The Evil Eye: A Casebook

by Alan Dundes (Editor)

Book by

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1992

About the author

Alan Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more. One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses.

Reviews

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

In truth I've been labouring away at this for weeks but it's so dry and samey, even after skim reading I've had to give up and DNF.

I've always liked the imagery of the evil eye, particularly the bright blue of the Greek/Macedonian style. That's what drew me to read this book.

Dundes presents a series of essays from around the globe about the evil eye and its different manifestations and meanings in different cultures and religions. Basically they're all the same and are rooted in high superstition. There seems to be great emphasis on beautiful children and pregnant women for some reason! Pride and envy also play major parts. There are "cures" and remedies anywhere from bathing children in herbs and residue of white geese (if I remember correctly) to spitting in people's faces (nice!) to wearing amulets depicting genitals!! O-kayyyyy!

Superstition seems to pop up everywhere from India to Scotland (the latter being a hangover of James 1st's witch trials seemingly).

A very in-depth but actually quite tedious textbook.

2 stars

[Kathy Schulstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio....Indian girl meets a boy and her mother thinks she knows him from her past

[Dawn Culver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting tidbits I never knew.