Were early asperger settlers burned as witches?

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sluice
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02 May 2011, 7:21 pm

Back in the 1600s, was having asperger's syndrome enough to get you burned at the stake? Of course, you don't know for sure, but I can see it happening. That is the problem of belonging to a group of people that has no concrete history associated with it. Don't you have any need to know the history of your people, those who blazed the way to all the benefits we enjoy today? It is like asperger's is assumed to have just popped out of thin air to piss everyone off. Agree or disagree?



Zen
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02 May 2011, 7:37 pm

I wouldn't be surprised.

I do have a desire to know the history of my people, and I am thwarted, no matter which people we're talking about.

Maybe we should make up a creation myth for it.



Descartes
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02 May 2011, 7:57 pm

I don't think accused witches in 17th-century New England were burned at the stake. I think they were usually hanged. Also, most accused witches were women, which was due in part to the general sexism of the era. The Puritan days seemed like a horrible time to live in, Aspie or not.

I would like to mention that there were some figures who lived in Europe prior to the colonial era who might have had Asperger's, namely, Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci. Neither of them were ever executed as witches, but I did read once that Da Vinci was once charged with sodomy. :wink:


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sluice
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02 May 2011, 8:05 pm

Yes, we don't even have our own God. So many questions left unasked? Who was the first? No names in the history books. How many people locked up in sanitariums for being a little different and never given a chance? Even today, few people willingly will label themselves for fear that they won't be given a chance.

Edit: Sorry Des, went for a bite.
Burned, hanged- what is the difference? Dead is dead. Sure Leonardo and Isaac could have been, but they aren't and won't be acknowledged as such. It is like Jesus is always portrayed as some white, Anglo pacifist dude no matter what his true lineage. Image is reality.



CaptainTrips222
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03 May 2011, 1:02 am

Zen wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised.

I do have a desire to know the history of my people, and I am thwarted, no matter which people we're talking about.

Maybe we should make up a creation myth for it.


That's actually an awesomely creative, funny cool idea.



TenPencePiece
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03 May 2011, 5:03 am

Maybe we had our own colony somewhere before the European powers conquered most of the world? You know, maybe some village in the Americas or a small Pacific island somewhere.

I often think what it may have been like for people with AS in times past.

sluice wrote:
It is like asperger's is assumed to have just popped out of thin air to piss everyone off.


Or maybe it was in the water...


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Fudo
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03 May 2011, 5:08 am

most 'witches' were acquitted..
on topic, i got nothing



Apple_in_my_Eye
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03 May 2011, 5:25 am

I remember someone on this board, "Ouinon," IIRC, having the interesting idea that, perhaps, women on the spectrum were suffragettes and other women who balked at standard roles for women. I'm guessing the reasons would be due to not really 'getting' gender role stuff, feeling less inclined to conform to them, and maybe being offended by the double standards. (And all that is of course probably enough to get someone executed at various times in history.) I guess the male equivalent might be ASD guys being involved with the abolitionist movement?

I have no idea if either is supported by evidence, but they're interesting ideas.



the_curmudge
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03 May 2011, 12:44 pm

I'm thinking that witches, healers, cunning men and women and the like were fairly social beings. People were willing to trust them with their secrets and believe they actually could help them feel better, win a mate, find a lost object or see into the future. They had the trust and support of people of their own class, which is why they were targeted by jealous members of the "better" classes. I don't see them as having pronounced Asperger's traits, but of course, who really knows?



Zen
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03 May 2011, 1:05 pm

I don't know. I remember studying shamanism a long time ago, and I think it's possible that an AS person could have played that role. They were valued in the society, so any unusual behavior would just be attributed to the fact that they could communicate with the spirit world. They often communicated using things like art and music rather than just verbal communication. They did a lot of daydreaming and such as well, at which times they were thought to be partly in the spirit world. Some used drugs to achieve this state, but not all.

I don't know that that would carry over into more modern societies, which may be more likely to ostracize an odd person instead of value them for their own particular traits.