ABSTRACT
In the colonial period of the New Kingdom of Granada, various women, mostly indigenous or of African descent, were accused of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. These women were often involved in judicial inquiries by ordinary tribunals and by the Tribunal of the Holy Office because of their practices. The aim of this chapter is to shed light on the role of these women in the colonial social order in the New Kingdom of Granada by examining the documentation of these trials, using Medea as a hermeneutic tool to approach the lives of women who shared with her some of the main features of their identities. Indeed, these yerbateras appear as a representation of “otherness” and as bearers of knowledge, with either positive or adverse possible effects on other people, and they assume the hybrid character of Medea in the context of the colonization of the Americas.
