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CURIOUS CUSTOMS and BIZARRE BELIEFS Around the World, by Wesley M. Wilson, BS, MBA, JD
Papua New Guinea medicine man P.N.G. mudman
Mali, diviner, shamazn or witch doctor
Click for larger picture Papua New Guinea, girls of the Lowlands
Tanna Island, Vanuatu, girls dance in a big circle
[Excerpt, Curious Customs and Bizarre Beliefs, Deaths & Funerals, p. 179-182]
The corpse is washed, dressed in new clothes, and silver is put into the mouth. The body is put into the fetal position, in a dry room for a few days, and lamas read sutras from the Buddhist “Bible” to guide the soul. After a few days the body, in a coffin painted with the stars, sun, and moon, is put on top of the kitchen stove. Offerings are made, then lamas read more of the sutras and everyone prays that the spirit will arise. The coffin and body are cremated, then the bones are gathered and buried in a graveyard. The Bai, in and near Dali, Yunnan, prefer to bury a body intact, with the head to the west, so it can look east at the rising sun. Chinese, until recently, believed the location of a burial site was even more important than the location of a house. If the site is good, the clan is strengthened, if bad the Earth is displeased and the clan is weakened.
Peoples over the centuries in many cultures have buried with the body or the bones things believed to be useful in the afterlife. Tombs in Ancient Egypt and China are well known for containing the things that would be helpful to the living. Many American Indians, such as the Anasazi (“Old Ones”), also buried pottery and tools with a body. Peru’s National Archeology Museum in Lima and Bolivia’s National Archeology Museum in La Paz have mummies, usually sitting in a fetal position, wrapped in a blanket, with food and other objects they would need in the afterlife. Some were buried in a basket. The mummies were well-preserved in the cold dry Andes Mountains.
Survivors have many ways to mourn the death of a loved one. Wailing or crying is common, sometimes for several days. In Papua New Guinea widows are expected to cut off a finger or an ear. A visitor reported that he saw a recent widow scratch her face with long fingernails until the scratches bled profusely. Until recently Tahitians expressed their deep sorrow, as well as great pleasure, by scratching the face with a shark’s tooth until each scratch bled. In Papua New Guinea, all female relatives of the deceased are expected to wear a necklace made of “Jobs Tears,” the seed of a local plant, usually for two years. One tribe mourns for only two weeks. A new widow in Papua New Guinea sometimes puts clay all over her body. It is not washed off but gradually falls off. Men and women in many countries put wood ashes on the face or the entire body when mourning the death of as loved one. On Tanna Island, Vanuatu, widows blacken their faces. In Vanuatu a man growing a beard is in mourning. A woman cannot remarry if her son is still growing a beard. If a husband or wife dies the surviving spouse is expected to stay in seclusion for 100 days. In Tonga and most of the Pacific black is the color of mourning. Women wear black much of the time, because they have so many relatives in the extended family, and several may die each year. In Uzbekistan men in mourning wear blue or black, with a green hat. Women in mourning wear a blue dress and white shawl.
On many Pacific islands, when a person dies the family gives a feast for five days or so, and villagers bring gifts of mats, pigs, and other valuables to the family. This helps to spread and diffuse the grief. Funeral ceremonies were also intended to appease the soul of the deceased, so it would not return to torment the living. After a death in Vanuatu and Fiji a village has 100 days or more of mourning. In Fiji some 700 guests or more come to a feast, bringing gifts of fine tapa mats for the survivors. When the chief dies, fishing by any member of his tribe is prohibited for a period of four months, some tribes prohibit fishing for a year.
In Ghana we returned late in the afternoon in the expedition truck to our campsite near a village. However, since that weekend had been chosen to honor the deaths of all villagers in the past year, we brought the truck in later. They had strung a low electric line with lights over the road, to provide light for the festivities of dancing, drinking, and eating. Each man wore a black sash, and women wore red and black dresses. Ghana’s Ashanti tribe shave their head six days after the death of a family member and hold ceremonies to say goodbye to the departing spirit. Hottentots in South Africa mark a grave with a pile of stones. Any passing Hottentot is likely to add a stone or a stick and make a short prayer for the soul of the dead. In China and Southeast Asia, stores sell realistically shaped briefcases, cars, airplanes, toys, refrigerators, and more, all made of paper pulp. Most of them are natural color. They are for burning at the funeral of those who follow Taoism (Daoism), so the real thing can be enjoyed in the next world. When someone dies among the Naxi in Yunnan province, an old man of the family puts into his mouth tea, bits of silver, and grains of rice--seven for a female and nine for a male--wrapped in red paper. After three days of mourning the coffin with the body is carried to the pit, where the son is first to put dirt on top. Many people worry that the soul of those who committed suicide wanders forever, lonely and forlorn. The Naxi priests in China’s Yunnan province long ago devised for their Dongba religion a ceremony to put at ease those souls.
Monuments are often erected to represent ancestors. On Easter Island each of the big moai represents an ancestor or many ancestors of a particular clan. Many of the moai erected on an ahu (stone platform) are believed to have had a topknot made of red scoria stone found on the island. Red is a sacred color in many countries. The moai nearly always faced inland, toward the village. Many moai have petroglyphs carved on the back. Nearly 900 moai were carved, but almost 400 of them are still in or near Rano Raraku, the hillside with the stone quarry where they were cut out with stone chisels. Some moai are up to 33 feet long. The red topknot alone sometimes weighs more than 10 tons.
Stonhehenge, England and the website author
In Christian countries tombstones were rare, except for the famous, until 250 years ago. In Islamic countries only a simple stone headstone is often used. Religious professionals and soldiers, such as the mujahideen, usually have a flag of a particular color at the grave. Only wealthy or famous deceased people, or rulers, have an elaborate tomb everywhere. I visited the big cemetery on a hill above Zagreb, Croatia. Separate sections are for Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims. They are separated in death, as they were in life. In Argentina a cemetery usually buries Indians separate from “Europeans.” In the U.S. until recently Blacks were buried in a separate cemetery or in a distinct part of a cemetery. They are separated after death, as they were when they lived. On many Pacific Islands, Asia, and Africa a cemetery is the home of ancestors. It is often taboo to wander in a cemetery unless you have permission from the village chief or an elder.
In Papua New Guinea and islands of Melanesia every death has a cause, and it must be discovered. After a death for unknown reasons the brothers of the deceased must go to a special “dreaming house.” where they take herbs to make them dream. If they decide that a particular person caused the death, that person must be killed within a reasonable time. The name of a dead person is never spoken. Sometimes the skull of the deceased is taken to the medicine man and left there, usually in a wooden shed, for four years. A family wanting to know the cause of death gives a pig to the medicine man. He usually determines during the night who caused the death. That person will have a short life. Don’t make an enemy of the medicine man! A windstorm tells everyone in the tribe that the medicine man has sent a spirit to kill someone. Who? The Achuar Indians of Ecuador had almost identical beliefs and practices, according to an article by Mary Roach in Discover magazine, December, 1998. She reported that a shaman comes out of a hallucinogenic trance with the source of a curse that caused a death. The person named may be assassinated. The Achuar believe that the spirit of the deceased will not rest until the death is avenged. Many Achuar, like the Papua New Guinea Highlanders, die from violent acts.
Among the Aborigines of Australia any person who dreamed of a person who had recently died had to bathe thoroughly to wash away the soul of the deceased, which could make the dreamer sick. In the Marquesas Islands relatives of the deceased burned the home and the hair and all personal belongings of the deceased, partly to erase memories and partly to prevent a sorcerer to cause harm to the soul of the deceased.
Death is treated as a natural event, like birth, eating, sleeping, and parenthood, in many traditional societies. In a crowded village or city where the life expectancy is low, death is common, not a big event. Few if any tears are shed when a family member or other relative dies. After a ritual death or funeral ceremony the survivors try to carry on their life as before. Children learn quickly that death is normal, and it is not hidden from them. Children and adults are not afraid of death. In Islamic countries death is considered to be natural and innocent. Mohammed the Prophet said “You must not weep or cry over your dead.” There was no original sin, and man is innocent, not a fallen creature. Since man and the world are innocent, there is no need for a savior. In Islamic countries tombs are usually simple. However, in Egypt many people seem to be obsessed with death, and tombs in Cairo are sometimes elaborate and expensive.
[Excerpt, Curious Customs and Bizarre Beliefs, P. 218-220]
RELIGIONS
Creation
There are many religious beliefs of creation and a virgin birth. Some Indians in Canada’s Yukon Territory believe that Crow made the sun, moon, and the stars. Crow then created man by causing a girl to drink water with a spruce needle in it. She became pregnant, with the first man. The Haida Indians of Canada’s West Coast believe that after the great flood Raven found the first humans in a giant clam shell. Many Pacific Islanders also believe that earth was created from a giant clam shell. The top was lifted to become the sky. Plains Indians in the U.S. believed that coyote created earth, but that the sun was also important. Anasazi Indians of the U.S. Southwest had a small hole, a sipapu, near the fire pit in their kivas, used for ceremonies. The hole represents the hole that man emerged from onto the face of the earth. It is also called the “spirit hole” and represents the entrance to the underworld. Australia’s Aborigines believe that the god Baime created earth. A big rainbow was broken into 1,000 pieces, they became birds. Some fell into the sea, grew scales, and became fish. Some Shinto followers in Japan believe that long ago a rooster crowed, it woke up the sun god, bringing light to the world. Chinese believed that Pan Gu was born of the egg chaos. As he grew he separated heaven and earth. The mountains and water came from his body, his eyes became the sun and the moon, his beard became the stars, his hair became vegetables, and fleas on his body became humans! Chinese believed in an afterlife in the “Yellow Springs,” not far below ground level. Ancient Hawaiians believed that man came from the leaf of a taro plant, which grew above the buried body of the child of a god. Kanaks in New Caledonia believed that the moon lost a tooth, which gave birth to humans. A big rock in the Jean Marie Tijabou Cultural Center in Noumea symbolizes the tooth. People living near Yasur Volcano on Vanuatu’s Tanna Island believe that the universe originated at the volcano. They also believe that it has the spirits of their ancestors, in both heaven and hell. Tanna islanders believe that human life began there. As the island became more crowded men and women left in boats to populate the rest of the world. Some boats were shipwrecked and the people spent a long time in the sea. They were bleached, becoming White Man. Villagers on Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River believed that a big crocodile carried the entire world on its back and delivered it to the present location. The “croc” opened its mouth to create wind.
The Mayan Indians’ great book, the Popol Vuh, has stories that tell how the earth was created, with plants and animals, and how a creature like man was created, from mud, wood, then flesh. They were destroyed in a great flood. Finally modern man was created from dough made of maize or corn. The Dogon of Mali believe Fox created the Earth from its placenta. Amma, the Great God, created two pairs of hermaphrodite twins. One pair was called Nummo. The other pair are called Ogo and Nommo. Ogo creates a dry, arid Earth. Nommo is sacrificed to create humidity and water, so there can be life on Earth. The Dogon culture has constant opposing factors--wet and dry, old and young, male and female (like the yin and yang of Eastern religions, and the heaven and hell of many religions). Other tribes in West Africa, including the Anlo (Ewe) of Ghana and Togo, believe that a supreme being, Mahou, created the world and men. He is a personal god, there are no priests or shrines. He is said to have disappeared because people made frequent demands upon him. He also created lesser gods to do some of the work. South Africa’s Zulus believe the Great Spirit Unkulunkulu created everything, including the Earth, sun, moon, and stars. His daughter Nomkhubulwana tells the Zulus many things--when there will be feast or famine, when to wean a baby, when to brew beer, and when to make a sacrifice. If her orders are not followed it will result in death. Ancient Babylonians believed that the god Marduk made man out of clay mixed with the blood of the god Kingu. Ancient Egyptians believed that man was made of clay by the god Khnum.
It was common in early Eastern religions for a god to have a virgin birth, a symbol of human sanctity and purity. In addition to Jesus other gods who had a virgin birth were Buddha, Mithras, and the Hindu Surya. Hercules, the mythical son of the Greek god Zeus and the wife of a king, was often said to have had a virgin birth. Myths that Alexander the Great had a virgin birth were widespread before Jesus was born. Ancient Egyptians in Memphis believed that the sacred bull Apis was born of a virgin cow, impregnated by a god. Lao Tzu, founder of Taosim (Daoism) is said to have been fathered by a shooting star. The great Hindu book, The Mahabharata, also tells of a great flood, and how the child Karna was saved while floating away in the bulrushes, like Moses, many years later.
Many religions have a place where the soul is expected to go when someone dies. The concept of paradise or heaven is somewhat different from the Christian concept of heaven. Ancient Sumerians, predecessors of the Jewish people in the Middle East, thought that Dilmun or paradise was a place full of vegetarians--animals did not eat others, and the sick and lame were made well. Muslims, living mostly in dry areas, picture paradise as green, with pretty streams and black-eyed maidens. The Vikings of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden believed that a Viking who died in combat would go to Valhal, where he would feast and fight forever. Religions also have different concepts of where bad people go when they die, but most agree that it is a hot place.
[Excerpt, Curious Customs, p. 234-237]
Health-Care Plans
All of the industrial countries of the world except the U.S. have a government health-care plan that covers most or all medical expenses for legal residents. Health care is expensive in all industrial countries. Costs are rising, some treatments or drugs are no longer covered, and co-payments may be required for some treatments. A common complaint is that a patient must wait for weeks to see a doctor for routine treatment. They may wait for months for a non-emergency operation.
No other country pays even two-thirds as much as the U.S. pays for medical care. Yet, the U.S. has more than 42 million people without health-care coverage. In the U.S., only 75 percent of the cost of health care goes for diagnosis, treatment, and drugs. Many billions of dollars go to lobby legislators, for the cost of processing claims, profits, and expenses. Salaries and bonuses for executives of insurance and health-care plans and hospitals are often more than a million dollars a year! A for-profit health-insurance plan or for-profit hospital must either charge too much, or deny treatment to people who are entitled to it. While U.S. total labor costs are below costs in most of Western Europe and Japan, the health-care costs paid by employers are far greater. Anyone opposing an efficient government-sponsored health care plan calls it “socialized medicine.” How do other countries provide excellent health-care for far less cost than in the U.S.?
Canada’s Medical Services Act set up their universal single-payer medical insurance plan in 1968. I spent four summers attending French-speaking universities in Quebec. The other students came from nearly every English-speaking city in Canada. Their plan is very popular. It covers almost everything. Any Canadian politician who closes hospitals and clinics to cut costs is not likely to be re-elected. Administrative costs are only a tiny fraction of the administrative costs in the U.S. The General Accounting Office of the U.S. studied the Canadian plan. It concluded in 1991 that we could save a lot of money and still provide care for everyone under a system like Canada’s. Canada has a much lower infant mortality rate, fewer people die from heart disease, and the life expectancy is higher than in the U.S. This is also true for nearly all countries in Western Europe.
In the United Kingdom the National Health Service Plan began in 1948. It covers nearly all costs. Some 11 percent of the people also buy private insurance. Prescription medicines cost around five dollars each. Only about three-fourths of the cost of dental care are covered. Students and the elderly get free dental care. A resident must see a local physician first. There has been a shortage of hospital beds. Health-care costs have increased recently but in 1998 were below seven percent of GDP. The gross domestic product or GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. In Ireland the poor, the unemployed, and pensioners are covered by the government Department of Health plan. Others must pay the actual cost, which is low. Some one-third of the people pay a little more for a P-A-Y-E or Pay As You Earn supplemental plan. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are known for their complete but expensive medical and social services. In Denmark, we were told in 1996, that their medical care alone costs only about three percent of their GDP, but latest figures show total costs of more than six percent. In Italy, the National Health Care System costs are paid by the employer and by withholding from employees’ wages. The patient chooses the doctor but the System pays the fee. The patient pays for part of the cost of a “ticket” for medicine and for care in a private hospital. The Netherlands has a complicated system of government and private insurance, but they provide universal health coverage for all Dutch citizens, at a cost of 8.8 percent of GDP. The Swiss pay slightly more than six percent of GDP for health care. Portugal’s constitution guarantees medical services for all, but the unemployed may not be covered for all services. Health care is free for pensioners. In Spain, all but one percent of the people are covered by the Health Care Services, free of charge. In Finland any resident can get free medical care in a government hospital, paid for by taxes. Many Finns pay extra for an insurance plan and better care in a private hospital, we visited a thriving private hospital.
Germany has one of the most expensive health-care systems in Europe, with some 1200 local plans, a type of managed care. Germans pay a fixed percentage of their gross income into the “sickness fund.” I lived in East Germany shortly after it merged into West Germany. The East Germans preferred their neighborhood clinics with abortion upon request, to the West German system, but lost. One of the families I lived with in West Germany paid extra for a deluxe plan, to get a private hospital room and earlier treatment of minor problems. But her total costs were less than two-thirds of health-care costs in the U.S. Germans in 1998 paid slightly over 10 percent of GDP for health care. The lady who ran our guest house in Vienna explained why she paid for a supplemental health plan. France’s Sécurité sociale pays for 100 percent of medical costs. Both employers and employees make contributions, for a total cost of about six percent of GDP.
New Zealand’s popular universal health-care plan began in 1938. To reduce costs it has recently begun to charge a small fee for some services. General practitioners charge about 12 U.S. dollars for a visit, and specialists charge more. A prescription costs about 10 dollars. Australia’s Medicare plan is administered by each state but it now provides universal coverage. Nearly one-third of the Aussies also buy private insurance. Japan has a universal health-care plan for everyone, at a cost of seven percent of GDP. Singapore provides almost-free medical care for anyone in government hospitals. Government workers, the military, and retirees get free first-class medical service in private hospitals, but others must pay for it.
Uruguay began to provide elaborate social services in 1911, patterned after those in Switzerland. It includes free medical care. Argentina’s government social services system is also patterned after plans that are common in Western Europe. Care is free only in government clinics and hospitals, but they are common, even in small cities. Chile recently improved its health care system. Most of the countries in South America and Central America have a social security system that provides a pension for workers in industry or the government, and second-class health care for everyone in government hospitals.
My wife and I made a medical tour of the Soviet Union in 1984. Their system provided neighborhood clinics and emphasized regular physical exams and preventive medicine. Equipment in the intensive care units of their better hospitals was adequate but not fancy like ours. When the Soviet Union fell apart, their medical system also fell apart. Alcoholism is worse, life expectancy is less. The same is true for the former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. I’ve made several recent trips through the Balkans, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and the three Baltic countries. Everywhere it is the same. Care in State clinics is still free, in theory. Government funding is scarce. Patients must pay for prescription medicine. It may be free for children and pensioners. If anyone needs an operation, he must have a “gift” of 500 dollars or so for the surgeon.
In the U.S., one possibility is to extend Medicare Parts A and B to everyone. It is very popular. Patients go to the physician or other health-care provider of their choice. Administrative costs are only around one percent for Part A and three percent for part B. Medicare now covers only the age group that uses the most health care--the 13 percent of us who are 65 or older. The government has contracted in many states for a private insurance company to efficiently handle claims and payments under Medicare. The elderly pay less than one-fourth of the actual costs of Medicare. Taxpayers pay the balance. Those who can afford it also buy private health-care insurance, so they pay less money out-of-pocket for medical care. An ideal and efficient health plan would emphasize preventive care more than Medicare does, it would have more mental health coverage, and it would pay part of the cost of prescription drugs.
INTRODUCTION by the author for CURIOUS CUSTOMS and BIZARRE BELIEFS Around the World
Ideally, we should pick out the best parts, the best ideas, of other cultures to adopt. We should abandon those parts and ideas that do not lead to our goals. But we must know what are the alternatives before we can make an educated choice. That is one of the purposes of this book--to wake us up, to present alternatives, other ways of doing things, new ideas. Erweitern Sie Ihren Horizont. Learn how people in the rest of the world live. To understand people today we must also look at their past--their history. I have analyzed curious customs and beliefs that I learned about during travels in more than 140 countries, including four extensive round-the-world trips, and travels in all 50 states in the US. I reexamined my daily journal notes made during more than 340 city tours, visits to some 290 history and ethnographic museums, 75 art museums, 35 science museums, 90 outdoor village museums, and 90 important archeological sites around the world.
Man, around the globe and over the centuries, has faced somewhat similar problems, fears, and joys. Man has met those problems and fears with a great variety of practices or customs. We look at a situation or an event based upon our experiences and our culture. We are convinced that our interpretation is the truth. We tend to get into a narrow-minded rut, considering only some of many alternatives. Sometimes other peoples have beliefs that differ from ours but they are also convinced that their beliefs are true. There may be more than one “truth.” We still have a great diversity of customs, cultures, beliefs, religions, and peoples on our crowded little planet. Observant travelers with an open mind are fascinated by the variety. Vive la differénce! Those who seek to impose their customs, beliefs, and religion on unwilling people are today’s imperialists. They are as harmful as the religious leaders and mercantile imperialists who used military power to impose their authority over others in the past.
Many of us have as a goal the happiness, security, and feeling of well-being of ourselves, our friends and family. Others may find that goal to be too dull; they may prefer to lead an exciting adventurous life, even one that is dangerous. We value progress and want an ever-increasing standard of living, improvements in technology, and other changes. Other cultures are not interested in changes, they want to preserve traditions. Our culture in the US is a mixture inherited from immigrants coming from much of the world. We have taken the best, and a little of the worst, from their backgrounds. We are not limited to any one background. We have not inherited a long-standing hatred of any other people or nation. After World War II, the US did something amazing--it financed the recovery of defeated enemies, Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as other countries that were devastated during World War II. We have a high standard of living, measured by comfort and material possessions. We have the best technology that man has invented, designed, or perfected over the centuries. However, many in the US are still too poor or too poorly educated to share in our progress. In the past, someone with a particular body malfunction or non-function might be disabled or die early. If we are rich or have a good health-care plan it is now possible to replace or repair a weak or defective part of our body, so we function almost like new, and life span has been extended. But we can still learn a lot from traditional cultures, even from “primitive” cultures.
We have a “free press,” with news gathered from around the globe. But even the best newspapers print only a tiny percentage of the news that is reported daily in the world. Newspapers, magazines, or TV or radio news broadcasts only present news highlights, and the reports are usually slanted to accommodate to the customs and traditions of the typical reader, listener, or advertiser. When I am at home, I listen to short-wave radio news broadcasts from other countries in any of the five languages that I understand. Their version of what is happening is often much different from, and more complete than what we read or hear in the US.
In presenting the customs and beliefs here, I reexamined several filing cabinets filled with articles, travel brochures, and maps, and several bookcases filled with travel books. I also reexamined my new set of books, Countries and Cultures of the World, Then and Now, published by Professional Press in 1997 in three volumes. Volume I covers ancient civilizations plus countries in Africa and Asia. Volume II gives the background of, and describes what a traveler would see in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Pacific. Volume III covers all countries in South, Central, and North America, including the 50 states of the US, plus the Caribbean. My varied background--farm boy, merchant seaman, soldier, pilot, electrical engineer, personnel director, labor relations attorney, and university lecturer--whets my appetite to learn the many aspects of other cultures. I retired in 1985 to travel, to study other cultures and languages. I have another advantage, in speaking five languages. My other recently-published book is Five Languages Made Simpler--French, Italian, English, Spanish, and German, Grammar, Vocabulary, Phrases and Conversation. I completed 14 “total immersion courses” abroad, usually while living with a local family. This helped me to expand my views beyond a narrow US-North American way, and to have more of a world view.
Some people may not like my observations and conclusions. It may conflict with the facts they “know” and with their opinions. If I have made any error of fact I apologize. I have carefully scrutinized my sources but it is possible that a guide abroad may have been in error when he told me the “facts.” I am also aware that “a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” However, intelligent people are willing to admit that there may be the basis of an opinion different from theirs. I do not agree with all of the beliefs I report here. I likewise do not support some of the customs that I found to exist. Some customs may appear to be immoral to residents of the US.
We must be alert to eight developments that are weakening traditional cultures and governments in the world:
- International trade-agreement provisions recently agreed to or proposed will supersede and invalidate many laws of individual nations, including the US and its 50 states.
- There has been a trend for several decades for large groups of investors to buy newspapers, magazines, TV stations, radio stations, and book publishers--the molders of public opinion. This trend has developed not only in the US but also in Europe, Asia, and much of the world. Large book retailer corporations are buying formerly independent book wholesalers. News reports on radio, TV, and newspapers must not alienate major advertisers, owners, or a government coveted as a trading partner. A newspaper, TV station, or publisher must temporize its reporting everywhere to avoid offending a major market served by a commonly-owned newspaper, station, or publisher. There are fewer truly independent courageous news sources. Most TV and radio networks are now owned by giant corporations. The networks now own most of the TV programs, giving them control over the content. In the past, TV programs were owned mostly by independent production companies.
- Governments in poor countries borrow huge sums from big banks and international funds to buy military equipment or to build dams, roads, huge mosques, palaces for rulers, etc. The lenders insist that more cash crops be grown or that minerals or timber be exported for money to pay the debt. Many countries struggle to pay interest on loans and do not make payments on the principal. The poor countries will forever be indebted to rich lenders. Land that is needed to grow food for starving local people is used to grow food for export.
- Those in power in lesser-developed countries often steal the money and other assets of a country for their personal wealth, which is transferred to a “safer” country abroad. Many wealthy countries have been made poor by corruption, mismanagement, military expenses, war, overpopulation, and poor distribution of wealth.
- Some 50 huge banks and other corporations in the US, Europe, and Asia each controls more trade and money than all but a handful of nations in the world. They force nations to comply with their terms. Large international corporations move their operations to and do their banking in a country with the lowest labor costs and the lowest taxes. They are unpatriotic in any country, a poor citizen that only provides jobs while conditions are favorable to them. Greedy grasping global giants gag governments.
- If the Euro currency is successful it will challenge the US dollar, which has been the standard for trade and storage of assets since World War II. What will be the impact?
- Movies and TV programs, translated into many languages, popular music, soft drinks, and fast foods from the US, are popular in much of the world, especially with the young. They are overwhelming and weakening traditional family cultures everywhere.
- FAX machines, E Mail, the Internet, and TV satellite antennas are piercing government censorship and the attempts of many nations and some religions to control outside influences.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CURIOUS CUSTOMS and BIZARRE BELIEFS Around the World
Page
7 INTRODUCTION
11 PART I: PEOPLE and HOW THEY LIVE
12 Chapter 1: Youths, Girls, Meeting and Marrying
12 Who Is Eligible to Be a Spouse?
18 The Bride Price
21 The Dowry
22 Coming-of-Age Customs
25 Finding a Partner
27 Choosing the Day for the Wedding
28 Wedding Ceremonies
34 Chapter 2: The Family and Women’s Rights
34 Segregation of the Sexes
36 Fertility Symbols
37 The Family
41 Women’s Rights
47 Chapter 3: The Place Where People Live
47 Housing
57 Boats
58 Sleeping and “Borrowing”
60 Insects
60 Fuel
63 Water
65 Toilets
69 Chapter 4: Farms, Communities, and Transportation
69 Farms
74 Villages
79 Towns and Cities
81 Taxes and Schools
83 Post Office; Motor Vehicles and Pedestrians
87 Trains
89 Chapter 5: Food, Drinks, and Harmful Drugs
89 Food
103 Drinks
108 Harmful Drugs
111 Chapter 6: The Grooming and Appearance of People
111 Weight and Beauty
113 Clothing
122 Jewelry
124 Nudity
127 Sex
134 Chapter 7: Folk Dances and Personal Practices
134 Folk Dances
138 Resting and Body Positions
139 Carrying Things
140 Greetings
144 Purchases and Gifts
145 Names
148 Chapter 8: Boomerangs, Tools, Manners, and Nature
148 Boomerangs; Beggars; Vendors
149 Baksheesh
149 Photographs
150 Droughts and Weather
151 Volcanoes
153 Chapter 9: National and Other Traits, The Exploding Population, and Government
153 Standing In Lines; National and Other Traits
153 Latin America
157 Noise and Privacy
158 The Exploding Population
162 Battles and the Military
166 Business and Time
168 Labor
169 Metric System
169 Firearms
170 Election Campaign Reform
171 Calendars
172 Birthdays and Holidays
PART II: BELIEFS
178 Chapter 10: Deaths and Funerals; Sacrifices
178 Deaths and Funerals
182 Sacrifices
186 Chapter 11: Legends, Trolls, and Elves
186 Legends
188 Trolls
188 Elves
189 Chapter 12: Spirits and the Soul, Evil Eye, Superstitions, Shamanism and Sorcerers, Prophets, Dragons, and Witches
189 Spirits and the Soul
202 The Evil Eye
203 Superstitions
204 Shamanism and Sorcerers
207 Prophets
208 Dragons
209 Witches
211 Chapter 13: Luck, Colors, and Numbers
211 Luck
212 Colors
214 Numbers
PART III: RELIGIONS
217 Chapter 14: Religions
217 Creation
220 Gilgamesh Epic
220 Mithraism
220 Zorastrianism
221 Lao Tzu
221 Confucius
221 Christianity
224 Buddhism and Swastikas
228 Shinto
228 Hinduism
228 Islam
230 Conclusions Concerning Religions
PART IV: HEALTH CARE
234 Chapter 15: Health Care
234 Health Care Plans
237 Native Healers
238 Herbal Medicines
245 Health Care and Disease
247 INDEX OF COUNTRIES
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