From the goddess to the witch hunt tradition of the middle ages: A study on women's discrimination

This study aims to address women's value problem in history by drawing a road map starting from the primitive period with the accusations of witchcraft in which women were confronted in the Middle Ages. Our thesis is to evaluate the process of how women are brought to the point of witch hunting in the Middle Ages. In the first chapter, we emphasize the partnership of men and women in life during stone age periods where they were mostly distant from categorization. we refer to a review of their partnerships with each other in their needs and vital activities in order to sustain their lives, as well as women's primary status in that. In the second chapter, we examine the women profiles that was defined by the religions which we believe have formed codes on gender equality. We plan to make an inference based on the understanding of women and morals in the holy books. In the third chapter, we examine the evaluation of Christianity about women in the previous chapter and we focus on the Crusades which is the most important development of Middle Age due to their reasons and results, and the Christian and Muslim women in Crusades. In the fourth chapter, our research focuses on the witchcraft, the last point of discrediting for the woman who was believed to be goddess in earlier ages. We continue the same chapter by evaluating the similar and different characteristics, physical appearance and lifestyles of the women in the witch hunt tradition, which lasted approximately three hundred and fifty years in Europe. We treat witchcraft experiments, Inquisition Courts and the trial as a whole. In the last chapter, we examine the character of Jeanne d'Arc, which we encountered in research on European history and women's history. In the last instance, our thesis claims to embody the inconsistent perception developed against women in history based on the contradictory attitude against Jeanne d'Arc, who was first executed on accusations of witchcraft and then declared a saint later. Key words: Goddess, Middle Ages, Witch Hunt, Woman.