, that said, it could be that there are real witches too.