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The author of the article presents an interpretation of the early modern discourses on witchcraft and mental disorders from the perspective of exclusion and inclusion processes regulating social dynamic in specific historical conditions. An intellectual basis for the early modern discourses on witchcraft and mental disorders was a traditional assumption about an alleged weakness and tendency of the female nature to conditions associated with melancholy, which was seen as both a natural (temperamental) condition and a supernatural one caused by the devil (melancholia diabolica). Popular misogynic opinions in the discourse on witchcraft were also present in the discourse on melancholy perceived as mainly a female illness, and encouraging the concept of the “majority” of Christian society being threatened by the “minority” of women accused of witchcraft and additionally marginalized by the association with a religious and ethnic “otherness”. Celem autora artykułu była interpretacja prowadzonych w epoce wczesnej nowożytności dyskursów na temat czarostwa i chorób psychicznych z punktu widzenia procesów ekskluzji i inkluzji jako mechanizmów regulujących dynamikę społeczną w określonych warunkach historycznych. Intelektualnym fundamentem wywodów w dyskursach na temat czarostwa i chorób psychicznych było tradycyjne przekonanie o rzekomej słabości i skłonności natury kobiecej do stanów kojarzonych z melancholią, rozumianą zarówno jako zjawisko naturalne (temperamentalne), jak i o podłożu demonicznym. Rozpowszechniane w dyskursie intelektualnym mizoginiczne poglądy o czarownicach, obecne również w dyskursie o melancholii jako przypadłości głównie kobiecej, pozwalały konstruować wyobrażenie o zagrażającej „większości” wiernych niebezpiecznej „mniejszości” czarownic (i czarowników), którą dodatkowo marginalizowano poprzez ich asocjację z religijną i etniczną „obcością”.

Ha-Mekomot: Jews – Poles – Germans – Realms of Memory and Oblivion. Project outline Abstract A new project at the Centre for Historical Research in Berlin of the Polish Academy of Sciences will focus on Jewish history and the culture of memory as phenomena that are indispensable for a better understanding of substantial contents and important layers of European culture. For an accurate perception of Jewish culture and its impact on European civilization it seems necessary to distinguish certain overlapping perspectives: the inherently Jewish perspective, i. e. the way Jews perceived their own world and legacy, along with two external perspectives i. e. the way Jews perceived the non-Jewish environment and vice versa – the way non-Jews perceived their Jewish neighbors. The continuity and change in the development of the Ashkenasim diaspora and its traditions from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century in Poland and Germany indicate substantial asymmetries, which were increasingly accentuated after 1945 as a result of the Holocaust and the destruction of Central-European Jewry during the Second World War. Reminding readers of the central contents and main elements of the “forgotten” Jewish legacy and its culture of memory in Poland and Germany is the project’s most important goal. ----- Bibliographie: Kąkolewski, Igor/Quinkenstein, Malgorzata A.: Ha-Mekomot: Juden, Polen, Deutsche. Orte des Erinnerns und des Vergessens. Projektskizze, JB historie, 1-2016, S. 89-92. https://doi.org/10.3224/jbh.v8-9i1.11

The Century of World Wars. (Re-)Interpretations of History in the Anniversary Year 2014 Abstract On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I and the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation organized an international debate on the topic of: “The Century of World Wars. (Re-)Interpretations of History in the Anniversary Year 2014”. The main subject of the debate, which took place on 23 November 2014 with the participation of renowned scholars in the field, was the consideration of historical contexts and comparisons of the two world wars from different national perspectives. ----- Bibliographie: Kąkolewski, Igor/Woniak, Katarzyna: Das Jahrhundert der Weltkriege. (Re)Interpretationen der Geschichte im Jubilaumsjahr 2014?, JB historie, 1-2016, S. 375-376. https://doi.org/10.3224/jbh.v8-9i1.32