Blessing And Curse Case Study

2375 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Totem and taboo - freud citaion

1.2 The Research Problem Curses and cursing practices have been existed as universal phenomena since the time of immemorial. However, unlike blessing, Curse words are words we are not supposed to say; as a result curse words themselves became highly influential. The topic itself is perhaps too taboo for academicians. (Jay, 2000:18). Sigmund Freud, a well-known psychologist, discusses the term taboo largely in his book “Totem and Taboo”. He considers taboo as restrictions that are different from religious or ethical prohibitions, which are not based upon any celestial statute, but rather might be said to force themselves on their own account (Freud, 1999: 2). He came up with the most original explanation for the apparently irrational nature …show more content…

According to him the community can punish or reward an individual not only with sanctions or rewards, but also with his words which can be creative or destructive. Blessing or curse touches all the realms of life: social, economic, political, etc. of the Kambata society. Belachew tried to pinpoint situations in which blessing takes place, authority in blessing and cursing and the rituals that take place during blessing process as part of his study. However, he overlooked curses and cursing practice in the Kambata society saying that cursing is subordinate to blessing in that …show more content…

In these circumstances cursing and blessing are used as a means the evil to leave and the good to come forth

Show More
Related

  • Parable In Praise Of Violence By Tony Barnstone Summary

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Believers of the Old and New Testaments claim that violence is a sin and can only lead to more brutality and death; poet Tony Barnstone firmly agrees. In his poem “Parable in Praise of Violence” Barnstone lambastes the American obsession with violence-- that it is often triggered by inevitable events which could be handled in different manners. The speaker in “Parable in Praise of Violence” reflects on all parts of his “sinful” culture and comes to the realization that people often use violence as a way to deal with emotions of grief and anger caused by events and concepts they cannot explain.

    Read More

  • George Carlin and Radio Censorship

    4431 Words  | 9 Pages

    In 1978 a radio station owned by Pacifica Foundation Broadcasting out of New York City was doing a program on contemporary attitudes toward the use of language. This broadcast took place on a mid-afternoon weekday. Immediately before the broadcast the station announced a disclaimer telling listeners that the program would include "sensitive language which might be regarded as offensive to some."(Gunther, 1991) Pacifica believed that this was enough warning to give people who would be offended, but placing a warning in front of something is like placing chocolate cake in front of a fat guy. Humans thirst for the unknown, and at this time, sexual perversion was a big unknown.

    Read More

  • Case Study

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.

    Read More

  • Almost Before We Swore Analysis

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    After discussing the use of swear words amongst Tourette’s patients she begins to discuss the physiological aspects of swearing. She speaks on “higher order linguistic circuits are tapped, to contrive the content of curse. The brain’s impulse control center struggles to short-circuit the collusion between limbic-system urge and the neocortical craft, and it may succeed for a time.” (772). While this is interesting to look at the chemical and physiological processes carried out by the human brain in the urge to swear she does not finish she thought process. She ineffectively ends the article with “Yet the urge still mounts, until at last the speech pathways fire, the verboten is spoken and archaic and refined brains alike must shoulder the blame.” (772). This is in no way a conclusion to the article and is likely to leave the readers with an uneasy feeling of confusion.

    Read More

  • Ouija Boards

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    occur. Sinister messages can be spelt out, claimed to come from the devil. As to

    Read More

  • The Introduction to the History of Sexuality by Foucault

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how during the 19th century with the raise of new societies, the discourse or knowledge about sex was not confronted with repulsion but it “put into operation an entire machinery for producing true discourses concerning sex” (Foucault 69). In fact, this spreading of discourse on sexuality itself gives a clear account of how sexuality has been controlled and confined because it was determined in a certain kind of knowledge that carries power within it. Foucault reflects on the general working hypothesis or “repressive hypothesis,” and how this has exercised power to suppress people’s sexuality. It has power on deciding what is normal or abnormal and ethical or unethical about sexuality. Through discourses of life and sexuality, power is exercised because humans learned how to behave in relation to sexuality, which method keep individuals controlled and regulated. This explains why people experience that sense of behaving inappropriate when we talk about sex in a different way than the whole society. Foucault points up how sexuality is not just treated in terms of morality, but it is a matter of knowledge and “truth.” However, these discourses, including sexual discourses are not true or false, but they are just understood to be the truth or falsehood to control society. As a result, sexuality begins to be explored in a scientific way, developing the “truth” science of sex (Foucault 69). For Foucault, he asserts that sexuality has developed as a form of science that keeps us all afraid of such phenomena, which people think to be true, thus this science helps society to discipline and control individuals’ behaviors.

    Read More

  • Censorship: Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Censorship has been a factor in the lives of humans since long ago in the times of the ancients, however, its prominence increased during the Middle Ages when literature became more common. Take censorship of books, for example, which has been relevant since the time after the persecution of the church, when it banned books about and/or including superstitions or opposition towards them, such as the condemnation of Thalia by Arius, a novel which portrayed “a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts” (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/589822/Thalia), when “The First Ecumenical Council of Nicæa (325) condemned, not only Arius personally, but also his book... …The Emperor Constantine commanded that the writings of Arius and his friends should be burned and that concealing them was a capital crime, punishable by death.” (Rick Russell Former editor of AB Bookman's Weekly.) We look back on this as monstrous and wretched to deny someone their opinions and hide away the history from the public simply because it was in the favor of any particular group or sect. However, when we use censorship as a way for parents and teachers of children to regulate the reading material that we allow them to associate with, it’s suddenly justified and correct. Those censoring the books obviously think so. They hold the belief that they are protecting their youth from violence, harsh language, and crude humor. Parents and teachers around the nation censor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for similar reasons, but they continue to overlook the bigger picture. This title teaches the history of our nation, important life lessons, and the responsibilities of maturity and of growing up.

    Read More

  • Biblical Worldview: A Biblical Worldview

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Holy Bible, ESV).

    Read More

  • Repressive Hypothesis Essay

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Repressive hypothesis states how we currently live in a sexual repressed society. The repressive hypothesis also states that sexuality needs to be liberated, or that it does not have to be repressed. Identifying with ones sexuality is the key to unlocking ones identity and one’s happiness. The repressive hypothesis initially implies three edicts; that derive from our repressed society. According to the repressive hypothesis, specifically in the repressive culture we live in, the first edict explains how all sexuality must be silenced in all occasions, for the mention of sexuality is taboo. In modern times, specifically within the 17th century, it was also important to keep sexuality “hush-hush”, only those who belong to the lower class

    Read More

  • Perversion

    2702 Words  | 6 Pages

    The issues of sexual ethics in relation to morality and perversion have been addressed in depth by each of the gentleman at this table. Sexual activity as described by Solomon and Nagle is comprised of a moral standard and ‘naturalness’ aspect. So, in claiming an act is perverted we must first examine it through a moral framework and understand how this interacts with the ‘naturalness’ of a particular act. Solomon makes the distinction as follows “Perversion is an insidious concept…To describe an activity as perverse is not yet a full blown moral condemnation, for it need not entail that one ought not to indulge in such activities.” Along with the examination of the nature of an act, there must be clear justification as to why sexual acts deserve special separate ethical principles. The question arises: does an act simply due to its sexual nature deserve a separate form of moral inquisition than other acts that occur in nature? In this essay I shall argue that perversion and immorality are not mutually exclusive. By this I mean that a sexual act that is, by my definition, immoral must also be perverted. It is also my contention that if an act is perverted we must also define it as immoral. This second part of the argument is contrary to what many of you have claimed. At the outset of this paper I would also like to state my support of Thomas Nagel’s argument holding that the connection between sex and reproduction has no bearing on sexual perversion. (Nagel 105)

    Read More

  • Example Of Profanity

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    (a) Cursing The intent of cursing is to invoke harm on another person through the use of certain words or phrases. These words are imbued with power granted to them mainly through religious or social demarcation. A religious curse may sound something like: damn you, goddamn you, damn your hide, to hell with you. Cursing also can be non-religious but still wish harm to the target person, as in: eat shit and die, I hope you break your neck, you should rot in jail for that crime. (b) Profanity

    Read More

  • Witchcraft in Contemporary African Society

    2504 Words  | 6 Pages

    In most African societies, a witch is seen as the enemy of life and society. Laurenti Magesa affirmed “African Religion has a pragmatic approach to life: Everything that promotes the well-being of the community is good, and everything that destroys the community is evil.” Magesa suggests not to use the abstract Christian concept of sin but to speak of ‘wrong-doing’ or ‘destruction of life’. Evil is always attached to a wrong doer.... ...

    Read More

  • Exploring the Value of Life Insurance Services

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    Life is loaded with dangers and instabilities since, we are social individuals; we have certain obligations too to minimize these dangers. Since we are individuals we have faith in future instead of the present and craving to have a superior and secured future. In such manner, an extra security administration has its own particular worth as far as serving as reserve funds, speculation and danger assurance. As indicated by Raja (1998) Protection is the pooling of serendipitous misfortunes by exchange of such dangers to back up plans (Insurance agencies), who consent to repay safeguarded, for such misfortunes, to give other monetary advantage on their event or to render administrations

    Read More

  • Civilization And Its Discontents By Sigmund Freud

    1860 Words  | 4 Pages

    Freud was the first person who used the repression term widely, and he argued that the repression is one of the major roots of the social problems, especially, in the Western society. Since the author believed, that humans are naturally have strong instincts towards the sexuality that were repressed by the people propose to meet the constraints that are imposed on them by the civilized social life” [Billing, 2014]. The author indicates that , “If we assume as a general hypothesis that the force behind all human activities is a striving towards the two convergent aims of profit and pleasure. We must then acknowledge this as valid also for these other manifestations of culture, although it can be plainly recognized as true only in respect of science and art”

    Read More

  • What Are Sigmund Freud's Contributions To Society

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ideals that shape the world today are largely based on the theory that individuals have dangerous repressed sexual desires. Along with that, the individual represses these emotions in order to function in society and fit in. Freud was one to distance

    Read More

More about Blessing And Curse Case Study

Open Document