Superstitious People Research Articles

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

This World Affairs 2023 special issue contains six contributions, including this one, exploring some of the key political consequences of traditional beliefs such as magic and superstition in the developing societies of the Global South as well as in certain industrially advanced societies of the Global North. To show why traditional beliefs matter, we provide an explanation in this introduction for why traditional beliefs exist in developing countries, why they survive in developed countries, and why they may become more popular over time. By utilizing a simple game theoretic approach, we explain why rational people can sometimes increase their payoffs by subscribing to a superstition while superstitious people never gain by switching to rationality. In fact, the superstition—which has no causal connection with the natural course of events—may even yield better results, not only for the individual but also for the group. This is the reason why, in the framework of evolutionary stable equilibrium, superstitious people can demographically dominate an entire population over time. In addition to explaining the existence and the persistence (or the popularity) of traditional beliefs, we highlight the key findings presented in the articles included in this special issue. All of them underline a cardinal point: traditional beliefs matter. They shape electoral behavior, they shape attitudes toward democratic governance, and they influence voters’ assessment of political figures and historical events. Precisely because traditional beliefs have such extensive implications for a country's political life, we believe that in the future scholars will have to pay greater attention to such beliefs to have a better understanding of political phenomena and trends.

First phase of clean India mission: A step towards new India

Clean India's mission is the world’s largest toilet-building and behavioral change initiative. The Mission is the world’s largest toilet-building and behavioral change initiative. Media’s role is to inform, educate, and entertain; so mass media make nationwide campaigns to open the eyes of poor, backward-class people; and also want to enlighten the open-minded ideas into rigid superstitious people. Most of all third-world countries are facing a big problem of access to safe and healthy sanitation. Media can spread the message of safe and hygienic sanitation for all the citizens. The Clean India movement will fulfill the dream and vision of Mahatma Gandhiji to make a ‘Swachha Bharat’ for all Indians in a real sense.

Формы религиозности студентов-мусульман Татарстана (по результатам опроса и интервью)

The article is devoted to the forms of religiosity of Muslim students of higher educational institutions of Tatarstan. The topic is relevant for the republic since in such a multi-confessional region as Tatarstan the religiosity of the population is important in achieving interfaith harmony and peace. The author adheres to a multidimensional approach to the study of religiosity, which in the most generalized form represents religiosity as a complex heterogeneous phenomenon comprising different definitive elements. In 2022, a survey and interviews were conducted among Muslim students in secular and religious higher educational institutions of Tatarstan. The study revealed the most common forms of religiosity among Muslim students of Tatarstan. A significant part of the respondents believe in Allah and feel the influence of God in their lives, turn to Him in different life situations. However, not all informants perform ritual duties (saying prayers, fasting, etc.). The daily life of the students interviewed is not always built according to Islamic norms and may include building family relationships, choosing a job, and buying a home. The study showed that the answers of students of secular and religious educational institutions vary greatly on some questions. For example, religious activity (participation in religious events) is demonstrated in various degrees only by the students of religious institutions. Among the students surveyed, there also are superstitious people who believe in omens, signs, horoscopes, etc.

Village Lunatics

Village Lunatics

Filipino-Ness in Anna Felicia Sanchez’s “Martinés”

Filipino-ness in cultural beliefs, cultural practices, personality traits, cultural values, and perception of mythical creatures and supernatural phenomena were the main concepts of the study. The research aimed to extract and analyze Filipino-ness in the story “Martinés” by Anna Felicia Sanchez. Content analysis, extraction of passages in the story through frame of references such as; characters, settings, conflict, and sensory imagery were used in the analysis of the story “Martinés”. Filipino-ness in cultural beliefs signifies that Filipinos are superstitious people for they tend to give attention and importance to some supernatural forces. Filipino ness in cultural practices reveals that Filipinos are traditional practitioners of offerings in the form of ritual activities. Filipinos are also practicing “Bayanihan”, especially during crucial times in their lives. Filipino-ness in personality traits shows that the Filipinos despite the problems are experiencing, still are determined and optimistic to surpass all hardships. Filipino ness in cultural values exemplifies the hospitality of the Filipinos to their visitors. Filipino-ness in the perception of mythical creatures and supernatural phenomena displays how Filipinos perceived supernatural forces and entities as an influence of their culture. The portrayal of the Filipinos as strong believers in superstitions is dominant in the story “Martinés”. This suggests that there are still Filipinos who give value to superstitions in this present time. Thus, the story “Martinés” is a vital reference in teaching aspects of Filipino culture in a literature class, which can be also a way to promote and preserve Filipino culture and literature.

The role of superstition in the placebo effect on memory performance.

Superstitions and the placebo effect have each been found to influence human behaviour. The present study aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between superstition and the placebo effect, and whether this relationship affects human cognition and behaviour. We hypothesized that more superstitious people would be more prone to the placebo effect and that it would improve their performance on cognitive tasks. Results showed that in the placebo condition, more superstitious people memorized more words than less superstitious people. However, in the control condition, less superstitious people memorized more words than more superstitious people. Overall, the findings supported our hypothesis. The findings of the study are important, as they draw a link between the placebo effect and superstition, and further show that these two elements impact human performance in cognitive ability tasks.

Wywoływanie chorób przez czarownice – poglądy uczestnika procesów czarownic (przypadek Czarownicy powołanej)

Published in 1639, the anonymous “Czarownica powołana” is a work addressed to judges dealing with proceedings in witchcraft cases. Its author, probably a clergyman, participated in such trials. Unlike many works of this kind, it did not encourage the tracking and killing of witches. “Czarownica powołana” belongs to a different trend and in many places is similar to the treatise of the German Jesuit Friedrich Spee, who was afraid of the rash condemnation of superstitious people who had nothing to do with practicing black magic. In “Czarownica powołana” the existence of witches and sorcery is not questioned, because it is considered to be a devilish science, which leads to making a pact with the devil with the ability to act in the world. Illness or death in connection with the accusation of witchcraft had serious consequences, including establishing who and how the witch had harmed. In the era of the plague epidemic, fear of strangers led to numerous massacres, especially in German cities, where the spread of the plague was explained more often than elsewhere by poisoning the wells by Jews, who were also burdened with engaging in magic and negotiating with the devil. The author was aware that some associate every disease with witchcraft. The devil can also cheat, making a person think that what he dreamed really happened, and people deluded by fantasies are willing to share these stories also in court during a trial. The author of “Czarownica powołana” was aware of this mechanism because he was concerned with the accusation itself (“powołanie”). In this context, “Czarownica powołana” – despite the author’s conviction about the existence of witches and their ability to cause disease and elementary disasters - is a progressive work, but this is evidenced by the lawyer’s dilemmas, not the priest’s fears.

Folclore y tradición popular en la literatura polaca del Romanticismo

Polish Romantic writers and researchers collected folk traditions and motifs; they published this research in journals of culture and ethnography. Popular songs and legends that were never before included in the national culture, once considered products of the imagination of the uneducated and superstitious people, forever gained their place in national literature.

Being Human: Religion and Superstition in a Psychoanalytic Philosophy of Religion

At one place in his collection of essaysThe Crane Bag and Other Disputed Subjects, the novelist and mythographer Robert Graves makes the following claim that might sound rather shocking to the ears of an analytic philosopher:I find myself far more at home with mildly superstitious people – sailors and miners, for instance – than with stark rationalists. They have more humanity.

Teratology in cultural documents and today

Teratology is the science of congenital malformations. The incidence of birth defects amounts to 2-3%, but it doubles postnatal owing to the fact that many dysfunctions are not discernible at birth. Congenital malformations were already known in ancient cultures, records from Assyrian and Babylonian astrologists as well as from physicians and philosophers of the Hippocratic era are testifying it. In medieval times they were recognized as supernatural phenomenons, terata, from what the term TERATOLOGY derived. In the eyes of the superstitious people affected stillborns were regarded as monster, symbol of devil or miracle. The foundation of anatomy as a science by Vesalius marked the beginning of a reorientation. In the 17th century, when the age of enlightenment began, ideas concerning the origin of birth defects became more objective. Original studies dealing with congenital malformations became common in the 18th century. Fundamental discoveries made by microscopy placed Teratology on a truly scientific basis. Significant impetus was grown to teratological research with the discovery of Gregg (1941) that German measles (rubella virus) of pregnant women caused birth defects in the embryo and the contergan disaster (1959--1962). Congenital malformations originate from genetic factors (single gene defects and chromosomal aberrations) and environmental factors, such as radiation, drugs, chemicals, and infectious agents. The susceptibility of teratogen depends on the period of embryonal development, which is classified into gametogenesis, blastogenesis, embryogenesis and fetogenesis. The Food and Drug Administration of the USA published guidelines for teratogenetic testing (1966). There are in-vivo and in-vitro-test programmes, the latter became of increasing importance owing to the large number of chemicals to be tested and the activities of opponents against animal experiments. Although great advances were made, the problem remained to transfer results from in-vivo and in-vitro tests to the constitution of man without risk.

Imaginary Ethnicity

At the first glance, the comparison of Jews and Russians in the Russian economical mythology suggests that in the early period (11th through 16th centuries), religion set a framework for their antinomy, whereas later (17th through 19th centuries), the role of religion was gradually reduced to mere form, filled up with economical substance. However, the picture gets more complicated if we take into account that even at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was still governed (and for the most part populated) by superstitious people, largely uninterested in economy. Although the form of the Russian nationalism (including anti-Semitism) was progressively adjusted to the Western patterns of economical mythology, its substance retained that symbiotic totality of religious and economical imagination, which was compatible with both Russian monarchy and Soviet socialism.

Bird Motif and Myth in Theodor Storm's Schimmelreiter

Recent interpretations of Der Schimmelreiter by Theodor Storm reflect the renewed interest in the study of motif and symbol, after the neglect of half a century. Two of these interpretations draw attention to the need for a closer examination of the mythological elements in this Novelle. 2 A closer study of the birds in the story reveals the author's grand design, for the birds supply the key to the supernatural element and show that Theodor Storm consciously used the bird motif in Der Schimmelreiter. His unique contribution was to give the bird motif a new dimension through his expert knowledge of folklore. In this paper, a brief examination of Storm's standing as a folklorist and his background as an amateur ornithologist will be followed by a study of his use of the bird motif in Der Schimmelreiter. Storm's reputation as a folklorist was established over fifty years ago.' There is every evidence that from an early age he was an inveterate and systematic collector of everything which reflected the folklore of his locality—legends, tales, sayings, riddles, and songs were all carefully collated. In the Schimmelreiter we reap the benefits of Storm's eclecticism: demonology, witchcraft, ill omens, portents of doom, gloomy weather prophets, and a superstitious people all find

Science in the Magazines

THE Fortnightly again takes the first place, as regards scientific articles, in the magazines received by us. Mr. Herbert Spencer contributes to it a paper on the late Prof. Tyndall, Prof. Karl Pearson, writes on “Science and Monte Carlo,” and Mr. H. O. Forbes states the grounds of his belief in “Antarctica: a Vanished Austral Land.” Mr. Spencer does not dwell upon the more conspicuous of Prof. Tyndall's intellectual traits, but upon a few characteristics concerning which little has, been said. Chief among these powers of thought was “the scientific use of the imagination.” Tyndall insisted upon the need for this. “There prevail, almost universally,” Mr. Spencer points out, “very erroneous ideas concerning the nature of imagination. Superstitious people whose folk-lore is full of tales of fairies and the like, are said to be imaginative; while nobody ascribes imagination to the inventor of a new machine … strange as the assertion will seem to most, it is nevertheless true that the mathematician who discloses to us some previous unknown order of space-relations does so by a greater effort of imagination than is implied by any poetic creation.” The faculty with which Tyndall was largely endowed was that of constructive imagination, and he used that talent in all his work. Among other points upon which Mr. Spencer dwells in the eulogy of his dead friend, are Tyndall's intellectual vivacity, and the x Club described by Prof. Huxley. The, influence that the Club eventually exercised in the scientific world is shown by the fact that it contained four presidents of the British Association, three presidents of the Royal Society, and presidents of the College of Surgeons, of the Mathematical Society, and of the Chemical Society. The number of members is now reduced to five, and the Club is practically dead. The object of Prof. Pearson's essay is to show that chance as it applies to the tossing of an unloaded coin has no application in Monte Carlo roulette. The discussion of records of the roulette tables leads to the strange result that “the random spinning of a roulette manufactured and daily readjusted with extraordinary care is not obedient to the laws of chance. ” In the Fortnightly of May last, Mr. Forbes gave reasons for believing that “there must have existed in the Southern Seas an extensive continuous land similar to that in the Northern Hemisphere, on which the common ancestors of the forms unknown north of the equator, but confined to one or more of the southern extremities of the great continents, lived and multiplied, and whence they could disperse in all directions. ”He then remarked that this lost continent “lies in part beneath the southern ice-cap, and it approached to, or included, the Antarctic Islands, as well as extended northward to unite with the southern extremities of South America, perhaps with Africa, and with the Mascarene, the Australian, and the New Zealand continental islands.” Mr. Forbes now brings forward a mass of evidence in support of his view, dealing in detail with the distribution of different divisions of the animal kingdom.

Spectre of the Brocken at Home

HAVING occasion ten days ago to go into my garden about half past ten o'clock at night I found there was a thick white fog, through which, however, a star could be seen here and there. I had an ordinary bedroom candlestick in my hand with the candle lighted, in order to find the object I wanted. To my great surprise I found that the lighted candle projected a fantastic image of myself on the fog, the shadow being about twelve feet high, and of an oddly distorted character, just as the spectre of the Brocken is said to be. It is of course usual on going into the open air to use a lantern with a solid back for any light that may be wanted, and with this, of course, such a shadow would not be seen; but in this charmingly foggy valley of the Thames, and in these days of “Physics without Apparatus,” the effect I saw can probably be seen only too often. May not the gigantic spirits of the Ossianic heroes, whose form is composed of mist, through which the stars can be seen, be derived from the fantastic images thrown upon the mountain fogs from the camp fires of the ancient Gaels? In a land where mists abound a superstitious people might very readily come to consider a mocking cloud-spectre to be supernatural, though it was really their own image magnified. If it be true that in our earlier stages of development we resemble more nearly the past forms of life and thought, I may mention in this connection that, thinking to amuse a little child of three, I threw a magnified shadow of her on the wall with a candle, and then, by moving it in the usual way, made the figure suddenly small. Instead of the changing shadow giving the pleasure intended, the child was terrified, as the warriors of Morven may have been when they saw their shadows on the clouds.