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The Evil Eye - A Casebook (Paperback, New edition)
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The Evil Eye - A Casebook (Paperback, New edition)
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The evil eye-the power to inflict illness, damage to property, or
even death simply by gazing at or praising someone-is among the
most pervasive and powerful folk beliefs in the Indo-European and
Semitic world. It is also one of the oldest, judging from its
appearance in the Bible and in Sumerian texts five thousand years
old. Remnants of the superstition persist today when we drink
toasts, tip waiters, and bless sneezers. To avert the evil eye,
Muslim women wear veils, baseball players avoid mentioning a
no-hitter in progress, and traditional Jews say their business or
health is "not bad" (rather than "good"). Though by no means
universal, the evil eye continues to be a major factor in the
behavior of millions of people living in the Mediterranean and Arab
countries, as well as among immigrants to the Americas. This
widespread superstition has attracted the attention of many
scholars, and the twenty-one essays gathered in this book represent
research from diverse perspectives: anthropology, classics,
folklore studies, ophthalmology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis,
sociology, and religious studies. Some essays are fascinating
reports of beliefs about the evil eye, from India and Iran to
Scotland and Slovak-American communities; others analyze the
origin, function, and cultural significance of this folk belief
from ancient times to the present day. Editor Alan Dundes concludes
the volume by proffering a comprehensive theoretical explanation of
the evil eye. Anyone who has ever knocked on wood to ward off
misfortune will enjoy this generous sampling of evil eye
scholarship, and may never see the world through the same eyes
again.
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