Essay on supernatural power

Lewis, and Ursula K. By preserving these traditions in a modern fantasy story, Garner is doing his part to ensure the heritage of northern England is not forgotten.

Not for sale or further reproduction. Feel free to link to this page! Tell me if you would like a link back to a URL, as these scholars have. Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society.

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Examples are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in Japanese culture, and "pollution by females" in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that "attitudes about the body" have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society.

In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe.

The point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people.

While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses.

Most houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.

The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live.

These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts.

However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language.

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This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing.

The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper.

Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution.

Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics.

For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious [ 6 ] about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting.

It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods.

Magical materials are put into these holes. If there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied.

The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved.

If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies.

It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.

As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists.

The more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this temple. These ceremonies involve not only the thaumaturge [ 9 ] but a permanent group of vestal maidens who move sedately about the temple chambers in distinctive costume and headdress.Star Wars: The Last Jedi is an ode to the power of failure.

The main characters fail at many of their plans. However, the more they fail, the more they learn and grow. This film shows the benefit of learning from mistakes, giving this tale great power for our times.

The Last Jedi follows Poe, Finn.

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