There wasn’t really any primary purpose. Many were done just as a reaction to economic hardship by the general population in mass hysterias without any deeper meaning.
Events like that, which spans on different continents and different centuries absolutely don’t have a common cause or purpose. It’s easy to read in them confirmations of one’s own preconceptions…
Most victims were of lower class and didn’t own any property though. Like the wave of witch hunts in South Eastern German regions targeting the homeless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaubererjackl_witch_trials
There wasn’t really any primary purpose. Many were done just as a reaction to economic hardship by the general population in mass hysterias without any deeper meaning.
Events like that, which spans on different continents and different centuries absolutely don’t have a common cause or purpose. It’s easy to read in them confirmations of one’s own preconceptions…