信仰与现实之间的演义——1692年塞勒姆控巫运动述评

PERFORMANCE BETWEEN FAITH AND FACT——THE SALEM WITCH HUNT IN 1692

1692年,塞勒姆———美国马萨诸塞州的一个小镇,爆发了瘟疫一般的控巫运动。人人诚惶诚恐,因为可能下个时刻就是自己被指为“异端”。大部分历史学家往往仅用数百字描述这一事件。在该事件上认真着墨的却是一些文学家,他们对整个事件的始末做出阐释,对某些具体的审判情形或是惩罚现场也有细致的刻画。从宗教信仰和现实世界两个维度来思考这一场人间惨剧,并通过分析得出结论:掌权人物借着人们对巫术的恐惧,在社会上不同利益集团之间煽动斗争,最终导致了塞勒姆控巫运动的发生。

A great number of witchcraft trails struck deadly at Salem-a town in Massachusetts in 1692. Everyone there became extremely terrified because he was highly prone to be accused as a witch the next second. However, many historians often have no interests about this event and only describe it with hundreds of words. It is literatures who determine to record the event fairly. They contribute excellent interpretations and portray the whole process carefully. Then, what triggered the tragedy initially？ This article aims to analyze this event by two levels： faith and conflict of intere＇st; and finally the author obtains the conclusion that men who were in power at that time made use of folk＇s scare of sorcery to agitate struggles between different interest group through the witch hunt.