Centuries from now people will discover empty Smirnoff Ice bottles buried around New Jersey and wonder what evil spirits we were trying to ward off. In reality, it was just a drunk 16 year-old IBleedGlitter not wanting to be caught with alcohol.
@LaComtesse: I know Greek people who ward off the evil eye by putting drops of oil into a bowl of water and, like, meditating upon it. I would like someone with that skill to perform that service for me.
@Mary McCarthyite: A woman from my grandma's church came to take the evil eye off her once. There were matches, water, and oil involved. Apparently, it was the one time in 80 years she couldn't break it.
"Hmmm, I'm sick! This is unfortunate. Maybe I'll take a bunch of biological bits and pieces from my sick-ass self, and put it all over the place where other people might stumble over it. Yep, that'll certainly help tamp down on disease."
I'm glad I was born in a day and age where we believe in germ theory and flush toilets.
I've read studies that compared the economic topography of the Salem account's victims and accusers. The vast majority of those accused were agriculturally based, including midwives and herbologists, and the accusers were mostly from the newer settled areas of town, those of the factory/mercantile/merchants persuasion. Add to this religious motivations, and it casts a more capricious view of those that would seek to stifle the voice of those they do not understand.
There's also a book called The Devil in the Shape of a Woman about witchcraft accusations in New England. One motivation to accuse people, especially women who owned their own property, of witchcraft is that if they were convicted, you got their stuff. So let's say Widow Jones owns the adjacent hectare that's more fertile than yours. Suddenly your cow goes dry and you maintain along with some interested parties that you saw her hex your cow. Widow Jones goes to the gallows and you've doubled the size of your landholdings.
@Dauphine: Your must know my old clinical supervisor who diagnosed every woman that walked through his door as "Borderline Personality Disorder".
My fave was this situation where a kid was acting out right after his father packed his suitcase in front of him one night and said "I'm leaving and I'm never coming back, so this is goodbye, son". My supervisor's verdict? The kid's mom had BPD.
06/04/09
I told the witch doctor I was in love with you
And then the witch doctor, he told me what to do
He said that ....
Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang...
Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
06/04/09
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PS: Italians still bury bottles of broken glass and nails in their yards to keep away the evil eye.
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I'm glad I was born in a day and age where we believe in germ theory and flush toilets.
06/04/09
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11/07/08
And then strangely Ann Coulter called the 9/11 widows "witches"?
Clearly the only thing lacking here is that they have not been able to motivate unruly mobs to take action.
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11/07/08
In Amazonia/Africa, witchcraft and sorcery is still alive and well. The integration of modern medicinal practices into it is kinda nifty.
11/07/08
My fave was this situation where a kid was acting out right after his father packed his suitcase in front of him one night and said "I'm leaving and I'm never coming back, so this is goodbye, son". My supervisor's verdict? The kid's mom had BPD.
11/07/08
11/07/08