The Evil Eye: A Casebook

The evil eye - the power to inflict illness, damage to property, or even death simply by gazing at or praising someone - is among the most pervasive and powerful folk beliefs in the Indo-European and Semitic world. It is also one of the most ancient, judging from its appearance in the Bible and in Sumerian texts five thousand years old. Remnants of the superstition persist today when we drink toasts, tip waiters, and bless sneezers. To avert the evil eye, Muslim women wear veils, baseball players avoid mentioning a no-hitter in progress, and traditional Jews say their business or health is "not bad" (rather than "good"). Though by no means universal, the evil eye continues to be a major factor in the behaviour of millions of people living in the Mediterranean and Arab countries, as well as among immigrants to the Americas. This widespread superstition has attracted the attention of many scholars, and the twenty-one essays gathered in this book represent research from diverse perspectives: anthropology, classics, folklore studies, ophthalmology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, sociology and religious studies. Some essays are reports of beliefs about the evil eye, from India and Iran to Scotland and Slovsk-American communities; others analyze the origin, function and cultural significance of this folk belief from ancient times to the present day. Editor Alan Dudnes concludes the volume by proffering a comprehensive theoretical explanation of the evil eye.