Warding Off Evil - Ep 108

This week, Anna and Amber get ready for the spooky season by talking about some of the ways that people in various cultures have protected themselves from bad luck, ill will, and evil. Load up on garlic, toss some salt over your shoulder, and join us!

Links

• The strange power of the ‘evil eye’ (BBC Culture)

• The Evil Eye: An Account of this Ancient & Widespread Superstition (via WorldCat)

• Apotropaic Plants in the Persian Folk Culture (Iran & The Caucasus)

• 21 Food Superstitions You Should Really Know About (Bon Appetit, oof)

• Indigenous People Want Brands To Stop Selling Sage And Smudge Kits (HuffPost)

• Native Americans Troubled By The Appropriation And Commoditization Of Smudging (Beauty Independent)

• American Indian Religious Freedom Act (NOAA)

• Burning Sage May Not Be Cultural Appropriation — But It Isn’t Very Sensitive, Either (Bustle)

• Prayers, Amulets, and Charms: Health and Social Control (African Studies Review)

• Folk Figures (Western Folklore)

• Spheres of Influence: The Magical History of the Witch Ball (Inner Lives)

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast

Affiliates

• Wildnote

• TeePublic

• Timeular

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Spooktober: The Nature of Evil - Ep 66

Come along for a look at the anthropology of “evil,” some of the psychological designations that true crime podcasts might neglect, some wildly speculative thoughts about the roots of human evil, and how scores on “psychopath tests” vary across societies. Plus, the earliest cold case murder, Machiavelli on Machiavellianism, and unfortunately, the entirely unwelcome reappearance of the Evil Neanderthal theory.

Links

• Cultural Relativism (WIkibooks)

• How evil is a socially constructed concept: Evil across societies (The Manitoban)

• Demons, Dybbuks, Ghosts, & Golems (My Jewish Learning)

• Psychiatric labeling in cross-cultural perspective (Science)

• The Anthropology of Evil

• The Nature of Evil (Huffington Post)

• The Stigma of Personality Disorders (Current Psychiatry Reports)

• Personality Disorders (The Mayo Clinic)

• Why It Pays to Be a Bit of a Psychopath (LiveScience)

• Successful cavemen were serial killers (New York Post)

• The Criminal Psychopath: History, Neuroscience, Treatment, and Economics (Jurimetrics)

• Quick and Dirty: Some Psychosocial Costs Associated with the Dark Triad in Three Countries (Evolutionary Psychology)

• A world shrouded in darkness: Accounting for variance in the Dark Triad traits around the world (ANU)

• This Author Thinks We Might Be on the Verge of a New Generation of Serial Killers (Vice)

• World's Oldest Cold Case: A 430,000-Year-Old Murder Victim Found In Pit Of Bones (Forbes)

• Unraveling the True Machiavelli (JHU Arts & Sciences Magazine)

• 500-year-old arrest warrant for Machiavelli discovered (Archaeology.wiki)

• Monster Talk episode with Jon Ronson discussing the Psychopath Test

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast

Affiliates

• Wildnote

• Digital Marketing Course

• TeePublic

• Timeular