THE EVIL EYE

By Lucy Warner
October 30, 2015


This concept has popped up over time in a huge number of world cultures, languages and religions, along with various ways of warding off the spells believed to cause illness or misfortune. See the list of identified references to the Evil Eye at the end of the Wikipedia article on the website. It was too long to copy in here. Also you may want to go to the website below for a series of helpful images concerning the
Evil Eye. When I was a child in the South we would “cross our fingers” if we told a lie. I have been told since that the crossed fingers is one way to ward off the Evil Eye.

I wonder if this superstitious concept could be one of the ancient cultural elements that, like the string games such as cat’s cradle that are found likewise all around the world, have been carried parent to child and on down the line from very early human times – say the early days of Homo Sapiens arrival out of Africa or, to be a little more conservative, the Magdalenian times. That culture, though they were cave dwellers, was responsible for the beautiful cave paintings of animals and symbols that have been found in Southern Europe, and they made artistic or magical carvings on knife handles, etc., so they were intellectually advanced. They may well have had magical beliefs about the Evil Eye.

Fear of a staring eye is not only very logical, as it often is the result of anger, but is a part of our instinctive toolkit, including among apes. Penny Patterson, Koko the gorilla’s “Mom” or handler, however you want to see their relationship, said that she informs all visitors who meet Koko that they mustn’t stare directly into her eyes, which is a positive human trait in many cultures, being viewed as a sign of honesty. Not so with apes, who don’t stare at each other except in anger or moments of aggression. It is a threat to them.

Indeed, if one wishes to establish a dominance over another person, “staring them down” is one way to do it. It can also dissuade a would-be attacker from assaulting you as you walk down a dark DC street alone, because it works to intimidate on an irrational level. The scientifically termed “predator stare” refers to the fact that predator animals have their eyes on the front of their head and do stare at their prey, while those which are doomed to be prey have their eyes on the sides of the head suitable for spotting danger on a wide angle of vision so that they can run. If you happen to meet a bear while walking down a mountain path and it is watching you fixedly, start making lots of noise and acting aggressive in order to dissuade it from its intentions. Don’t rush toward it, but if you do retreat try walking backwards. Better still, stand your ground. Pick up a big stick and wave it around. That makes you seem less like prey. Whatever you do, don’t turn your back on it or start to run away. Likewise with dogs. Animals like that can always outrun a human and chase by instinct.

The following livescience.com and Wikipedia articles on the amazing prevalence of Evil Eye beliefs are both fascinating, leading me on to keep asking more and more questions about the Evil Eye, but that would be a book and not a blog.




http://www.livescience.com/40633-evil-eye.html

Reference:
The Evil Eye: Meaning of the Curse & Protection Against It
by Benjamin Radford, Live Science Contributor
October 23, 2013


If we accidentally cut someone off in traffic, we may get a scowl or menacing glare in return. For most of us it is soon shrugged off, but in many places the evil eye is taken very seriously.

The evil eye is a human look believed to cause harm to someone or something else. The supernatural harm may come in the form of anything from a minor misfortune to disease, injury or even death. Folklorist Alan Dundes, in his edited volume "The Evil Eye: A Casebook," notes that "the victim's good fortune, good health, or good looks — or unguarded comments about them — invite or provoke an attack by someone with the evil eye. If the object attacked is animate, it may fall ill. ... Symptoms of illness caused by the evil eye include loss of appetite, excessive yawning, hiccups, vomiting, and fever. If the object attacked is a cow, its milk may dry up; if a plant or fruit tree, it may suddenly wither and die."

It can even affect objects and buildings: The evil eye cast upon a vehicle may cause it to break down irreparably, while a house so cursed may soon develop a leaky roof or an insect infestation. Just about anything that goes wrong (for any reason, or no reason at all) may be blamed on the power of the evil eye.

Eye in history

The evil eye is well known throughout history. It is mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman texts, as well as in many famous literary works, including the Bible (Proverbs 23:6: "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats"), the Koran and Shakespeare.

The evil eye is essentially a specific type of magical curse, and has its roots in magical thinking and superstition. Let's say that a person experiences bad luck, ill health, accident, or some unexplained calamity — perhaps a drought or an infectious disease. Before science could explain weather patterns and germ theory, any bad event for which there was not an obvious cause might be blamed on a curse. Curses, including the evil eye, are an answer to the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people.

The association of special powers with the eyes is not hard to fathom: Eyes, it is said, are the gateway to a person's soul. Shifting eyes are said to subtly betray liars, while a steady gaze may be endearing or menacing depending on the circumstances. Actors use their eyes to convey a wide range of emotions, including love, hate, disgust, boredom, scorn, surprise, and envy. In fact it is this last emotion — jealousy — that underlies the evil eye's cultural association with magic.

Spit as counter-curse

Babies and children are said to be especially susceptible to harm from the evil eye, and in many countries including Greece, Romania and India, praising a child publicly is sometimes considered taboo, for the compliment will draw the attention of the evil eye. (It is acceptable to compliment a child if the comment is prefaced by praise for God, as an act of humility.)

In order to ward off the evil eye, parents of a thoughtlessly praised child may ask the person who gave the compliment to immediately spit in the child's face. Because the momentarily exalted youngster has been brought down a peg, any harm by the evil eye is unnecessary; this spittle salve is harmless yet insulting enough to negate the compliment.

Who has the evil eye? Maybe you do. Many believe that bad intention is not necessary, and that some people can cast an evil eye without even knowing it. Edwin and Mona Radford, writing in "The Encyclopedia of Superstitions," note that in many places "a cross-eyed or squinting person was almost universally feared. To meet one on the way to work is still regarded as a bad sign by miners, fishermen, Spanish bullfighters, and others who follow dangerous trades." Though such an affliction is clearly not the person's fault, nonetheless "any visible defect in the eye is readily associated by the superstitious with the evil eye." The evil eye is also said to be prevalent among the Roma (formerly known as Gypsies).

Evil eye protections and cures

The best way to deal with the evil eye is to avoid it in the first place. The method varies by culture, geographic region, and personal preference. Amulets can be worn to deter the evil eye, often using the color blue (symbolizing heaven or godliness) and an eye symbol. Charms, potions, and spells can also be prepared; garlic can be used to deter the evil eye, and some believe that just saying the word "garlic" offers protection.

Once a person has been afflicted with the evil eye, there are a variety of ways to have it removed. Often those who believe they have been harmed by the evil eye will seek out shamen, witch doctors, psychics, or other spiritual healers to remove the curse — often for a fee.

Though belief in the evil eye is widespread, it is not universal. A 1976 cross-cultural survey by folklorist John Roberts found that 36 percent of cultures believed in the evil eye. In one 1965 study, not only did 55 percent of expectant Lebanese mothers believe in the evil eye (cast, they claimed, most often by envious women), but also that it could have serious effects ranging from an inability of the mother to breast-feed, to the illness, blindness, or even death of their infant.

It is tempting to view the evil eye as an ancient, discredited belief that plays no role in our 21st-century world. Instead, as folklorist Dundes notes, we "should keep in mind that the evil eye is not some old-fashioned superstitious belief of interest solely to antiquarians. The evil eye continues to be a powerful factor affecting the behavior of countless millions of people throughout the world." Though belief in the evil eye can be a harmless superstition, it can also be dangerous in some circumstances. Any time one person believes that another has harmed them — whether naturally or supernaturally, intentionally or accidentally — there is the potential for deadly retribution. Like other accused witches and sorcerers over the centuries, many people have been attacked, beaten, and killed for casting an evil eye.

Benjamin Radford is a member of the American Folklore Society and author of six books including "Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore." His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye

Evil eye
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Malochio" and "Malocchio" redirect here. [They are Italian superstitions for the same general concept.]

The evil eye is a curse believed to be cast by a malevolent glare, usually given to a person when they are unaware. Many cultures believe that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury.[1] Talismans created to protect against the evil eye are also frequently called "evil eyes".[2][3]

The idea expressed by the term causes many different cultures to pursue protective measures against it. The concept and its significance vary widely among different cultures, primarily in West Asia. The idea appears several times in translations of the Old Testament.[4] It was a widely extended belief among many Mediterranean and Asian tribes and cultures. Charms and decorations with eye-like symbols known as nazars, which are used to repel the evil eye are a common sight across Turkey, Greece, Albania, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Southern Italy (Naples), the Levant, and Afghanistan and have become a popular choice of souvenir with tourists.

Names[edit]

The "evil eye" is also known in Arabic as ʿayn al-ḥasūd (عين الحسود‎ eye of the envious), in Hebrew as ʿáyin hā-ráʿ (עַיִן הָרַע‎), in Aramaic as "ayna bisha" (ܒܝܼܫܵܐ ܥܲܝܢܵܐ‎), in Kurdish çaw e zar (eye of evil/sickness), in Persian as chashm zakhm (چشم زخم eye-caused injury) or chashm e bad (bad eye), in Turkish as kem göz (evil eye, usually used in plural form as kem gözler, evil eyes) or Nazar (nazar is from Arabic نَظَر Nadhar, which means eye vision or eyesight), similarly in Urdu the word Nazar (نَظَر) or Boori Nazar (bad look) is used. In Punjabi the words "pehri nazar" are used. In Hindi the concept of evil eye is referred to as “Drishti”. In Amharic buda, in Pashto Bado Stergo, and also "Nazar", in Greek as το μάτι (to máti), in Albanian as syni keq (or "syri i keq"), in Romanian as "deochi", in Spanish as mal de ojo,[5] in Italian as il malocchio, in Neapolitan/nNapulatane as 'o mma'uocchje , in Portuguese mau-olhado ("act of giving an evil/sick look"), in Swedish as "ge onda ögat" (to give an evil look), and in Hawaiian it is known as "stink eye"[6] or maka pilau meaning "rotten eyes".[7]

History[edit]

Belief in the evil eye dates back to Classical antiquity. It is referenced by Hesiod, Callimachus, Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Theocritus, Plutarch, Heliodorus, Pliny the Elder, and Aulus Gellius. Peter Walcot's Envy and the Greeks (1978) listed more than one hundred works by these and other authors mentioning the evil eye.

Classical antiquity

See the website for an interesting ancient bit of art: Roman-era mosaic from Antioch depicting a plethora of devices against the evil eye.”

Classical authors attempted to offer explanations for the evil eye. Plutarch's scientific explanation stated that the eyes were the chief, if not sole, source of the deadly rays that were supposed to spring up like poisoned darts from the inner recesses of a person possessing the evil eye (Quaest. Conv. 5.7.2–3=Mor.80F-81f). Plutarch treated the phenomenon of the evil eye as something seemingly inexplicable that is a source of wonder and cause of incredulity.

The belief in the evil eye during antiquity varied across different regions and periods. The evil eye was not feared with equal intensity in every corner of the Roman Empire. There were places in which people felt more conscious of the danger of the evil eye. In the Roman days not only were individuals considered to possess the power of the evil eye but whole tribes, especially those of Pontus and Scythia, were believed to be transmitters of the evil eye. The phallic charm called fascinum in Latin, from the verb fascinare, "to cast a spell" (the origin of the English word "fascinate"), was used against the evil eye.

The spreading in the belief of the evil eye towards the East is believed to have been propagated by the Empire of Alexander the Great, which spread this and other Greek ideas across his empire.[citation needed]

Around the world[edit]

Tree with nazars in Cappadocia, Turkey.
Belief in the evil eye is strongest in West Asia, Latin America, East and West Africa, Central America, South Asia, Central Asia, and Europe, especially the Mediterranean region; it has also spread to areas, including northern Europe, particularly in the Celtic regions, and the Americas, where it was brought by European colonists and West Asian immigrants.[citation needed]

Belief in the evil eye is found in the Islamic doctrine, based upon the statement of Prophet Muhammad, "The influence of an evil eye is a fact..." [Sahih Muslim, Book 26, Number 5427].[8] Authentic practices of warding off the evil eye are also commonly practiced by Muslims: rather than directly expressing appreciation of, for example, a child's beauty, it is customary to say Masha'Allah, that is, "God has willed it", or invoking God's blessings upon the object or person that is being admired.[9] A number of beliefs about the evil eye are also found in folk religion, typically revolving around the use of amulets or talismans as a means of protection.

However, the concept of cursing by staring or gazing is largely absent in East Asian and Southeast Asian societies.

In the Aegean Region and other areas where light-colored eyes are relatively rare, people with green eyes, and especially blue eyes, are thought to bestow the curse, intentionally or unintentionally.[10] This belief may have arisen because[citation needed] people from cultures not used to the evil eye, such as Northern Europe, are likely to transgress local customs against staring or praising the beauty of children. Thus, in Greece and Turkey amulets against the evil eye take the form of blue eyes, and in the painting by John Phillip, below, we witness the culture-clash experienced by a woman who suspects that the artist's gaze implies that he is looking at her with the evil eye.

Among those who do not take the evil eye literally, either by reason of the culture in which they were raised or because they simply do not believe in such things, the phrase, "to give someone the evil eye" usually means simply to glare at the person in anger or disgust. The term has entered into common usage within the English language. Within the broadcasting industry it refers to when a presenter signals to the interviewee or co-presenter to stop talking due to a shortage of time.[11]

Protective talismans and cures[edit]

The Hamsa, a charm made to ward off the evil eye.
Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye has resulted in a number of talismans in many cultures. As a class, they are called "apotropaic" (Greek for "prophylactic" / προφυλακτικός or "protective", literally: "turns away") talismans, meaning that they turn away or turn back harm.

Disks or balls, consisting of concentric blue and white circles (usually, from inside to outside, dark blue, light blue, white, dark blue) representing an evil eye are common apotropaic talismans in West Asia, found on the prows of Mediterranean boats and elsewhere; in some forms of the folklore, the staring eyes are supposed to bend the malicious gaze back to the sorcerer.

Known as nazar (Turkish: nazar boncuğu or nazarlık), this talisman is most frequently seen in Turkey, found in or on houses and vehicles or worn as beads.

A blue or green eye can also be found on some forms of the hamsa hand, an apotropaic hand-shaped talisman against the evil eye found in West Asia. The word hamsa, also spelled khamsa and hamesh, means "five" referring to the fingers of the hand. In Jewish culture, the hamsa is called the Hand of Miriam; in some Muslim cultures, the Hand of Fatima. Though condemned as superstition by doctrinaire Muslims, it is almost exclusively among Muslims in the Near East and Mediterranean that the belief in envious looks containing destructive power or the talismanic power of a nazar to defend against them. To adherents of other faiths in the region, the nazar is an attractive decoration.

In Islam[edit]

Evil eye, Isabat al-’ayn, is a common belief that individuals have the power to look at people, animals or objects to cause them harm. It is tradition among many Muslims that if a compliment is to be made one should say "Masha'Allah" (ما شاء الله‎) ("God has willed it.") and also "Tabarakallah" (تبارك الله‎) ("Blessings of God") to ward off the evil eye. Reciting Sura Ikhlas, Sura Al-Falaq and Sura Al-Nas from the Qur'an, three times after Fajr and after Maghrib is also used as a means of personal protection against the evil eye.[12] Other Muslims employ charms such as the Hamsa—known as the Hand of Fatima in Islam—or the Nazar as a means to ward off the Evil Eye. Still in Islam, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Founder of Muridism in Senegal, wrote a Qassida (prayers and duah) called "As Sindidi" ("The Generous Chief"), on which He praises God with these words against evil eye:[13] "Be He, who will protect me against the evil of the Jealous, the mischief of the evil whisperer, from the mischief of the envier when he envies. O Allah! Be my refuge against the evil of the magic, against the evil of the Jinn, and other venomous creatures. O Allah!" (in Arabic transcript):[14]

Assyrians[edit]

A Ruby Eye Pendant from an ancient civilization in Mesopotamia was possibly used as amulet to protect against evil eyes. Adilnor Collection.
Assyrians are also strong believers in the evil eye. They will usually wear a blue/turquoise bead around a necklace to be protected from the evil eye. Also, they might pinch the buttocks, comparable to Armenians. It is said that people with green or blue eyes are more prone to the evil eye effect.[citation needed][clarification needed] A simple and instant way of protection in European Christian countries is to make the sign of the cross with your hand and point two fingers, the index finger and the little finger, towards the supposed source of influence or supposed victim as described in the first chapter of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula published in 1897:

When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me. With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they meant. He would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye.[15]

In Judaism[edit]

The evil eye is mentioned several times in the classic Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers). In Chapter II, five disciples of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai give advice on how to follow the good path in life and avoid the bad. Rabbi Eliezer says an evil eye is worse than a bad friend, a bad neighbor, or an evil heart. Judaism believes that a "good eye" designates an attitude of good will and kindness towards others. Someone who has this attitude in life will rejoice when his fellow man prospers; he will wish everyone well.[16] An "evil eye" denotes the opposite attitude. A man with "an evil eye" will not only feel no joy but experience actual distress when others prosper, and will rejoice when others suffer. A person of this character represents a great danger to our moral purity.[17] Many Observant Jews avoid talking about valuable items they own, good luck that has come to them and, in particular, their children. If any of these are mentioned, the speaker and/or listener will say "b'li ayin hara" (Hebrew), meaning "without an evil eye", or "kein eina hara" (Yiddish; often shortened to "kennahara"), "no evil eye". It has also been suggested the 10th commandment: "do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor" is a law against bestowing the evil eye on another person.

India[edit]

Main article: Nazar Battu
In North India, the evil eye is called "Drishti" (meaning gaze or vision) or more commonly as Buri Nazar. A charm bracelet, tattoo or other object (Nazar battu), or a slogan (Chashme Baddoor (slogan)), may be used to ward-off the evil eye. Some truck owners write the slogan to ward off the evil eye: "buri nazar wale tera muh kala" ("O evil-eyed one, may your face turn black").
In general in India, if gone through time up to historical myths, babies and newborn infants will have their eye adorned with kajal, or eyeliner. This would be black, as it is believed in India that black wards off the evil eye or any evil auras. In South India (Andhra Pradesh), people call it as 'Disti' or 'Drusti'. To remove Disti people follow several methods based on their culture/area. Items used to remove Disti either Rock salt or Red chilies or Oiled cloth. Taking one of this item, people remove Disti by rotating their hand with one of the item above around the person who affected by Disti and they will burn the item.[18]

Ethiopia[edit]

Main article: Buda (folk religion)
Belief in the evil eye, or buda (var. bouda), is widespread in Ethiopia.[19] Buda is generally believed to be a power held and wielded by those in a different social group, for example among the Beta Israel or metalworkers.[20][21]:20–21 Some Ethiopian Christians carry an amulet or talisman, known as a kitab, or will invoke God's name, to ward off the ill effects of buda.[22] A debtera, who is either an unordained priest or educated layperson, will create these protective amulets or talismans.[20][23]

Pakistan[edit]

In Pakistan, the evil eye is called Nazar. People usually may resort to reading the last three chapters of the Quran, namely Sura Ikhlas, Sura Al-Falaq and Sura Al-Nas. "Masha'Allah" (ما شاء الله‎) ("God has willed it.") is commonly said to ward off the evil eye. Understanding of evil eye varies by the level of education. Some perceive the use of black color to be useful in protecting from evil eye. Others use "taawiz" to ward off evil eye. Truck owners and other public transport vehicles may may commonly be seen using a small black cloth on the bumpers to prevent evil eye.

Greece[edit]

The evil eye, known as μάτι (mati), "eye", as an apotropaic visual device, is known to have been a fixture in Greece dating back to at least the 6th century BC, when it commonly appeared on drinking vessels.[24] In Greece, the evil eye is cast away through the process of xematiasma (ξεμάτιασμα), whereby the "healer" silently recites a secret prayer passed over from an older relative of the opposite sex, usually a grandparent. Such prayers are revealed only under specific circumstances, for according to superstition those who reveal them indiscriminately lose their ability to cast off the evil eye. There are several regional versions of the prayer in question, a common one being: "Holy Virgin, Our Lady, if [insert name of the victim] is suffering of the evil eye, release him/her of it." Evil repeated three times. According to custom, if one is indeed afflicted with the evil eye, both victim and "healer" then start yawning profusely. The "healer" then performs the sign of the cross three times, and emits spitting-like sounds in the air three times. A very similar ritual can be found in neighboring Bulgaria.

Another "test" used to check if the evil eye was cast is that of the oil: under normal conditions, olive oil floats in water, as it is less dense than water. The test of the oil is performed by placing one drop of olive oil in a glass of water, typically holy water. If the drop floats, the test concludes there is no evil eye involved. If the drop sinks, then it is asserted that the evil eye is cast indeed. Another form of the test is to place two drops of olive oil into a glass of water. If the drops remain separated, the test concludes there is no evil eye, but if they merge, there is. There is also a third form where in a plate full of water the "healer" places three or nine drops of oil. If the oil drops become larger and eventually dissolve in the water there is evil eye. If the drops remain separated from water in a form of a small circle there isn't. The first drops are the most important and the number of drops that dissolve in water indicate the strength of the evil eye.

There is another form of the "test" where the "healer" prepares a few cloves by piercing each one with a pin. Then she lights a candle and grabs a pinned clove with a pair of scissors. She then uses it to do the sign of the cross over the afflicted whilst the afflicted is asked to think of a person who may have given him the evil eye. Then the healer holds the clove over the flame. If the clove burns silently, there is no evil eye present; however, if the clove explodes or burns noisily, that means the person in the thoughts of the afflicted is the one who has cast the evil eye. As the clove explodes, the evil eye is released from the afflicted. Cloves that burn with some noise are considered to be λόγια - words - someone foul-mouthing you that you ought to be wary of. The burned cloves are extinguished into a glass of water and are later buried in the garden along with the pins as they are considered to be contaminated. (So be careful if you are ever digging in a Greek garden!) Greek people will also ward off the evil eye by saying φτου να μη σε ματιάξω! which translates to "I spit so that I won't give you the evil eye." The shortened version of this is ftoo, ftoo, ftoo. Contrary to popular belief, the evil eye is not necessarily given by someone wishing you ill, but it stems from admiration. Since it is technically possible to give yourself the evil eye, it is advised to be humble.

The Greek Fathers accepted the traditional belief in the evil eye, but attributed it to the Devil and envy. In Greek theology, the evil eye or vaskania (βασκανία) is considered harmful for the one whose envy inflicts it on others as well as for the sufferer. The Greek Church has an ancient prayer against vaskania from the Megan Hieron Synekdemon (Μέγαν Ιερόν Συνέκδημον) book of prayers.

Italy[edit]

Two handsigns (fig sign and horned sign) used in Italy against the evil eye (1914).
The cornicello, "little horn", is also called the cornetto (little horn) or cornetti (plural), is a long, gently twisted horn-shaped amulet. Cornicelli are usually carved out of red coral or made from gold or silver. The type of horn they are intended to copy is not a curled-over sheep horn or goat horn but rather like the twisted horn of an African eland or a chili pepper.[25]

One idea that the ribald suggestions made by sexual symbols distract the witch from the mental effort needed to successfully bestow the curse. Another is that since the effect of the eye was to dry up liquids, the drying of the phallus (resulting in male impotence) would be averted by seeking refuge in the moist female genitals. Among the ancient Romans and their cultural descendants in the Mediterranean nations, those who were not fortified with phallic charms had to make use of sexual gestures to avoid the eye. Such gestures include the fig sign; a fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers, representing the phallus within the vagina. In addition to the phallic talismans, statues of hands in these gestures, or covered with magical symbols, were carried by the Romans as talismans. In Latin America, carvings of the fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers continue to be carried as good luck charms.

The wielder of the evil eye, the jettatore, is described as having a striking facial appearance, high arching brows with a stark stare that leaps from his black eyes. He often has a reputation for clandestine involvement with dark powers and is the object of gossip about dealings in magic and other forbidden practices. Successful men having tremendous personal magnetism quickly gain notoriety as jettatori. Pope Pius IV was dreaded for his evil eye, and a whole cycle of stories about the disasters that happened in his wake were current in Rome during the latter decades of the 19th century. Public figures of every type, from poets to gangsters, have had their specialized abilities attributed to the power of their eyes.[26]

Spain and Latin America[edit]

The evil eye or 'Mal de Ojo' has been deeply embedded in Spanish popular culture throughout its history and Spain is the origin of this superstition in Latin America.

In Mexico and Central America, infants are considered at special risk for the evil eye (see mal de ojo, above) and are often given an amulet bracelet as protection, typically with an eye-like spot painted on the amulet. Another preventive measure is allowing admirers to touch the infant or child; in a similar manner, a person wearing an item of clothing that might induce envy may suggest to others that they touch it or some other way dispel envy.

One traditional cure in rural Mexico involves a curandero (folk healer) sweeping a raw chicken egg over the body of a victim to absorb the power of the person with the evil eye. The egg is later broken into a glass with water and placed under the bed of the patient near the head. Sometimes it is checked immediately because the egg appears as if it has been cooked. When this happens it means that the patient did have Mal De Ojo. Somehow the Mal De Ojo has transferred to the egg and the patient immediately gets well. (Fever, vomiting/diarrhea, nausea and pain goes away instantly) In the traditional Hispanic culture of the Southwestern United States and some parts of Mexico, the egg may be passed over the patient in a cross-shaped pattern all over the body, while saying the Lord's Prayer. The egg is also placed in a glass with water, under the bed and near the head, sometimes it is examined right away or in the morning and if the egg looks like it has been cooked then it means that they did have Mal de Ojo and the patient will start feeling better. Sometimes if the patient starts getting ill and someone knows that they had stared at patient, usually a child, if the person who stared goes to the child and touches them, the child's illness goes away immediately so the Mal De Ojo energy is released.[27]

In some parts of South America the act of ojear, which could be translated as to give someone the evil eye, is an involuntary act. Someone may ojear babies, animals and inanimate objects just by staring and admiring them. This may produce illness, discomfort or possibly death on babies or animals and failures on inanimate objects like cars or houses. It's a common belief that since this is an involuntary act made by people with the heavy look, the proper way of protection is by attaching a red ribbon to the animal, baby or object, in order to attract the gaze to the ribbon rather than to the object intended to be protected.[28]

Brazil[edit]

Brazilians generally will associate mal-olhado, mau-olhado ("act of giving a bad look") or olho gordo ("fat eye" i.e. "gluttonous eye") with envy or jealousy on domestic and garden plants (that, after months or years of health and beauty, will suddenly weaken, wither and die, with no apparent signs of pest, after the visitation of a certain friend or relative), attractive hair and less often economic or romantic success and family harmony.

Unlike in most cultures mal-olhado is not seen to be something that risks young babies. "Pagans" or non-baptized children are instead assumed to be at risk from bruxas (witches), that have malignant intention themselves rather than just mal-olhado. It probably reflects the Galician folktales about the meigas or Portuguese magas, (witches), as Colonial Brazil was primarily settled by Portuguese people, in numbers greater than all Europeans to settle pre-independence United States. Those bruxas are interpreted to have taken the form of moths, often very dark, that disturb children at night and take away their energy. For that reason, Christian Brazilians often have amulets in the form of crucifixes around, beside or inside beds where children sleep.

Nevertheless, older children, especially boys, that fulfill the cultural ideals of behaving extremely well (for example, having no problems whatsoever in eating well a great variety of foods, being obedient and respectful toward adults, kind, polite, studious, and demonstrating no bad blood with other children or their siblings) who unexpectedly turn into problematic adolescents or adults (for example lacking good health habits, extreme laziness or lacking motivation towards their life goals, having eating disorders, or being prone to delinquency), are said to have been victims of mal-olhado coming from parents of children whose behavior was not as admirable.

Amulets that protect against mal-olhado tend to be generally resistant, mildly to strongly toxic and dark plants in specific and strategic places of a garden or the entry to a house. Those include comigo-ninguém-pode ("against-me-nobody-cans"), Dieffenbachia (the dumbcane), espada-de-são-jorge ("St. George's sword"), Sansevieria trifasciata (the snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue) and guiné ("Guinea"), among various other names, Petiveria alliacea (the guinea henweed). For those lacking in space or wanting to "sanitize" specific places, they may all be planted together in a single sete ervas ("seven [lucky] herbs") pot, that will also include arruda (common rue), pimenteira (Capsicum annuum), manjericão (basil) and alecrim (rosemary).[29] (Though the last four ones should not be used for their common culinary purposes by humans.) Other popular amulets against evil eye include: the use of mirrors, on the outside of your home's front door, or also inside your home facing your front door; an elephant figurine with its back to the front door; and coarse salt, placed in specific places at home.[30]

Mexico[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011)
Mal ojo often occurs without the dimension of envy, but insofar as envy is a part of ono,[disambiguation needed] it is a variant of this underlying sense of insecurity and relative vulnerability to powerful, hostile forces in the environment. In her study of medical attitudes in the Santa Clara Valley of California, Margaret Clark arrives at essentially the same conclusion: "Among the Spanish-speaking folk of Sal si Puedes, the patient is regarded as a passive and innocent victim of malevolent forces in his environment. These forces may be witches, evil spirits, the consequences of poverty, or virulent bacteria that invade his body. The scapegoat may be a visiting social worker who unwittingly 'cast the evil eye' ... Mexican folk concepts of disease are based in part on the notion that people can be victimized by the careless or malicious behavior of others".[citation needed]

Another aspect of the mal ojo syndrome in Ixtepeji is a disturbance of the hot-cold equilibrium in the victim. According to folk belief, the bad effects of an attack result from the "hot" force of the aggressor entering the child's body and throwing it out of balance. Currier has shown how the Mexican hot-cold system is an unconscious folk model of social relations upon which social anxieties are projected. According to Currier, "the nature of Mexican peasant society is such that each individual must continuously attempt to achieve a balance between two opposing social forces: the tendency toward intimacy and that toward withdrawal. [It is therefore proposed] that the individual's continuous preoccupation with achieving a balance between 'heat' and 'cold' is a way of reenacting, in symbolic terms, a fundamental activity in social relations."[31]

United States[edit]

In 1946, the American magician Henri Gamache published a text called Terrors of the Evil Eye Exposed! (later reprinted as Protection against Evil), which offers directions to defend oneself against the evil eye. Also known as "mean mugging" or "mad dogging" among urban youths.[32]

Media/Press[edit]

In some cultures over complimenting casts a curse. So does envy. Since ancient times such maledictions have been collectively called the evil eye. According to the book The Evil Eye by folklorist Alan Dundes,[33] the belief's premise is that an individual can cause harm simply by looking at another's person or property. But in protection is easy to come by with talismans that can be worn, carried, or hung in homes, most often incorporating the contours of a human eye. In Aegean countries people with light-colored eyes are thought to be particularly powerful, and amulets in Greece and Turkey are usually blue orbs. Indians, Muslims, and Jews use charms with palm-forward hands with an eye in the center; Italians employ horns, phallic shapes meant to distract spell casters.[34]

. . . .

This page was last modified on 24 October 2015, at 12:02.

MONKEY VS APE AND SPECIE VS SPECIES
By Lucy M. Warner
October 23, 2015


I will start with the mistake that annoys me most of all that I encounter even in some semi-scientific articles. The word “specie” is NOT the singular of “Species.” Species is like “deer” in that it is both singular and plural. When I heard the cute young man, whose name I can’t remember, who has a TV show about his work at a certain zoo, using the term Specie in that highly uneducated manner, my stomach began to churn. I looked him up on Google and made a complaining comment about it. I never saw his show again, so I don’t know if he modified his pronunciation.

There are many generations of kids taught to read by the “See Say” rather than the Phonetic method who can’t spell, recognize the difference between root words, and are, therefore, unable to extrapolate on the basis of spelling to include new vocabulary words. It’s much easier to learn word meanings and spellings if you can compare them with your prior knowledge base and thus make a stronger and more logical connection. Worse still, the “see say” kids are also likely to fail to recognize the usually wildly different meanings between homonyms on the basis of spellings. Since they are mistaking the word meaning as well, it is my opinion that they can’t really “read,” as a result.

Of course, it’s not “shame on them,” but shame on their teachers and the education theorists who taught them. Sure, teach reading by sight recognition if it speeds up the pace of reading, but not without accompanying that with word studies that go back to the root word. Spelling is entirely, or almost entirely, based on root words. If you don’t believe me, just look at some of the online comments that appear with articles. Using Google to verify spelling is good if we can find the deeper meanings and relationships that way, but a good collegiate dictionary is often the best place to look to for digging more deeply into the word. Don’t forget language origin also.

About that often misunderstood word “specie,” according to Google it always refers to one of several types of “money,” and “money” is even more fun to research. (See money vs currency.) See “Specie” below:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specie

Specie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Specie may refer to:

Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
Bullion coins
Hard money (policy)
Commodity money
Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money
Specie Payment Resumption Act


About our animal cousins –- and I acknowledge that they certainly are not our “cousins,” but our very distant ancestors instead -- see below.

First of all, monkeys and apes, while related, are substantially different from each other, though the similarities are obvious, as are similarities between humans and other primates. Above all, monkey is NOT a term for a small ape, but a few species of Old World monkeys which happen to be tailless are sometimes called “apes.” They aren’t, though. They’re still MONKEYS. See Wikipedia: “Ape.”

About apes, there are Great Apes and Lesser Apes. The “most” obvious distinction is that most monkeys have tails of some sort, while apes do not. Apes also tend to be taller, stronger, heavier, and more intelligent. See the two Wikipedia articles below, one on the term “ape” and second on the descriptions “Old World Monkey” and “New World Monkey.” Not only does a New World monkey have a long tail, it is prehensile, and the animals can use it to help them keep their footing up in the trees by clinging to branches. It can also be used for balance.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape
Ape
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Apes (Hominoidea) are a branch of Old World tailless anthropoid catarrhine primates native to Africa and Southeast Asia. They are distinguished from other primates by a wider degree of freedom of motion at the shoulder joint as evolved by the influence of brachiation. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.

The family Hylobatidae, the lesser apes, include four genera and a total of sixteen species of gibbon, including the lar gibbon and the siamang, all native to Asia. They are highly arboreal and bipedal on the ground. They have lighter bodies and smaller social groups than great apes.

The family Hominidae, known collectively as the great apes, include orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans;[1][2][3][4] alternatively, this family clade is also known as the hominids. There are seven extant species of great apes: two in the orangutans (genus Pongo), two in the gorillas (genus Gorilla), two in the chimpanzees (genus Pan), and a single extant species, Homo sapiens, of modern humans (genus Homo).[5][6]

Members of the superfamily Hominoidae are called hominoids—which term is not to be confused with hominids, the family of great apes; or with the hominins, the tribe of humans also known as the human clade; or with other very similar terms of primate taxa. (Compare terminology of primate names.)

Recent evidence has changed our understanding of the relationships between the hominoids, especially regarding the human lineage; and the traditionally used terms have become somewhat confused. Competing approaches re methodology and terminology are found among current scientific sources. See below, History of hominoid taxonomy and see Primate: Historical and modern terminology for discussions of the changes in scientific classification and terminology regarding hominoids.

Some and, recently, all, hominoids are also called "apes", but the term is used broadly and has several different senses within both popular and scientific settings. "Ape" has been used as a synonym for "monkey" or for naming any primate with a humanlike appearance, particularly those without a tail.[7] Thus the Barbary macaque, a kind of monkey, is popularly called the "Barbary ape". Biologists have traditionally used the term "ape" to mean a member of the superfamily Hominoidea other than humans,[1] but more recently to mean all members of Hominoidea. So "ape"—not to be confused with "great ape"—now becomes another word for hominoid including humans.[4][8]

Except for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees. Their diet is best described as frugivorous and folivorous, consisting mainly of fruit, nuts, seeds, including grass seeds, leaves, and in some cases other animals, either hunted or scavenged, or (solely in the case of the humans) farmed—along with anything else available and easily digested.[9][10]

Historical and modern terminology[edit]

"Ape", from Old English apa, is a word of uncertain origin.[12] The term has a history of rather imprecise usage—and of comedic or punning usage in the vernacular. Its earliest meaning was generally of any non-human anthropoid primate,[7][13] as is still the case for its cognates in other Germanic languages.[14] Later, after the term "monkey" had been introduced into English, "ape" was specialized to refer to a tailless (therefore exceptionally human-like) primate.[15] Two tailless species of macaque still have common names using "ape": the Barbary ape of North Africa (introduced into Gibraltar), Macaca sylvanus, and the Sulawesi black ape or Celebes crested macaque, M. nigra. Thus, the term "ape" obtained two different meanings, as shown in the 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica entry: it could be used as a synonym for "monkey" and it could denote the tailless humanlike primate in particular.[7]

The primates called "apes" today became known to Europeans after the 18th century. As zoological knowledge developed, it became clear that taillessness occurred in a number of different and otherwise distantly related species. Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was one of those primatologists who developed the idea that there were trends in primate evolution and that the extant members of the order could be arranged in an ".. ascending series", leading from "monkeys" to "apes" to humans. Within this tradition "ape" came to refer to all members of the superfamily Hominoidea except humans.[1] As such, this use of "apes" represented a paraphyletic grouping, meaning that even though all species of apes were descended from a common ancestor this grouping did not include all the descendant species, because humans were excluded from being among the apes.[16]

Modern biologists and primatologists use monophyletic groups for taxonomic classification;[18] that is, they use only those groups that include all descendants of a common ancestor.[19] The superfamily Hominoidea is such a group—also known as a clade. Some scientists now use the term "ape" to mean all members of the superfamily Hominoidea, including humans. For example, in his 2005 book, Benton wrote "The apes, Hominoidea, today include the gibbons and orang-utan ... the gorilla and chimpanzee ... and humans".[4] Modern biologists and primatologists refer to apes that are not human as "non-human" apes. Scientists broadly, other than paleoanthropologists, may use the term "hominin" to identify the human clade, replacing the term "hominid." See terminology of primate names.

See below, History of hominoid taxonomy, for a discussion of changes in scientific classification and terminology regarding hominoids.

The lesser apes are the gibbon family, Hylobatidae, of sixteen species; all are native to Asia. Their major differentiating characteristic is their long arms, which they use to brachiate through trees. Their wrists are ball and socket joints as an evolutionary adaptation to their arboreal lifestyle. Generally smaller than the African apes, the largest gibbon, the siamang, weighs up to 14 kg (31 lb); in comparison, the smallest "great ape", the bonobo, is at 34 to 60 kg (75 to 132 lb).

Formerly, all the great apes except humans were classified as the family Pongidae, which conveniently provided for separating the human family from the apes; see The "great apes" in Pongidae. As noted above, such a definition would make a paraphyletic grouping of the Pongidae great apes. Current evidence indicates that humans share a common ancestor with the chimpanzee line—from which they separated more recently than from the gorilla line; see Gorillas the outgroup

The superfamily Hominoidea falls within the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the Old World monkeys of Africa and Eurasia. Within this grouping, the two families Hylobatidae and Hominidae can be distinguished from Old World monkeys by the number of cusps on their molars; hominoids have five—in the "Y-5" molar pattern, where Old World monkeys have only four in a bilophodont pattern.

Further, in comparison with Old World monkeys, hominoids are noted for: more mobile shoulder joints and arms due to the dorsal position of the scapula; broader ribcages that are flatter front-to-back; and a shorter, less mobile spine, with greatly reduced caudal (tail) vertebrae—resulting in complete loss of the tail in living hominoid species. These are anatomical adaptations, first, to vertical hanging and swinging locomotion (brachiation) and, later, to developing balance in a bipedal pose. Note there are primates in other families that also lack tails, and at least one, the pig-tailed langur, is known to walk significant distances bipedally. The front of the ape skull is characterised by its sinuses, fusion of the frontal bone, and by post-orbital constriction.

Although the hominoid fossil record is still incomplete and fragmentary, there is enough evidence now to provide an outline of the evolutionary history of humans. Previously, the divergence between humans and other living hominoids was thought to have occurred 15 to 20 million years ago, and several species of that time period, such as Ramapithecus, were once thought to be hominins and possible ancestors of humans. But later fossil finds indicated that Ramapithecus was more closely related to the orangutan. And new biochemical evidence indicates that the last common ancestor of humans and non-hominins (that is, the chimpanzees) occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago, and probably nearer the lower end of that range; see Chimpanzee–human last common ancestor (CHLCA).

Behaviour and cognition

Although there had been earlier studies, the scientific investigation of behaviour and cognition in non-human members of the superfamily Hominoidea expanded enormously during the latter half of the twentieth century. Major studies of behaviour in the field were completed on the three better-known "great apes", for example by Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. These studies have shown that in their natural environments, the non-human hominoids show sharply varying social structure: gibbons are monogamous, territorial pair-bonders, orangutans are solitary, gorillas live in small troops with a single adult male leader, while chimpanzees live in larger troops with bonobos exhibiting promiscuous sexual behaviour. Their diets also vary; gorillas are foliovores, while the others are all primarily frugivores, although the common chimpanzee does some hunting for meat. Foraging behaviour is correspondingly variable.

All the non-human hominoids are generally thought of as highly intelligent, and scientific study has broadly confirmed that they perform very well on a wide range of cognitive tests—though there is relatively little data on gibbon cognition. The early studies by Wolfgang Köhler demonstrated exceptional problem-solving abilities in chimpanzees, which Köhler attributed to insight. The use of tools has been repeatedly demonstrated; more recently, the manufacture of tools has been documented, both in the wild and in laboratory tests. Imitation is much more easily demonstrated in "great apes" than in other primate species. Almost all the studies in animal language acquisition have been done with "great apes", and though there is continuing dispute as to whether they demonstrate real language abilities, there is no doubt that they involve significant feats of learning. Chimpanzees in different parts of Africa have developed tools that are used in food acquisition, demonstrating a form of animal culture.[20]

Distinction from monkeys[edit]

Apes do not possess a tail, unlike most monkeys. Monkeys are more likely to be in trees and use their tails for balance. While the great apes are considerably larger than monkeys, gibbons (lesser apes) are smaller than some monkeys. Apes are considered to be more intelligent than monkeys, which are considered to have more primitive brains.[21]

. . . .”




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_World_monkey

Old World monkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a family of primates, the only family in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade (or parvorder) of Catarrhini.

The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, shrubland and mountainous terrain, and are also known from Europe in the fossil record. However, a (possibly introduced) free-roaming group of monkeys still survives in Gibraltar (Europe) to this day. Old World monkeys include many of the most familiar species of nonhuman primates, such as baboons and macaques.

Characteristics[edit]

Old World monkeys are medium to large in size, and range from arboreal forms, such as the colobus monkeys, to fully terrestrial forms, such as the baboons. The smallest is the talapoin, with a head and body 34–37 cm in length, and weighing between 0.7 and 1.3 kilograms, while the largest is the male mandrill (the females of the species being significantly smaller), at around 70 cm in length, and weighing up to 50 kilograms.[2]

By superficial appearance, Old World monkeys are unlike apes in that most have tails (the family name means "tailed ape") and, unlike the New World monkeys (platyrrhines), in that their tails are never prehensile. Technically, the distinction of catarrhines from platyrrhines depends on the structure of the nose, and the distinction of Old World monkeys from apes depends on dentition (the number of teeth is the same in both, but they are shaped differently). In platyrrhines, the nostrils face sideways, while in catarrhines, they face downward. Other distinctions include both a tubular ectotympanic (ear bone), and eight, not twelve, premolars in catarrhines, giving them a dental formula of: 2.1.2.3.

Paracolobus chemeroni fossil

Several Old World monkeys have anatomical oddities. For example, the colobus monkeys have stubs for thumbs to assist with their arboreal movement, the proboscis monkey has an extraordinary nose, while the snub-nosed monkeys have almost no nose at all.

The male mandrill's penis is red and the scrotum is lilac; the face is also brightly colored. The coloration is more pronounced in dominant males.

Most Old World monkeys are at least partially omnivorous, but all prefer plant matter, which forms the bulk of their diet. Leaf monkeys are the most vegetarian, subsisting primarily on leaves, and eating only a small number of insects, while the other species are highly opportunistic, primarily eating fruit, but also consuming almost any food items available, such as flowers, leaves, bulbs and rhizomes, insects, snails, and even small vertebrates.[2] The Barbary macaque's diet consists mostly of leaves and roots, though it will also eat insects and uses cedar trees as a water source.[3]

Gestation in the Old World monkeys lasts between five and seven months. Births are usually single, although, as with humans, twins occur from time to time. The young are born relatively well-developed, and are able to cling onto their mother's fur with their hands from birth. Compared with most other mammals, they take a long time to reach sexual maturity, with four to six years being typical of most species.

In most species, daughters remain with their mothers for life, so that the basic social group among Old World monkeys is a matrilineal troop. Males leave the group on reaching adolescence, and find a new troop to join. In many species, only a single adult male lives with each group, driving off all rivals, but others are more tolerant, establishing hierarchical relationships between dominant and subordinate males. Group sizes are highly variable, even within species, depending on the availability of food and other resources.[2]

. . . .”

WHAT’S WITH PICKY EATERS?

Thoughts and Researches
Lucy Maness Warner
October 21, 2015


I had my first brush with a picky eater during my first marriage when I was picnicking in the back yard with my husband’s family. His nephew was around nine years old, a real smart-Aleck, full of hostility, and above all, wouldn’t eat anything except hot dogs. His mother dutifully cooked his hot dog (at his aunt’s house) where his mother didn’t even apologize for his behavior. He really had her trained. I formed the opinion from this experience that picky children are mainly just spoiled rotten.

That kid was at any rate, but these articles point out that many people are “selective eaters,” as it is now being called. It has also gained the official status of a psychological disorder. The articles below show that there are underlying psychological issues with the condition, and it’s not just an attempt to “get attention” or be irritating. Now I hold to the view that those teenage boys who loosen their belts so their derrieres will show are just being irritating. If one of those kids were mine I would “talk to him” to let him know that the behavior is NOT acceptable, and in addition tell him I’m going to take away one of his favorite privileges such as his cell phone until he starts to taste every food on the table with at least a teaspoonful, and then take him to a Psychologist if he keeps doing it. If he doesn’t want to be treated as an immature boy rather than a young man, that may be enough. If, however, he does actually need psychiatric counseling I would give it to him, of course. Some of these behaviors that kids go through are related to real problems.

The Picky Eater behavior may have many causes. See the articles below. I put the one on homeopathy in because it is written by an RN and is directly focused on the problem. Most psychiatrists do now consider it to be a real problem. I do enjoy asking Mr. Google about the various questions that pop into my mind, and as usual this article is quite interesting in my opinion. I’m sure you know somebody like this.



http://www.livescience.com/10301-adult-picky-eaters-recognized-disorder.html

Adult Picky Eaters Now Recognized as Having a Disorder
by Robin Nixon | November 28, 2010


He's 63 years old, but Bob Krause admits he still eats "a 4-year-old's dream diet."

Krause likes peanut butter, crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chocolate milk and little else. More adventurous meals look like "a plate of barf," he told LiveScience.

"If I could snap my fingers and change, I would," he said, explaining his pickiness helped ruin two marriages, limited his career options and makes most social occasions sources of stress

Researchers think Krause could be one of thousands suffering from a previously unrecognized illness: selective eating disorder, more commonly known as very picky eating. Instead of having a couple foods they'd rather avoid, the way most of us do, people with selective eating disorder feel there are very few foods they are even capable of eating.

"People who are picky aren't doing this just to be stubborn," said eating researcher Nancy Zucker of Duke University, explaining that extremely picky eaters experience food differently than the rest of us.

Zucker, who is also the director of the Duke Center for Eating Disorders, first became interested in selective eating, because adult picky eaters were walking in, looking for help. Their eating behavior was getting in the way of their job or social life, or they were worried about being bad role models for their kids, she said. [How to Handle Kids' Picky Eating]

How many adult picky eaters are there?

Most people with this disorder are highly embarrassed by their limited food repertoire and will go to great lengths to keep it hidden, either by avoiding social events that involve food or drinks (which ones don't?), or by making up excuses to avoid eating, such as fibbing about an upset belly.

To get a sense of the problem's prevalence, in July 2010, Zucker and her colleagues put up an online registry, including a lengthy survey, for picky eaters. The initial response overwhelmed expectations: In less than five months, 7,500 people have fully registered. (More than 11,000 have started the survey without completing it.)

The researchers plan to do a formal analysis of the survey data early next year, but preliminary results suggest that selective eating disorder is separate and distinct from other disorders, Zucker said. The survey was carefully constructed to rule out conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or anorexia and bulimia, for example.

Nature or nurture?

Whether extreme pickiness has its roots in a person's biology or psychology is not yet clear. But there seem to be some common themes, suggesting either or both, among people like Krause.

Selective eaters tend to like similar foods, with an emphasis on the bland and processed. They love salt. French fries are a favorite. Bacon is the only meat many of them will eat. Fruit, vegetables and alcohol are snubbed for the most part — with light beer and raw carrots being possible exceptions.

Could they be supertasters? That is, people who, because of their genetic makeup, taste certain flavors more acutely than average tasters?

Maybe, Zucker told LiveScience, but that isn't enough to explain the selectivity. After all, strong tastes aren't necessarily bad tastes and many supertasters are not finicky eaters. And Zucker's research suggests picky eaters reject foods based on sensory qualities other than taste: They don't like the look or smell of certain (most) foods.

"Most foods do not look like food to my brain," Krause explained.

Grown-up picky eaters also tend to have early negative associations with food, Zucker said. Many report having had severe acid reflux as a baby or childhood gastrointestinal issues, for example.

Unpleasant associations may also be learned at the dinner table, she said.

Preventing permanent pickiness

Kids are at greater risk of becoming picky adults "anytime the food environment is coercive or tense," Zucker said,

Family meals should be fun, she said. They are not a time to argue, reprimand about grades, or harass about eating habits.

And dining together needs to happen regularly, she stressed, so kids can watch others enjoying a variety of foods and be exposed to different smells — even if they don't eat much themselves.

Registered dietician, author and family therapist Ellyn Satter agrees. Even if selective eating disorder has a biological component, Satter told LiveScience, it's a parent's job to help children learn eating habits that will serve them well as adults. [10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]

"Everyone has got something and everyone has to learn to cope. And children need to learn to deal with their predilections," Satter said. Otherwise, it can become a life-long problem, where they are embarrassed to eat in public, she cautioned.

Krause, however, thinks there is nothing his parents could have done to help him. And, as much as he would love a cure, he is pessimistic. He runs an online support group for picky eaters and among its 1,700 active members, he has heard only one success story: A selective eater was able to expand her food repertoire enough to find something to eat at most restaurants.

Even Zucker, who is actively treating selective eaters, admits, "We don't know yet how much they can be pushed."

Instead, Zucker focuses on helping picky eaters overcome their embarrassment and feel entitled to their own preferences. The most important component, she said, is teaching friends and family members "the person is not doing this to be willful and bratty."

Only in this supportive context may a picky eater feel safe enough to try something new — but there is no guarantee they will like it.

"We don't all have the same experience when we eat," Zucker said.




http://time.com/3981050/picky-eating-health-risks/

Why You Should Worry About Picky Eaters
Alice Park @aliceparkny Aug. 3, 2015


Despite the fact that many doctors dismiss picky eating as just a phase, a new study shows it may be a sign of deeper issues

Rare is the child who will eat pretty much anything. Most toddlers develop specific favorite foods and, of more concern, absolute no-go foods.

To a certain extent, that’s normal. But when eating preferences make it difficult for the child to eat with others that could be a sign of more serious sensitivities, say scientists in a report appearing in Pediatrics.

Nancy Zucker, director of the Duke University Center for Eating Disorders, and her colleagues looked into the implications of picky eating when she made a connection between more and more adults with eating-related issues who reported having been picky eaters as children. No studies had looked in depth at the longer term effects of selective eating during childhood, so Zucker studied 917 children two to nearly six years old who were enrolled in an anxiety study. The children’s parents recorded their eating habits, and the researchers conducted tests to determine how the children scored on measures of anxiety and symptoms of mood disorders.

About 20% of the children were picky eaters, meaning they either ate only a restricted number of foods or could not eat with others because of their limited range of food preferences. Only about 3% fell into the latter category of severe selective eaters. Those children were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression or social anxiety. Even children in the moderately picky eating group were more likely to show symptoms of depression, social anxiety or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder compared to children who weren’t picky eaters.

Zucker says the findings shouldn’t alarm parents, but should help them and their doctors to start being more specific about when picky eating is normal and when it should be seen as a sign of possible anxiety issues. What may be happening, she says, is that selective eating may be a symptom of a broader hyper sensitivity. So for certain children who see, feel, hear and taste their world more intensely, being picky about which foods they eat may be a way of coping with an otherwise overwhelming influx of sensory information. “The restriction and narrowness in eating is a way of simplifying their rich, overwhelming world,” she says.

She stresses that it’s only a theory, but in her study, there was evidence that for the severe picky eaters, and for some of the moderately picky ones, their aversion to certain food tastes and textures wasn’t just ‘yuck’ but involved gagging.

While Zucker doesn’t want to turn picky eating into a “medical” condition, she does feel that parents need more guidance from pediatricians about what to do if their children become selective eaters. Parents are already confused by advice from pediatricians that includes urging them to feed their children a varied diet, including fruits and vegetables, to help their development, but at the same time telling them not to worry if their child refuses to eat certain foods.

Her advice? “Try to get meal times back,” she says. That means not trying to force children to eat foods they don’t like at meals, since they’ll start associating the table with unpleasant experiences. Instead, try introducing them to new or non-favorite foods at different times, as part of food adventures, to help them become more comfortable with and willing to try new things.





http://blog.brainfacts.org/2013/07/the-biology-of-picky-eating/#.VifD0H6rQb0

The Biology of Picky Eating
Posted 13 Jul 2013 by Emily Jordan


Everyone knows a picky eater—a former classmate of mine ate only cereal, pasta and milk—but why does picky eating exist?

Humans are omnivores and when necessary, we can survive on a wide range of diets. The Miwok people of California traditionally subsisted on acorns, which they had to process by drying, shelling, pounding, leaching, and cooking to render edible. During the famines of the 1990′s, North Koreans resorted to eating tree bark to stave off starvation. Eating is a fundamental behavior and we derive both nutrients and pleasure from it. So why are some people unable to fully enjoy many foods?

One simply has to look at what people eat around the world to find evidence that food preferences vary extensively. In Iceland, a traditional dish called hákarl is made by fermenting the meat of a poisonous shark, while in Scotland, there is a holiday devoted to haggis. We learn to savor some dishes above others, but these preferences can also become extreme and limiting, as in the case of my pasta-loving classmate.

The roots of pickiness may lie in our past. Selective eating is especially common in children, with up to 50% of children reported to be picky.1 Pickiness may have evolved to keep kids from getting sick. When children start to walk, they do not yet know which foods are safe, so avoiding unfamiliar foods can prevent the risk of poisoning as they start becoming independent.

Picky eating also benefits other species. A classic example is conditioned taste aversion in rats, first described by John Garcia and colleagues, who found that rats began to avoid sugar when it was paired with a stimulus that made them feel sick.2 Sugar is almost universally beloved by animals, but unfortunately rats do not have the ability to vomit. To avoid dying from food poisoning, rats have evolved to be picky eaters. They take a tiny taste of new foods at first, and if they feel sick afterwards, they learn to avoid the food in the future. Conditioned taste aversion can also be found in humans, such as when chemotherapy patients develop food aversions due to nausea.3

Being picky around foods that could make you sick makes evolutionary sense, but as an adventurous eater myself, I have always wondered why otherwise normal adults sometimes refuse to eat perfectly healthy and tasty foods. Unlike people with other eating disorders, adult picky eaters usually maintain normal body weights but abide by certain rules, such as refusing to eat certain colors of foods, avoiding all vegetables, or sticking to only certain brands of their preferred foods. Often picky eaters find socializing difficult because they are embarrassed to eat in front of others.

On a trip to Singapore, I got a better understanding of what picky eaters may go through. I was keen to try durian, the fruit so stinky that it is famously against the law to bring it to public places. I was surprised to find that even when smothered in whipped cream, I found it inedible. My Singaporean friend finished our shared dessert, exclaiming “It’s so rich and delicious,” when all I wanted was to get the weirdly chemical taste out of my mouth. When extremely picky eaters try new foods, they seem to experience what I felt when eating durian—that whatever is in their mouth simply does not taste like food.

Picky eaters may actually sense taste differently to other people. Taste buds, which are comprised of groups of receptors on the tongue, are specialized to discern the basic tastes—sweet, salty, bitter, sour and savory—by detecting chemicals in food and relaying this information to the brain, where there are specific areas for each basic taste in a brain region called the gustatory cortex.4 Eating something salty activates one part of the gustatory cortex, while sweetness activates another, separate area.

Linda Bartoshuk, a psychologist at Yale, discovered that people who avoided strong tasting foods like alcohol and hot peppers actually have more taste buds than non-choosy people.5 These “supertasters” actually perceive tastes more intensely because their brains receive a stronger taste signal from their tongues.

Studies of Selective Eating Disorder (what some scientists are calling very picky eating) are still in their infancy (if you are a picky eater, you can participate in a research project here), but understanding why people perceive tastes in different ways may shed light on certain disorders. Autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety commonly correlate with problematic selective eating. If scientists understand how taste buds and the gustatory regions of the brain communicate, they may be able to help people with these disorders as well as help chemotherapy patients overcome nausea, selective eaters lead more socially fulfilling lives, and maybe even help me enjoy durian.

Mascola et al., 2010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943861/
Garcia et al., 1955 http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&UID=1956-02010-001
Mattes et al., 1987 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3677112
Chen et al., 2011 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21885776
Bartoshuk et al., 1995 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0031938494903611
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Emily Jordan
About Emily Jordan

Emily Rose Jordan loves reading, talking and writing about science, especially the neuroscience of animal behavior, which she comments on via brainfacts.org’s blog and on her Twitter feed @drsciencelady. She currently works as a healthcare analyst in London.

Emily earned a PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and a B.A. in psychology from Columbia University. Her research focused on the neurobiology of social behavior and its role in addiction. Emily spends her free time traveling, especially to see wildlife and to try new cuisines.

View all posts by Emily Jordan →





https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-remedies-emotional-health/201411/picky-eaters-emotional-or-physical-problem

Picky Eaters: Emotional or Physical Problem?
Natural medicines can relieve emotional and physical blocks to healthy eating.
Burke Lennihan R.N., C.C.H.
Posted Nov 09, 2014


When kids refuse to eat healthy foods, or refuse to eat at all, they tend to be blamed for bad behavior. Sometimes the problem is physical, though, and physical causes should be ruled out before considering the emotional factors addressed later in this article.

Kids often refuse food because they know the food will make them feel bad, perhaps from food allergies or the heightened sensitivities associated with sensory processing disorder. Some moms in my practice report that certain foods cause their children to double over in pain. Others report their kids spit everything out because it feels so gross in their mouth, perhaps as a hair in the food would feel to others. Still other children may suffer from severe diarrhea or uncomfortable gas distension from gut dysbiosis. Other kids may feel uncomfortably full because they are constipated.

Some kids refuse food simply because they don’t enjoy it, perhaps for a simple reason like a zinc deficiency. Kids who don’t eat enough tend to develop nutritional deficiencies; foods high in zinc like pumpkin seeds are not on most kids’ favorite-food list; so a vicious cycle develops because a zinc deficiency means they can’t taste anything.

If the picky-eater problem is physical rather than emotional, the best resource I have found is the newly-published Almost Autism by nutritionist Maria Rickert Hong. While Hong’s book is about nutritional solutions to Sensory Processing Disorder, it will benefit parents of children with allergies, ADHD, Asperger’s and a host of other common childhood conditions — as well as parents seeking good nutritional advice for healthy kids!

If the child is refusing food for emotional reasons, parents first need to find the cause. She may not want to eat because she is anxious, her anxiety in turn caused by her parents’ arguing. This child may benefit from the natural medicine Magnesia muriatica, known for supporting children trying to create peace in the family. (Of course this is an admirable tendency, but it can create too much stress and an inappropriate sense of responsibility in a small child.) Kids who need Mag. mur. are also likely to suffer from indigestion, abdominal pains, constipation, diarrhea, and gas, so they are likely to be averse to eating. Mag. mur. can help both the emotional and physical concerns.

Grief is the most common emotional reason for refusing food. In the life of a child, any loss can cause major grief: not only the loss of a parent through death or divorce, but even the loss of a pet, the loss of a best friend moving away, or moving from their childhood home – which may entail the loss of familiar surroundings, friends, and pets all at once. (I can see how apparently minor losses can cause longterm grief when I read my clients’ timelines in which I ask them to list the major traumas of their life.)

Natrum muriaticum and Ignatia are two closely-related remedies which can release the grief underlying a refusal to eat. Nat. mur. is for “silent grief”, suppressed grief, in which the person becomes emotionally withdrawn in order to protect against being hurt again. Kids who need this medicine tend to be serious and aloof, perhaps refusing their mom’s attempted hugs. If they lose a parent or friend, they may find solace in a pet, trusting the pet never to leave them. They tend to be overly responsible, serious about their studies, and unable to relax and have fun. Nat. mur. can release this pattern, allowing them to enjoy hugs, play and food.

While Nat. mur. tends to work for a past grief, Ignatia can be used for both recent and long-ago griefs. If recent, the person tends to sob hysterically and perhaps indulge in emotional eating, trying to fill the emptiness within. This would not be the picky eater! But if the grief is more longterm, the Ignatia child can act like the Nat. mur. child, more withdrawn and sulky while refusing to eat. Physical symptoms can help guide the choice: a Nat. mur. child may be constipated or get cold sores, while an Ignatia child may have cramping pains or psychosomatic ills.

But what if a young girl refuses to eat because she is worried about being too fat? Natural medicines can help people who have an unrealistic sense of their bodies, like my teenage client who thought she was too fat because the inside of her thighs touched at one point near the top (she was on the thin side of healthy). Finding a natural medicine for someone with an eating disorder, or a tendency heading in that direction, requires the assistance of a professional and you can find one near you at www.homeopathic.org (link is external).





Ignatia

http://www.herbs2000.com/homeopathy/ignatia.htm
Homeopathy
Ignatia
Ignatius Bean


Ignatia amara syn. Strychnos ignatia

The native people of the Philippines have been traditionally wearing the seeds of St. Ignatius bean in the form of amulets with a view to keep off as well as heal different types of ailments. The seeds were introduced from East Africa into Europe for the first time in the 17th century and the credit for this goes to the Spanish Jesuits. These seeds enclose a potent poison known as strychnine and when ingested it works on our nervous system. Later, the homeopathic remedy Ignatia prepared from these seeds was proved as well as published for the first time by the German physician Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the documentation of his works Materia Medica Pura (1821-1834).

The homeopathic remedy Ignatia is most appropriate for people, particularly womenfolk, who are suffering from very powerful emotional problems, for instance, any severe grief following a death or a relationship gone astray. People who require this medication most are those who are often emotionally weak, touchy and artistic. They are also inclined to mood swing and suffer from self-pity. In addition, such individuals may have a somewhat delicate air, usually found laughing as well as crying simultaneously. In case they try to hold back their emotions, it may often result in hysteria. These people generally have very high expectations from people who are close to them and even when they are disheartened in love, they find it very hard to break all ties with their partner.

In general, Ignatia is an effective homeopathic remedy for incongruous physical symptoms, for instance, indigestion which is eased when one eats something, or a tender throat getting better after swallowing some solid food. Usually, the symptoms are accompanied by intense feeling of pain and having an inclination to sigh and yawn too often. People who respond to Ignatia well are those that have a loathing towards crowds, suffer from a phobia related to birds, particularly chicken. In addition, this homeopathic remedy is also employed to cure ailments that have their origin in emotional trauma. These conditions may include digestive disorders like queasiness and vomiting; headaches; tender throats; and nervous spasms and shuddering.

Parts used

Seeds.

Uses

St. Ignatius is a small tree that has been named after the saint who patronized retreats as well as exercises and it provides us with the St. Ignatius bean, which supports us emotionally as well as physically. Ignatia, the homeopathic remedy prepared from the bean, helps in curing an assortment of symptoms that are likely to be a result of emotional disorder. In effect, any powerful emotional disorder has the ability to trigger a wide range of symptoms in our body. These strong emotional turbulences may include prolonged and extreme study periods, losing a dear one, chronic stress, homesickness, trauma (usually one that has been suffered in recent times) as well as broken hearts.

Besides facilitating in bringing out all held back emotions, the homeopathic remedy Ignatia is also effective in treating the qualms of heartache or ordeal. It is also effective in curing the symptoms of emotional distress, such as insomnia, aches in the belly region as well as the waves of tenderness that may be accompanied by tumultuous emotions, and also to avert these issues later on - for instance, colds attributable to stress on the immune system of the sufferer. Colds that are cured by Ignatia may begin with a sensation that you have a lump in your throat, while the cough healed by this homeopathic remedy may start out with a tickling sensation in the throat. In case the cold develops into a fever, people said to be belonging to the Ignatia temperament are likely to feel somewhat thirsty or have an itchy feeling accompanied by colds. The other symptoms experienced by the Ignatia type may include a headache that may cause a sensation like a nail is being drilled into the head as well as the unease becomes further intense when they lie on the side of the body that is aching. In addition, the patient may also experience a bitter taste in his/ her mouth, have hiccups, and suffer from queasiness, vomiting and pain in the upper portion of the abdomen. All these symptoms are likely to be alleviated when the patient eats something - as is the case in all other instances where Ignatia is required.

As far as the emotional aspects are concerned, the homeopathic remedy Ignatia works exceptionally well, especially when the patient is suffering from silent grief. However, it is also effective for people who are just on the contrary - such as constantly crying, suffering from nervousness and terror. People who belong to the Ignatia type usually have a very sensitive nervous system and hence, it is not amazing that bodies of such people easily respond to emotional strain accompanied by convulsions, shuddering and also a feeling that they have developed a lump inside their throat. In addition, such people usually also suffer from sleeplessness and nervous headaches. Ignatia is also effective for curing symptoms like nervous weakness attributable to any loss, prolonged aggravation and disappointment, living under tension and also studying for extremely long hours.

In addition, people suffering from health conditions owing to intense emotional anxiety, for instance, distress, anguish, resentment and holding back of such feelings may also find Ignatia beneficial. In effect, this homeopathic remedy is vital for easing grief accompanied by hysteria, mood swings and sleeplessness. Ignatia is also useful for curing additional emotional conditions of the mind, such as self-pity, self-guilt, becoming tearful all of a sudden, the fright of being forced into doing something undesirable, held up reaction to violence or anger as well as apprehensions and depression.

The homeopathic remedy Ignatia is also useful for treating headaches, especially where the sufferer has a heavy sensation in his/ her head and perhaps light-headedness too. Such headaches normally deteriorate further when the sufferer is lying on the side of the body that is aching, nervous headaches attributable to emotional strain and in case of children, the headaches deteriorate when they take foods containing caffeine and the condition is eased when they are exposed to heat.

Ignatia helps to cure illnesses that occur together with unpredictable as well as ambiguous symptoms, such as tender throats that heal on consumption of solid foods; queasiness and vomiting that improve when the patient eats something and so on. In addition, this homeopathic remedy is also effective for conditions like fever accompanied by cold and which bring on thirst; tickly coughs; sensitivity to pain; becoming unconscious in suffocating conditions; having an intense desire for unusual foods when ailing; and pain in the upper portion of the abdomen.

Ignatia is especially beneficial for women and is prescribed for women suffering from a prolapsed or displaced rectum accompanied by a sharp and shooting pain that moves upward; throbbing spasms of the uterus throughout menstruation; lack of menstruation, hemorrhoids and constipation set off by emotional turmoil.

Some of the condition specific uses of the homeopathic remedy Ignatia are discussed briefly below.

Digestive disorders

Ignatia is useful for conditions where queasiness and vomiting are alleviated when the sufferer eats something. Such conditions are usually accompanied by symptoms like hiccups, burping and copious formation of acidic-tasting saliva in the mouth. In addition, the patient may have a hunger that is unsatiated. This homeopathic remedy is also effective in curing other conditions, including constipation, diarrhea or even hemorrhoids that may have been started out owing to some kind of emotional strain.

Nervous disorders

This homeopathic remedy works excellently for nervous disorders accompanied by symptoms like shuddering, nervous spasms or lack of sensation in the limbs and face, perhaps worsening to hysterical paralysis, seizures, or chorea (a condition wherein the patient experiences unsystematic trembling of the limbs and face). It is important to note that Ignatia is only given provided the symptoms endured by the patient are set off by grief, shock or any other powerful emotional turbulence.

In case you notice that you are constantly engrossed in thought regarding painful conditions and you also take deep sighs quite often, you will find the homeopathic remedy Ignatia very useful. Everyone who has lost a dear one or broken up in a love relationship commonly suffers from sleeplessness and nightmares and their only remedial option is Ignatia. The symptoms cured by this homeopathic remedy are inclined to be somewhat unpredictable and irregular, and they are likely to tighten as well as release frequently while the body and the mind endeavour to reinstate balance. People suffering from health conditions that are treated by Ignatia normally feel better when they eat something and when they are exposed to warmth. On the contrary, their symptoms worsen when there is any type of emotional turbulence, when they drink coffee and are exposed to cold breeze.

Irrespective of the fact that they are normal to the person or have been brought on by emotions, individuals who require the homeopathic remedy most are those who are generally very sensitive, impractical and, at times, mysterious, and their moods are likely to change very often. For instance, they may be laughing at one moment and crying in the next. In fact, such people conceal or hold back their feelings so cleverly that you can only get a hint about what are happening within them when they take deep sighs. Over a period of time, such people may possibly turn out to be extremely self-protective, distrustful, envious and also boorish. It is worth mentioning here that the line differentiating Nat. mur. and Ignatia for treating grief as well as held back emotions is very narrow. The difference may be explained by saying that as far as the responses of these two homeopathic remedies to sympathy are concerned, people belonging to the Nat. mur. type are likely to take exception to it, while those having Ignatia temperament will simply like to be left alone. Therefore, when an individual is besieged by any recent anguish, one should first consider giving Ignatia to the sufferer.

Source

Ignatius beans, which form the basis of the homeopathic remedy Ignatia, are found growing throughout south-eastern Asia and are very widespread in countries like Vietnam and the Philippines.

To prepare this homeopathic remedy, one needs to collect the seeds of the Ignatius beans and pound them into a powdered form. Subsequently, the powder is macerated in alcohol and when it is infused with alcohol, the resultant solution is filtered and watered down to the desired level making it a non-toxic substance. The final product is the homeopathic remedy Ignatia, which does not retain even the slightest trace of the original seeds.





Natrum muriaticum

wiseGEEK -- http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-natrum-muriaticum.htm
clear answers for common questions

What is Natrum Muriaticum?

Natrum muriaticum is a preparation which is utilized in homeopathic medicine. Like other homeopathic preparations, Natrum muriaticum is more properly referred to as a “remedy.” Remedies are available directly from homeopathic practitioners, and also from health food stores and markets which stock supplies and preparations used in the practice of alternative medicines.

Remedies are made by taking a substance and diluting it to an extreme level, such that active ingredients can rarely be identified in chemical testing. According to the principles of Samuel Hahnemann, the German physician who developed homeopathic medicine, “like cures like,” and homeopaths use remedies derived from substances which cause symptoms to treat those same symptoms when they are observed in patients. Natrum muriaticum is known as a polychrest, meaning that it can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions.

In the case of Natrum muriaticum, also known as Nat-m or Nat. mur., the remedy is made from common table salt which is diluted. It can be found in tinctures, pellets, and tablets in varying concentrations. This polychrest is used to treat people with symptoms which are related to emotional distress, which can include emotional disorders along with digestive complaints, poor skin, and ulcerations.

THE ART OF HERDING CATS
LUCY M. WARNER
OCTOBER 19, 2015


The following news article made me think and then wax philosophical. The most important reason for me to value the humanities in high school and college as highly as I do is their ability to inform our inner spirits, and then in turn our positions as voters in a democracy, or republic as the Republicans like to insist. They also foster peace and, who knows, maybe even love. See the two articles below, one from the very interesting news article and the second is a sermon by Rev. Anthony David Makar from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. How does the difficulty of herding cats fit in here? A society of cats would always be democratic, with lions as a possible exception. They simply don’t follow orders without a fight. They can easily be induced to cooperate with a little gentleness and respect, however.



http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/oct/19/humanities-research-is-groundbreaking-life-changing-and-ignored#_=_

Humanities research is groundbreaking, life-changing… and ignored
Humanities scholars are making strides in sectors from sustainability to robotics – why are so few people aware of their work?
Sponsored by: Coventry University
Gretchen Busl
Monday 19 October 2015

Photograph -- Art by Philosopher Don Howard worked with computer scientists on the ethics of ‘human-robot interaction’. Photograph: Alamy


Deep in the corridors of Stanford University’s English department, graduate student Jodie Archer developed a computer model that can predict New York Times bestsellers. Her soon-to-be published research landed her a top job with Apple iBooks and may revolutionise the publishing industry. At the University of Notre Dame, philosopher Don Howard worked with a computer scientist to develop a code of ethics for “human-robot interaction” that could change the way Silicon Valley designs robots.

Both scholars share an academic background in humanities. And they join countless others working in fields such as technology, environmental sustainability and even infectious disease control.

But humanities is experiencing a crisis. Public support has dwindled. Enrolment in humanities majors is down and courses are disappearing from university curricula. A tightening job market means more humanities PhDs than ever are looking for – and not finding – jobs outside of academia.

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In theory, our society cherishes the humanities – the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is even being celebrated with a ceremony at the White House. In its years, the NEH has awarded more than $5bn (£3.2m) in grants to promote innovative research and cultural projects, such as the development of a database to track the transatlantic slave trade and the preservation and publication of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Even so, congressional support for the humanities has plummeted along with federal, state and private funding. Adjusted for inflation, the current $146m budget for the NEH represents just half of its expenditure in 1980.

Part of the issue is an image problem around the impact of humanities research on the wider world. The public should know about Priscilla Wald, an English professor at Duke University, whose explanation of the “outbreak narrative” of contagion is changing the way scientists think about the spread of infectious diseases. They should know about environmental humanities professor Joni Adamson, who is applying the study of indigenous cultures to make desert cities into more sustainable ecosystems.


Move over science, humanities’ tech-savvy research is making waves
Read more
Most arguments for “saving” the humanities focus on the fact that employers prize the critical thinking and communication skills that undergraduate students develop. Although that may be true, such arguments highlight the value of classroom study, not the value of research.

But humanities research teaches us about the world beyond the classroom, and beyond a job. Humanities scholars explore ethical issues, and discover how the past informs the present and the future. Researchers delve into the discourses that construct gender, race, and class. We learn to decode the images that surround us; to understand and use the language necessary to navigate a complex and rapidly shifting world.

The academy itself is partly to blame for this image problem. The inward-focused nature of scholarship has left the public with no choice but to respond to our work with indifference and even disdain, because we have made little effort to demonstrate what purpose our work may have beyond the lecture hall or academic journal.

The traditional academic model does not reward public humanities scholarship. Rather, humanities scholars are saddled with the expectation of producing peer-reviewed articles and monographs published by university presses for tenure and promotion. This antiquated system encourages scholars to write and speak only for an audience of peers, keeping graduate students from branching away from the proto-book dissertation model and faculty from exploring popular venues for their work.

Is UK humanities research reaching the widest possible audience? Read more (See Website to pursue this.)

The potential applications of this type of research are endless – the examples above are the just the tip of the iceberg. And more employers need to see that such research has wide application outside of the academy. The American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows programme is helping to facilitate this process by placing humanities PhDs in high-profile positions in government and non-profit organisations such as the US department of state, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Campaign.

Humanities scholars need to take what feels – right now – like a risk, and engage in more public scholarship. After all, we are the best qualified to talk about our own work. And we need our chairs, our deans and our provosts to afford us the support and incentives to do so.

The payoff will not only be in increased visibility and perceived value for humanities research, but the opportunity to make an impact that is much greater than that offered by the solitary scholar model.

Join the higher education network for more comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter @gdnhighered. Email article pitches to us at highereducationnetwork@guardian.co.uk




“The potential applications of this type of research are endless – the examples above are the just the tip of the iceberg. And more employers need to see that such research has wide application outside of the academy. The American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows programme is helping to facilitate this process by placing humanities PhDs in high-profile positions in government and non-profit organisations such as the US department of state, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Campaign. Humanities scholars need to take what feels – right now – like a risk, and engage in more public scholarship. After all, we are the best qualified to talk about our own work. And we need our chairs, our deans and our provosts to afford us the support and incentives to do so.”

There is a strong tendency in this country to consider all things that can’t be weighed, measured and sold to be worthless. The schools, when they follow the Common Core curriculum, will include more about science and math, but that is not a good reason for them to shave several thousand dollars off of their budget costs by eliminating art and music teachers. That very thing is being done in a number of schools these days as the Rightist forces in our Congress continue to limit education funding. In my day those things were thought to be essential to a well-developed soul, but nowadays too many people don’t care about them and even fear them. Thinking and feeling are the enemies of dogmatic religion and also, not coincidentally, of an easily dominated nation. An informational and interesting Unitarian Universalist sermon is on that subject. See below:



http://www.uuca.org/sermons/art-of-herding-cats/, “Art of Herding Cats,” Posted on: May 23rd, 2010 By Rev. Anthony David Makar. I suggest you read it. The church is called Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. His sermon is given here.


I was looking through some personal files the other day, and I happened to find some old progress reports from elementary school. Particularly interesting are the comments from grade two.

“Anthony is reading quite well in his group—his vocabulary is very good and he is able to attack new words quite well. However, his printing is messy and improvement in this area should be encouraged.” Not the first time I’ve heard something like that….

Here’s another comment: “Anthony’s attention tends to wander quite often and as a result he often falls behind in his arithmetic assignments. He is not doing as well as he could since he does not have a good grasp of the basic facts.” Not the first time I’ve heard something like that. . .

But now the final comment, and the one most pertinent to our topic this morning: “Anthony does not do very well in group work and always ends up arguing with his partners.” The comment sends me way back, over the long years, to my second grade mind, and I can almost touch its shocked realization that other people weren’t going to do what I said, when I said it, just because I said it, no matter how eminently clear and reasonable things felt to me. In moments like that, other people seemed perversely independent and idiosyncratic and complex, like cats, doing their own thing, though somehow I knew that, if all the right conditions were met, the cats could be herded, the cats could all get on the same page and accomplish something larger than any of them could ever accomplish alone.

I knew it. Thus my sense of shock—and the life-long pursuit, ever after, of learning the art of leadership. Learning what it is not, and what it is.

And clearly, to begin with, it’s not about dominating others. It’s not about acting like a second-grader when, like me, you happen to be forty-three.

I risk stating the obvious, only because there exists a stubborn impression that leadership in its essence is exactly about dominating others. As my colleague Erik Walker Wikstrom writes in his excellent little book, Serving With Grace: Lay Leadership as Spiritual Practice, “How do I understand the word ‘leader?’ This is a sticking point for many people in congregations today. […] [L]eaders are people who tell everybody else what to do and how to do it. Leaders exercise ‘power over’ and are relics of a patriarchal system that is no longer appropriate in the twenty-first century (if, indeed, it ever was).” That’s what Erik Walker Wikstrom says. The word “leader” can generate distrust when it comes up in liberal religious community, because of what instantly springs to mind.

What springs to mind for you, when you hear that word, “leader”? Lots of baggage we can put on that word, making it hard to see what it’s really all about.

If the image of dominator doesn’t come to mind, what about that of the saint? Me, a leader? Aren’t leaders the kind of people who go straight to the work naturally and make few to no mistakes? Aren’t leaders the kind of people who have easy eloquence and speak without anxiety in front of groups, who feel fearless when real people feel fear, who effortlessly cast vision and instantly inspire loyalty? Me, a leader?

Underneath the question lurks … perfectionism, and to the degree we demand perfection from ourselves, we demand it from others who dare to show up, step up, show the way. Paul Loeb, in his fantastic book Soul of a Citizen, tells the story of a small Minnesota college where a half-dozen students were sleeping in make-shift cardboard shelters. They wanted to dramatize the plight of America’s homeless. One participant recalled, “People who passed by treated us like a slumber party. They told us we were cute. But when we kept on going for a couple of days, people started to get annoyed. Some called us crazy or fanatical. One girl said that we were being hypocritical—homeless people don’t have blankets. I said yes they do; they just don’t have homes. To me it looked like she would have been satisfied only of we got soaked in the freezing rain and got hypothermia, or we launched a hunger strike, or something else!” That’s what the Minnesota college student said. In other words, if in your social activism you aren’t martyring yourself, presumably like the heroes and saints of old, then what kind of leader are you? What’s wrong with you!

How we define leadership is key. There are consequences. If to be a leader there must be perfection, then naturally if you take a leadership position, and you end up doing ten impossible things, but an eleventh impossible thing goes undone, or God forbid something goes wrong, you get to be the punching bag.

False images have consequences. Consider yet a third, that can turn us off even as we might unquestioningly accept it as accurate: leader as potential burn-out case. The people we always go to for help when no one else steps up, and they help again and again and again and again until they break. That’s leadership. The burn-out track.

A special case of this is the “good citizen”—the warm body willing to do what needs to be done, whether or not it happens to be a good fit for his or her skills, interests, and type. “Someone has to do it,” they say, so they do it; and with this—with the best of intentions and a most generous act of commitment—we often see the beginning of a long road of frustration for everyone concerned, and resentment that builds and builds, and burnout is around the corner.

Institutionally, this version of leadership as a burn-out track takes the form of a myth of limitlessness. It begins with a true premise: that the needs of this world are endless. The needs of newcomers and regulars; the needs of various age and lifestage identities like infants, children, youth, young adults, young parents, parents of children and teens, empty-nesters, divorcees, career transitioners, widows, the elderly, and the dying; and then the needs of various theological or social identities like theists, atheists, Pagans, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, gays, straights, whites, blacks, and on and on. All these needs, and so many others–and don’t tell me that the needs of one aren’t as important as those of another. Don’t tell me that the needs of the elderly aren’t as important as those of teens. Don’t tell me that the needs of theists aren’t as important as those of atheists. Don’t tell me that the needs of gays and lesbians aren’t as important as those of straight people. Don’t tell me that! How could you tell me that? The needs are all equally deep and equally important. So how do we decide between them? How can we serve one without serving all?

This is the question—and the myth of limitlessness has an answer. Do it all. Make ourselves available to every call for action, even as resources are limited. Go in all directions at once. Resist all efforts to focus, or prioritize, because all such efforts feel unkind. Just can’t say NO. Just can’t say LATER. There must be a response to every need, and it’s got to happen now. Every need, entitled to an instant response.

And in the end, here is where we are if as a congregation we have bought into this false dream of limitlessness. Here it is. Our congregational reality will ironically be one of scarcity. You would think otherwise, but no. It’s because we may accomplish spectacular things, but that won’t matter, because we can always point to a need that has not yet been met, and so there is always an excuse to chastise ourselves, always an excuse to feel guilty. Scarcity and disappointment will characterize our congregational reality, and so will this: internal strife. Different congregational groups all demanding resources on their own terms and timetable, without loyalty to the best interests of the congregation as a whole. Different congregational groups in isolated silos, like different compartments of the brain not talking to each other, oblivious to our Unitarian Universalist Seventh Principle of the interdependent web, which applies as much to institutions as to anything else.

Domination is just not going to herd any cats. And neither is sainthood, neither is the burn-out track. The art of leadership lies upon a completely different path.

And here we turn to a more positive vision of the art. Not domination, first of all, but servanthood. Leadership at its finest is a matter of serving the genius that lies within the heart of a group, listening for it, collaborating with the group to give it voice.

My favorite way of doing this is always to ask a group, what does success look like? (Who here has ever heard me ask this?) Asking the group to envision the end of a program or event, and people walking away fulfilled. What does that fulfillment look like? How have people been changed? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? What would need to happen for them to go to a friend and say, “Listen, I went to this event at UUCA, and it was amazing. You have to come with me next time!” What would take a person to this level of enthusiasm?

What does success look like? I love this approach because it has never resulted in the kind of arguments that apparently happened to me all the time in the second grade. Quite the opposite. By beginning with the end in mind, by directing everyone’s focus on that, what’s avoided is getting prematurely stuck on a favored tactic. Know what I’m talking about? It’s coming to the table stuck on an idea about what needs to be done, without first making sure that everyone around that same table has a shared sense of where we’re wanting to go. Without this shared sense of things, arguments over favored tactics get messy, fast. Cats staking out territory, spitting and clawing each other. That’s what can happen.

Ask the leadership question, though, and you end up in a completely different place. We put our favored tactics aside for the moment, we stop problem-solving for a moment, so that we can all share in the creation of a vision of success that gets us excited and pumped up. What does success look like? What does fulfillment look like? Ask the question, and then get out of the way. Write down what you hear. Faithfully record it. Then reflect with the group whose genius you are serving, whose energies you are trying to rally and move forward: If this is what success looks like, then what tactics will help us get there? Vision first, tactics next.

Note the process in all of this. The leader steps up to establish a clear framework for discovery, and then he or she steps back. Just gets out of the way.

Erik Walker Wikstrom, in his book I mentioned a moment ago, Serving With Grace, offers up an image of leadership that echoes all this. “The analogy,” he says, “is sometimes made to geese which, during their transcontinental flights, assume a ‘V’ formation. The goose out front is quite clearly the leader, not only helping to show the way but taking on the task of breaking through the headwinds to make it easier for all who follow. Yet the updraft of all the beating wings of the ‘followers’ makes the leader’s flight easier. And it’s also true that, at regular intervals, the leader drops back into a follower’s position and another leader comes to the front. Shared leadership,” Erik Walker Wikstrom concludes, “is not an oxymoron….”

And neither is imperfect leadership. This is my second positive point. The art of herding cats does not require sainthood but, rather, a persistent habit of calmly showing up, trying things to see how they work, learning from what happens, evolving. This nothing less than commitment to excellence. As the covenant that guides the work of our staff says, “We acknowledge that perfectionism is an obstacle to growth. As part of our commitment to excellence, we will view our mistakes as opportunities for personal and professional development and sometimes even openings for creativity and new perspectives.”

“If you don’t make mistakes,” it is said, “you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake” (F. Wikzek). ”Never say, ‘oops,’” says another wise voice. “Always say, ‘Ah, interesting’” (author unknown). But this is exactly what perfectionism blocks. Perfectionism freezes us up, as individuals and institutions. We’re saying oops constantly. We’re staying away from the really hard problems that are inevitably going to expose our weaknesses and growing edges. It makes us, in a word, unlucky. That’s right. I say this, thinking about a social-science article I encountered several months ago, about how to be lucky. It says, “Personality tests revealed that unlucky people are generally much more tense than lucky people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice the unexpected. In one experiment, people were asked to watch a moving dot in the centre of a computer screen. Without warning, large dots would occasionally be flashed at the edges of the screen. Nearly all participants noticed these large dots. The experiment was then repeated with a second group of people, who were offered a large financial reward for accurately watching the centre dot, creating more anxiety. They became focused on the centre dot and more than a third of them missed the large dots when they appeared on the screen. The harder they looked, the less they saw. And so it is with luck—unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”

That’s what’s going to herd cats. Leadership as servanthood, and leadership as openness to where you happen to be right now, with a commitment to growth. Finally, this: leadership as living within our means. Practicing the sacred art of saying NO in order to clear the way to practicing the sacred art of saying YES. For both are sacred, and both are needed.

It means that in our service to the world, we spend only the energy and talents we already have, never saying YES to volunteer positions that aren’t a clear fit. Don’t sign up reluctantly, since no one else is stepping up. Don’t just be a “good citizen”—be a discerning one instead; find where your interests and passions meet the congregation’s need. “The pitcher cries for water to carry,” says Poet Marge Piercy—but not just any old water will do.

Living within our means also suggests that, as an institution, we never allow the creation or maintenance of programs and activities to get beyond existing resources of people and money. Government has to do this, and so do we. We just don’t get the cart before the horse. First things first. And yes, it’s going to mean that some needs go unmet. Not because they are unimportant. Far from it. But if a great idea—old or new—lacks people to champion it (and I mean not just brainstorming it but bringing it all the way to full fruition), then we have to press “pause.” And, pressing pause should be no shame at all. It’s got to be OK. So is letting go of congregational projects and programs that, to continue, require arm-twisting and life-support. It’s got be OK to honor them and then let them go. Got to take a deep breath and trust the process. Got to trust in the creative uncertainty that’s a part of it—the creative time of waiting for the next viable idea that will light this place up to find us. Resist the temptation to do something that only a God could do, which is to refuse to let any balls drop, and to do it all NOW, to juggle everything all at once. Only God is that good a juggler.

In liberal religious circles, a word like “leadership” comes with a tremendous amount of baggage. It’s no wonder that, when the word comes up, or the invitation goes out to take on a leadership role, we can scatter like cats. My hope is that we can unload the baggage and see leadership as if for the first time. Re-imagine it. Leadership as servanthood. Leadership as openness to learning and luck. Leadership as the sacred art of saying NO so we can practice the sacred art of saying YES.

I’ll leave you with one of my very favorite images of the art of leadership: the waitress in the sacred kitchen. The waitress as each of us individually. The waitress as us collectively, this congregation. The image comes from the Rev. Meg Barnhouse. She writes, “I love for a waitress to call me “Hon.” It’s comforting. She doesn’t know me and I don’t know her, but we fit into well worn, ancient categories: I am the Hungry One and she is the One Who Brings Nourishment From the Unseen Source. When I was younger, I worked as a waitress in Philadephia and New Jersey. I learned useful things while serving food to strangers. I know how to rush around with my hands full, thinking about six things at the same time, which has stood me in good stead as the working mother of two small sons. I know that people are not at their best when they’re hungry. That knowledge helps me to understand world events. If the citizens of the world were well fed, we’d have fewer wars and less mayhem. The most helpful thing I grasped while waitressing was that some tables are my responsibility and some are not. A waitress gets overwhelmed if she has too many tables, and no one gets good service. In my life, I have certain things to take care of: my children, my relationships, my work, myself, and one or two causes. That’s it. Other things are not my table. I would go nuts if I tried to take care of everyone, if I tried to make everybody do the right thing. If I went through my life without ever learning to say, ‘Sorry, that’s not my table, Hon,’ I would burn out and be no good to anybody. I need to have a surly waitress inside myself that I can call on when it seems that everyone in the world is waving an empty coffee cup in my direction. My Inner Waitress looks over at them, keeping her six plates balanced and her feet moving, and says, ‘Sorry, Hon, not my table.’”

And so may it be. Let the cats be herded. AMEN.
Tags: Beloved Community, Relationships and Life Skills