Accusations were spread, in the year of 1692, in a small Puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts when two young girls experienced severe convulsions and other strange symptoms. Said to be possessed by the devil ¹, the only possible explanation for these out-of-the-blue spasms, had to be due to witchcraft. Hysteria swept the town and the hunt for these supernatural beings began. Several months later, nineteen people, all suspected of being witches, were killed and 150 women, men, and children were accused. By September of 1692, the hysteria died down and the town began to turn against the witch trials. It was said that the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families however, tension and bitterness still lingered the town and the tragic legacy of these trials remained for centuries ¹. In Western culture, the idea of the supernatural is completely foreign and is connected to the concept of ‘otherness’ where all people (outer world) become reflections of the self (center-western countries). This leads to the negative criticism and even possible fear of those who do not possess this so-called ‘sameness’ or “normal” behaviour. The lack of scientific advancement led to ignorance and the disbelief that these unusual behaviours of ordinary people was anything but the devil’s practice of giving certain humans the power to harm others ¹. 
Here is an image of the trials in the Massachusetts General Court
When taking a look at the east versus the west, there are many differences between the two that create this inverse relationship. Due to the geographical separation between the east and the west, allows for two very distinct lifestyles particularly looking at the religious aspects. The east is known for the various religions including Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism that was spread through the Islamic Crescent and throughout Asia. The west was more specifically limited towards Christianity. Each country in the east was vastly spread with different traditions and cultures whereas the west contained very limited variety in which the main differences were in some languages and the minorities. People tended to associate words such as freedom and rationality to western culture, however the split between the east and the west should be viewed from both etic and emic perspectives. For example, it was discussed within the group that from an emic perspective, coming from someone that is from the middle east, views that the western culture has too many freedoms whereas the etic perspective can view the middle east as having very little freedoms. It all comes back to these differences that cause individuals or groups to create these biases (most likely negative) all because ‘otherness’ prevails.
One story had the power to change minds and create personal opinions. From the previous week’s content, the speaker from the Ted talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, says, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar. Stories matter. Many stories matter.” ² 
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaking at Ted talks
The problem with a single story is that it is only one piece to the puzzle. If you are only given one piece and nothing else, then you only have that piece of information which becomes the truth. However, if you are given all of the pieces together, then you have one complete picture. Adichie states, “The consequence of a single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” ² meaning that us humans potentially fail to recognize how similar we actually are. Instead we use these differences in search for some sort of weakness within others to prove that one is better than the other.
As a personal example, I have also been taking a Psychology course during this semester and am learning a lot about personality and how in today’s society, people can find out a lot of information on others based on their social media which can lead to discovering some parts of a person’s personality. Every person’s social media accounts are unique to their own liking however, occasionally you will see these trends in what people post such as location of the pictures, type of clothing, filter used, etc. that will be somewhat constant. Profiles that are out of the ordinary in some way, even things such as an odd caption, can be looked differently upon just because it is not the same as what you would ‘normally’ see or does not follow the ‘trend’. These differences change a person’s opinion about someone and most of the time, it will create a negative bias towards that person. Coming back to the overall topic, differences link to the concept of ‘otherness’, therefore creating this fear of abnormality or not being ‘normal’. In the end, it is important to acknowledge not just differences, but similarities as well in order to have that completed puzzle picture.
References:
- “Salem Witch Trials”. HISTORY, 2020, https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/salem-witch-trials.
- “The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”. Youtube, Oct. 7, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
- “How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials”, Kate Lohnes, http://https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/buf_AxsgmdvXpXVlCzSxXLF9Ig0=/fit-in/1072×0/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/Salem-witch-trials-lithograph-715.jpghttps://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/309867/viewContent/4059310/View
- “The Myth of Continents, A Critique of Metgeography”, Martin W. Lewis; Kären E. Wigen, 1997, https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/309867/viewContent/4102182/View
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