THE WITCHES' HAMMER AND THE HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT AS AN ARCHETYPAL MYTH: THE PENAL SYSTEM IN THE PATRIARCHAL AND CAPITALIST STRUCTURE OF DOMINATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the work "Malleus Maleficarum: Hammer of Witches" as a foundational myth of the Western penal system and investigates to what extent the contemporary Brazilian penal system, proclaimed as rational, constitutional, and guarantor of rights, reproduces, in new guises, the inquisitorial logic of this classic work of the Inquisition. It starts from the hypothesis that modern punitive power retains an archetypal and symbolic structure: its function is not to promote justice or guarantee security, but to produce enemies and reaffirm social hierarchies, criminalizing differences and ensuring the continuity of a patriarchal and capitalist order. The methodology adopts a hermeneutic-critical approach, engaging in dialogue between law, philosophy, and comparative mythology, based on authors such as Joseph Campbell, Paul Ricoeur, Mircea Eliade, René Girard, Luigi Ferrajoli, Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni, and Salah Khaled Jr. The analysis demonstrates that the contemporary penal system keeps alive the symbolic structure of the Malleus Maleficarum; that is, the enemy is constructed as disorder to be sacrificed, the process assumes a ritualistic aspect of trial, and punishment fulfills a role of social purification. It concludes that overcoming this modern myth requires replacing the logic of expiation with the guarantee-based ethics of containment, breaking with the theological-punitive imaginary that still guides Brazilian criminal law.