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A woman suspected of being a witch was beaten by a crime syndicate and died last week in Guarujá , Brazil , near the land ’s large city , São Paulo . The fire was inspire by mistrust the cleaning lady was involved in a snatch in the orbit , following a Facebook post by a local news vent , according to a report from Folha de São Paulo , the body politic ’s largest newspaper .
" Housewife Fabiane Maria de Jesus , 33 , decease last Monday ( May 5 ) after being beaten by a group of hoi polloi from Guarujá two days before , " the report suppose . " The lynching … was prompt by mistrust that Fabiane was connected to child abductions in the region think to be linked toblack sorcerous rite . According to Military Police , however , there is no indication that she had consecrate such a crime . "
A woman suspected of being a witch was beaten by a mob and died earlier this week in Guarujá, Brazil, near the country’s largest city, São Paulo.
A video of the brutal attack shows a bunch gathered around the apprenticed and unconscious woman . An aggressor grabs de Jesus by her hair and slams her head into the ground . Then , another somebody on a bicycle tie one of her hands with a rope and drags her as the bunch cheers and throw trash at the die charwoman . constabulary are investigating , and several mass have been hold in joining with the incident . [ What ’s Witchcraft ? 6 misconception About Wiccans ]
According to the Folha de São Paulo report , the fire was trip by a monition apportion through societal media . The paper reported that the Facebook page for a local tabloid - style newsworthiness issue spread an alerting claiming that a woman had been seen abducting tyke , and many believed her motive waswitchcraft . A sketch of the woman the news wall socket claim was a nipper kidnaper was admit with the alert , and resemble the dupe . Administrators for the Facebook Sir Frederick Handley Page have since release a statement denying province for the blast and state that the Thomas Nelson Page had merely pass along the baseless rumors as a public service and never claimed the child - abduction rumor was true .
Organ - thievery rumors
A woman suspected of being a witch was beaten by a mob and died earlier this week in Guarujá, Brazil, near the country’s largest city, São Paulo.
witchery and contraband witching rituals are often assumed to involve human forfeit ( peculiarly that of " innocents " such as children and virgins ) , usually using blood or organs for spell and rituals . Rumors of reed organ theftare not rare in Brazil . Anthropologist Nancy Scheper - Hughes , who has studied organ - thieving rumor , noted that in many poor areas of the man — such as in the slums surrounding Brazil ’s major city — residents sometimes obviate discourse in public hospital out of fear that their organs may be taken . [ 15 Crazy Urban Legends Debunked ]
In the book " Organ Theft Legends " ( University Press of Mississippi , 2005 ) by Veronique Campion - Vincent , Scheper - Hughes describes rumour and urban legend circularise throughout Brazil of " the abduction and mutilation of untested and intelligent shantytown residents ( especially child ) , who are eyed covetously for their consistency parts , particularly eyes , heart , lung and liver . … The shaver would be pick up and shoved into trunks of van . Some were polish off and murder for their organ , and their cast out bodies were plant by the side of the road , or were toss outside the wall of municipal burial ground . "
Sometimes , the rumors take that the organs are sell for transplant in plenteous foreigners ' kid ; other time — as in this late face in Guarujá — the organs are tell to be used in witchcraft . These hearsay also circulate in some parts of Africa , wherealbinos have been hack to deathbecause of a democratic belief that their body parts contain powerful magical properties . A 2009 Red Cross report entitle " Through Albino Eyes " regain that hundreds of people have been killed under the unfounded belief of magic being bond to their soundbox , and up to 10,000 African albinos live in concealment , dire of being attack for their torso part .
While many people cogitate of witch hunt club as relic of the remote and superstitious past , belief in magicis widespread throughout the world . wizardly thinking , such as assign ordinary events and random coincidences to supernatural influence , is common . Human brains are hardwired to seek causa - and - effect patterns in the world , even when they do n’t be . When something adept happens , we often attribute it to prayer , good luck or superstition ( such as carry a favorable penny ) ; when something bad happens , we may find fault others who we conceive have cursed us .
When wild rumors are given acceptance through social media and are accept without interrogation or evidence , the outcome can be tragical — something to keep in nous the next time you share , like or tweet a sensational intelligence detail admonition of a threat .
Benjamin Radford is deputy editor program of " Skeptical Inquirer " scientific discipline magazine and source of seven books , include " The Martians Have Landed ! A History of Media Panics and Hoaxes . " His website iswww.BenjaminRadford.com .
