what were the origins of the salem witchcraft trials?

Answer 1

The origins? I'm not sure what you mean.

However, the "kindling point," if you want to call it that, was a group of young girls who had been listening to the stories of a West Indian servant named Tituba.

You must remember how narrow an existence girls had at this time and place. Things we do today, such as dancing and and playing silly games like "Bloody Mary," were forbidden to teens in 1690's Salem. Most especially frowned on were any practices that smacked of the occult, such as using divination techniques to see who a girl might marry (something that has always been fascinating to the adolescent female time out of mind--just look in any book of superstitions).

Some theorize that this group of girls met in the woods to dance and engage in this sort of divination--and here's where cognitive dissonance rears its head.

When a person does something that is against all he or she has been taught, the result is a conflict--what HAS been done or engaged in versus what one SHOULD have done according to the belief system he or she practices or has been brought up to practice--for instance, not going to church on Sunday, if this has been something one is in the habit of doinng.

One of the girls, Elizabeth Parris, grew ill. She said she'd been bewitched, and her friends soon began to show symptoms of being hexed as well.

We all know the rest of the story--a lot of people hanged (contrary to what many believe, there were no witch burnings in Salem), one pressed to death, and a bunch of theories ranging from repressed sexuality to ergot in the grain supply.