Witches and the Statutes of Secrecy was Re: a lot of Names, interrupted...

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 155045

Renee wrote:
> The 17 century is definitely the period when more and more people
started questioning the witch craze and the existence of witches. But
the Statute of Secrecy is too late to have caused this. <snip> In
fact, the Wizarding World made its decision about a century too late
for it to have any effect on the persecutions. <snip>
> 

Carol responds:
Interesting post. I agree that the Statute of Secrecy had no effect on
Rationalism, which was already spreading throughout Europe (and even
through colonies not run by the Puritans).

I still think that JKR chose the date of a fairly well known incident
of witch persecution for the Statute of Secrecy, not anticipating that
her readers would analyze the event so closely (or know more than she
does about RL persecutions). I think it would take more than Hagrid's
view of the matter--Muggles would always be bothering witches and
wizards to help them solve their problems--to explain the hiding of
the entire WW from Muggles, and the wish of a small minority capable
of hiding itself to escape persecution makes sense to me whereas any
other motive doesn't. It doesn't really matter that witch persecution
was on its way out at that point; I don't see how the WW's leaders
could have known that, not being prescient. Maybe that particular
incident was the straw that broke the camel's back.

At any rate, it's clear to me from this discussion and from certain
details in the books that JKR is not a historian. (Her geography isn't
much better, since she has Neville's Uncle Algie visiting Assyria.) I
think she wanted a reason for the WW to be essentially invisible to
the Muggle world, so that her readers (who presumably have never met a
real witch or wizard, as they're depicted in her books) could believe
in a world they've never seen. Diagon Alley is hidden. St. Mungo's is
hidden. Hogwarts is hidden. The TWT involved all sorts of secrecy
measures. Muggles who see giants are killed and eaten, and their
deaths explained as mountaineering accidents. Muggles who see dragons
have their memories modified. And on and on.

So, as I see it, the Statute of Secrecy is primarily a plot device to
explain how Muggles can live in the same world as witches and wizards
without knowing of their existence (a question Harry asks in Book 1).
That and "Muggles? They don't see nothink, do they?" pretty much
answers that question. (And Snape would have had less reason to yell
at Ron and Harry for the flying Ford Anglia incident if it hadn't
violated WW law.)

I doubt very much that JKR gave the matter as much thought as we're
giving it here. (She certainly didn't consult a history book when she
gave a ghost who died in 1492 an Elizabethan ruff, so I doubt that she
did extensive research on "witch burning," either.)

Carol, humbly asserting her right and that of all other posters to be
"wrong" and hoping that any canon-supported argument will be treated
with respect by those who choose to answer it, however violently they
may disagree with the views expressed