Doctors, Folk Medicine And The Inquisition

Walker (history, U. of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) applies the methods and models used by the most recent historians of the Inquisition to Portugal, where the phenomenon has been little studied. To explain why witch-hunters in Portugal during the 16th and 17th centuries were not as zealous as their contemporaries in northern Europe, and what social function witch trials served when they were held, he begins by constructing a basic framework of commonly held Portuguese beliefs, particularly concerning magical practitioners, and how these ideas shaped witchcraft trials. He finds that beliefs in Portugal varied from the European mean partly because of contact and interaction with diverse Africa, South American, and Asian cultures, but primarily as a result of the infusion of Moorish folk beliefs during several centuries of Iberian occupation. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Timothy D. Walker, Ph.D. (2001) in History, Boston University, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He has published numerous articles on early modern Portugal and the Portuguese colonies; subjects include the Inquisition, slave trading, and colonial medical adaption and dissemination.