How Green Becomes Wood

"Well, the problem with the moldy bread is the Salem problem continued outside of Salem, where their grain was stored in a different silo, and the temporality of the trials makes it hard to be mold. Ergot inducing an LSD-type state is amusing, but the science and facts don't support it." Daizi replied, "and it's unlikely one or two people had ergot poisoning, but only one or two."
 
"Science doesn't support a lot of the really cool ideas," Alec sighed. "Alright. What if someone did invite a demon-type being, and they caused all of it for the sake of chaos? Other people taking advantage for political and otherwise purposes still tracks."
 
"Science..." Daizi mused, thinking about it, "Science uncovers many fascinating things, but we want science to drop a clear, easy answer into our laps. We always want a simple, undeniable singular truth. It makes the world easier to cope with if a horrible thing happened and we are able to say, 'well this is why, and we don't have to worry about it any more.' And sometimes we do get simple answers. When there is a horrible, single disaster, like a bridge collapse, sometimes we get a simple answer. But more often, especially when it is something very... human, and very social, there cannot be a simple answer because humans are not simple. Even a corroded bridge makes someone ask, 'well, why was it not maintained?' And that," She chuckled, "Is why I am a horrible person to discuss things with. I'm like the little children who go through forests pulling up rocks for insects and lizards, but with questions and causes. I do like the idea of a true demon and true witches being there. And I think there probably were at least some people who us modern witches would relate to. But--I have a lot to say on that, and I don't know how helpful it will be."
 
"It'd be interesting to throw out as a possibility," Alec said brightly. He still did not believe in witchery at all, but he was willing to put it alongside other theories. Why not? If mold could or could not be the cause, why not an actual witch who did something bad? Either deliberately or on accident. "If nothing else, it'll get people talking, which is always fun."
 
Daizi's eyes widened and she stepped slightly away from the wall, although she still didn't enter the room, "Oh, you meant for your poster? Don't put anything you can't cite back to a reliable source on your poster. It's okay to joke, but conjecture without hard evidence is how you create conspiracy theories. Anyway, when I spoke about 'true' witches, I meant in how..." She ruffled her hair, trying to pull from the right area of her academic memories and then reinterpret it in a way Alec, who hadn't done the readings, would understand, "Women, not all women, and not in all cultures, but in places in Germany, for example, in the Middle Ages, women would have an awareness of healing properties in plants, for instance, and they would create poultices and what they may have called an elixir or a potion, but we would perceive today as medicine, and were able to heal illness or injury in a way that then was... problematized as people, men, wanted to... stratify society and make healing more of a profession, but we still had these local healers, these often older women, and they were called witches. And that's just one example, it's deeper than that. It's very complicated, I don't want to overwhelm you. But what I want to try to express is we have modern witches who make their poultices and salves, and there were women in the Middle Ages who did, and there were probably women in Salem who did too, but they were operating outside of the expected bounds of society, and they were, therefore: witches."
 
Alec shrugged. "Reliable sources said the mold thing, too, so why not? But if you really don't want me to, I guess I won't. I think you're a reliable source. You are even published and work at a place that thrives on reliable sources."
 
Daizi couldn't help but make a face, "Have they? Because as far as I've encountered, everyone who still supports Ergot poisoning as a source of mass hysteria in Salem is ignoring massive amounts of evidence to the contrary." She shook her head, "I'm glad I can be a trusted source of evidence for you. My thesis was actually on witchcraft, you can genuinely cite me in your poster, I have a section on Salem."
 
Alec was not in the least bit surprised that his mother had written a thesis on the subject. He would have been more surprised if she didn't have some important paper written about it. "Well, you know, it's like the people with big bang. Big Bang used to be the big thing, and credible people believed it, but scientists moved on while the populace didn't. It's like that with the mold thing. Even if it was only considered for like five minutes, it was still credible! So, people cling to that even if it moved on. I still say it was a case of 'all of the above.' A really messy convoluted case."
 
"Wait, so, if I'm following... because before Dark and I were born, a theory was put out, and it was briefly considered before being disproven, and in the years following has only been disproven, you still believe it was a possible piece of the puzzle, because it remained credible for until people were able to publish their responses?" Daizi squinted at him, attempting to understand his perspective, "That doesn't make sense to me, habibi."
 
Alec stared at her in confusion, lips moving as he tried to make sense of what she said. "No, that's not what I mean, and, no, what you said does not make sense. What I meant is..." He sighed, shoulder slumping as he gave up. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter. Anyway, I have to do more research so I can get the poster done. Where can I find your thesis? I'd like to read it."
 
"I just do not understand the confusion." Daizi said flatly, genuinely not understanding what Alec's point was if it wasn't that he was still choosing to believe a widely debunked theory from the 70s as part of what caused the Witch Trials, despite the overwhelming lack of evidence. It was a fun story, sure, and she had been upset upon learning it wasn't true just as she had been upset upon learning 'Ring Around the Rosie' wasn't actually about the plague. But wanting them to be true didn't make them true. She knew Alec didn't believe it as the only theory, but she interpreted what he had said was that he was choosing to believe that it was part of the cause, without being willing to explain what he actually meant.

After taking some confused moments trying to unravel where she had misunderstood him, she said, "I am very interested in what you did mean, and I want to know your opinion because it matters to me, but if you don't want to explain, you don't have to. I have a copy of my thesis, I can loan it to you, but you won't have time to read all of it. It's about more than exclusively Salem, I was tracing witchcraft, women, fear of the other, and fringe identities, in the past and present. I'll, well, I'll have Dark, add sticky notes to indicate the portions relevant to you, so you don't need to sort through all three hundred some pages of it."
 
"Thank you, Mama, I would like to read it," Alec said politely. He hesitated and then decided to explain. "I mean that maybe the idea of drugged wheat or grain or whatever being the only cause is a dumb and unfounded one, like you said, but maybe it's not completely wrong. It's not like drugs are a new thing to people. Magic mushrooms and peyote are still a thing, so what's say maybe even just one family didn't get a touch high? Whether it was tainted grain or something else they ate. And then that spread and maybe some other people did it for fun, or maybe they condemned the family, or lots of other maybes. And probably something else was happening at the same time as the high family, and then other people say, hey, chance to bring down my neighbor's business and stuff like that. It might be outlandish to believe that the entirety of the witch trials happened because of tainted grain, but is it really outlandish to think that maybe drugs might have had a sliver to do with it?"
 
Daizi nodded slowly, taking the information in gradually, only a little bit wondering how she was meant to recognize all that nuance in what he had originally said, "I don't think it's outlandish to think there was a possibility of a small proportion of people in or around Salem who intentionally or unintentionally used mind-altering substances of some sort. But I don't think there's solid evidence of it, I certainly don't believe there is evidence of the people in Salem discussing drug use and taking it recreationally. The inciting incident, in as far as any of us can recognize, was a nine-year-old and elven-year-old having fits and making claims. It's not... impossible they had accidentally taken some substance, but it's helpful to recall they did not start claiming witch on day one. They were ill for a month before it was suggested witchcraft may be the cause. It wasn't until after they were fed a 'witch-cake', meant to free them from being bewitched. It wasn't until after that they named anyone as witches, at least not as far as any records express to my knowledge. For them to be sick at home, fasting from January to February while still managing to ingest a hallucinogenic, while nobody else in their family was seems unlikely. Now, is it possible that some of the later afflicted took drugs? I suppose so, but I'm not sure how that maps with certain afflicted seeming to be more in control of the situation than others. I'm also not sure how it maps with the sudden cessation of the hysteria." She fell silent for awhile, mentally reshuffling the facts she knew about Salem as she considered drug use in its context.

After a while, she inhaled softly and said, "I can see it as a potential contributing factor, something to worsen what was already happening, in certain situations, but I'm still suspicious of it as a causing factor."
 
"Well, that was only the first recorded incident in one place," Alec shrugged. "People don't bother writing everything down a lot. Still, I know what you mean about a causing factor. I still want to include it on my poster, but I'll surround it with question marks to make it clear that it's uncertain at best. People will be disappointed not to see any suggestions of drugs or possibly real witchcraft."
 
"Why not disappoint them?" Daizi asked, "Research isn't about pleasing people. But my point about the first incident is that Salem is like a Rollercoaster. It's this slow increase, it takes months for the first accused to die and longer for the first to be actually executed. But then it rapidly picks up, until it just stops. Remember these were trials, they were legal proceedings. We many of the original records of them. Again, I'm not saying there's no chance that anybody used drugs, but I do think the likelihood of it forming a significant force behind it is... incredibly low. I think..." She hesitated, choosing her words with the utmost caution, "I think it's a compelling answer, but I would need much more evidence before I accepted it as anything more than a technical possibility, not when there are so many other, stronger, hypotheses."
 
"Alright," Alec sighed, seeing a good quarter of his poster slip away. It was going to look amazing, too! Calling into question all sorts of things and presenting possibilities, but with Daizi so set against it, he supposed he might as well scrap it and start over. "Then what would you have as your most eye-catching, interest-achieving, center-of-the-poster deserving topic?"
 
"I think... hm..." She sighed, thinking deeply about it. "There's this quote. One of the executed. Sarah Good. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink! I think about it often, how it must have felt, innocent and about to be hanged. She had been told, in that moment, to just confess. But that's what she said instead. I'm no witch if you're no wizard. Gallows Hill being the site of the executions is another debunked piece of Salem lore, it's now believed to be Proctor's Ledge. But they were hanged, and we know that certainly, not on Gallows hill, so I would make the focus the the victims. The story is horrible enough without being salacious. I mean, you could make the central image one of the Gallows, or you can do something to really put the focus on the innocent people who lost their lives. If you want to add a section for futher questions, like the possibility of some level of drug use as an explanation for some small portion of it, you can, but considering there were real victims, people with just as much hope and sorrow as you and I... I think they deserve attention."
 
"I like using the quote as the center focus is a good idea," Alec said with a shudder. "For crying out loud, why can't history class every focus on happy and good things? Yes, yes, it's good to remember and not repeat and prepare and all of that, but, seriously, every single class? Why can't we do some nice things now and then?"
 
"There are nice topics in history," Daizi replied quickly, trying to settle him, "Like... the invention of theatre, or when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It's just that... People have always struggled. And history remembers struggles most saliently. And that's why I'm an anthropologist and not a historian. Anthropologists can study music and knitting and small interactions between people. I mean---I don't, but I have colleagues who do."
 
"Anthropology sounds like a much nicer study than history in general," Alec agreed. "It'd be nice if we could do more of that while maintaining the warning signs of the past. But I guess for now I have to do my best with a really sad project. I don't think glitter would be appropriate here."
 
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