Like was there a ceremony or custom some sect of a population or family (Group D) would do and the group that cried witch (Group N) was actively trying to take out for:
If 4) then how prevalent was this reason and has anyone examined what those customs actually were?
Guess I'm looking for a book even if it's a primer on the reasons for witchcraft. I'm pretty sure the only thing we ever learned about it in grade school was watching and reading The Crucible. Don't remember much now other that in 9th grade I didn't really understand how someone could call someone else a witch in the 9th grade. Seemed so irrational and it was never seriously covered in American history.
Thanks!
There is a wealth of literature on witchcraft accusations, trials and punishments for Europe and the United States. The various ways that historians have approached the study of witchcraft has changed over time. There were historians in the middle of the twentieth century who , like you, point out that witchcraft accusations seem irrational to a modern perspective. From this position of "irrational belief", authors looked for biological, economic, or social reasons that could explain the phenomena of witchcraft. The two studies I can recall that cover this somewhat extensively are Boyer, Salem Possessed, and Karlsen, Devil in the Shape of a Woman.
Although there is a lot of good information in the social and economic studies of witchcraft, they tend to undervalue the real religious, cultural, and intellectual world of witchcraft. These people bringing accusations against witches, for the most part, were genuine in their belief that witchcraft was a real threat. The people involved in witchcraft trials were not stupid, and did know that there was a potential risk that people might fake being possessed or accuse an innocent person. In England, Justices of the Peace and even King James I were very concerned to ensure that people charged with witchcraft were actually guilty. James even intervened in a witchcraft case in Leicester in 1616. 9 women had been executed on accusations of witchcraft, and when James discovered this, he examined the "victim", a boy of about 13, and demonstrated that his "fits" and "possessions" were false. His actions likely saved the lives of 5 women awaiting punishment (Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness, pp. 49-50). King James was operating under the cultural and religious assumption that witches did exist; they simply were not involved with the case of this boy.
The best introduction would be Gaskill Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction. It's an effective introduction covering witchcraft on a global scale, and gives enough information for you to follow up on the cases you like. One of the most entertaining case study's of witchcraft is Ginzburg, The Night Battles, which studies a group called the benandanti in northern Italy who were accused of witchcraft. If you're looking for a study on the Salem trials, I recommend Norton, In the Devil's Snare; it's well written and near comprehensive in coverage. One final recommendation is Lyndal Ropers' Witchcraze on the German witch hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Roper tends to operate more with culture and theory than anything else, but it is a great work that really helps explain how witchcraft accusations could come about, and why the victims were typically single, older women.