Class Notes from Jan. 31

I forgot to post this earlier this week so I'm doing it now.  This week we talked a lot about how in the last reading people really were shocked that so many people believed the tales of children.  But Professor Stuart pointed out that authorities still believe children today (such as in court cases) so the only thing that has really changed is what we are predisposed to believe.  I think it is really interesting that lawyers and other people who are interviewing hcildren for cout cases have to learn exactly how to ask children questions in order to not lead them in a certain path. The reason what we believe has changed so much is in part due to Freud, even though he has been largely discredited, because he changed the rpims through which we see human behavior.  

The arts have always played a large role in expressing the ideas and themes of the time in which it is created.  The picture on the syllabus is very difficult to understand.  I cannot understand if the three women are doing something threatening or if they are doing something to protect poeple form the harm.  The storm in the background could be cause by God or maybe from the devil, which could show how events could be taken either way during these times.  Like visions, events had to be looked at carefully in order to figure out if its divine of diabolical.  They also can help to show if the period it was created in was one of tightening or loosening of control by the church or the state.  

During 1550-1650 there was a drive toward purity, which can be seen not only in art, but also in rules and restrictions that were placed on people.  During this time, after the reformation, sex outside of marriage was a crime and sodomy was a capital offense.  But eventually control loosened and while sodomy was still considered a crime people were no longer executed for it.