He does mention in his freely downloadable article in The Pomegranate http://www.equinoxpub.com/index.php/POM/issue/current as well as in my blog interview with him, that witches were persecuted by pagan societies – he’s talking in the context of the common belief today that “witches” equal “pagans” when in fact the folkloric witch is a figure of negativity… and if witches *equaled* pagans - were just another term for pagans - then pagans themselves wouldn’t have persecuted them, because they (witches) were just pagans… he also discusses this in “Anthropological and Historical Approaches to Witchcraft” Historical Journal 47 (2004) 121-31.

~Caroline.

From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joanna Coleman
Sent: Saturday, 10 December 2011 8:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] pre Christian European witch persecution?

I'm pretty sure Ronald Hutton has written about this - he was definitely referring to it very interestingly in his talk at the Royal Geographical Society in October - although perhaps his bulk of research will be in a book to come.

Joanna

> Hello all,
>
> Does anyone know of documented evidence of "witch persecution" in Europe before the advent of Christianity? Did they burn witches in pre Christian Europe? Has this been written about?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Yours
> RSH
>                       
>