It is also necessary to distinguish rigorously between the psychological explanations employed by participants and those used by the historian. Before drawing cross-cultural comparisons, historians should establish the difference between demonic possession and the effects of witchcraft in English Calvinist thought. When their work is used by historians, the original meaning tends to be obscured.
The European term, "possession," has been applied by anthropologists to phenomena in diverse cultures.
Historians of New England have fruitfully studied the local context of witchcraft accusations, but there has been less attention to the English religious background or the intellectual context, comparisons usually being drawn between the Salem events and European demonic outbreaks or African possession cults. Failing to follow the patterns of interaction seen in ordinary witchcraft cases, they were difficult to explain at the time and have puzzled historians ever since. Therefore, the events that began at Salem Village, Massachusetts Colony, in the 1690s, leading to accusations in several towns and the series of trials at Salem, are unique in the annals of Anglo-American law. Such cases rarely extended beyond a single family and one or two accused.
They loom large in the historiography because some cases were publicized and disputed at the time. Accordingly, I trawled through the primary material to find out just how often the distinction arose, and what influence such discussion might have had, First two paragraphs follow below In England, accusations of witchcraft involving extreme psychological symptoms were rare, by comparison with those concerning physical illness. A quick search through the literature indicated that this was a general problem.
The term "possession," as I had noticed in other works on Salem, was used as if there was no ontological or etiological difference from extreme forms of bewitchment. This essay was provoked by my reading a excellent book on Salem by Bernard Rosenthal.
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