Modern Day Witch Hunt

[Greg Crawford]

I see in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that an anthropologist has reported that a number of women have been tortured and some killed as part of a witch hunt in the Lake Kopiago district of Papua New Guinea. The locals attribute the death of some young people to the sorcery of the women. In fact, the deaths have been caused by HIV.   The behaviour seems to indicate two things: a fear of women and an hysteria surrounding HIV. While we react in horror, I’m not sure that modern Western society is yet free of such factors.   - Greg