Tag Archives: #evil eye

To not see the soul

Nationality: Ethiopian/Italian

Primary Language: English

Age: 21

Occupation: Student

Residence: Los Angeles

Date: 2/20/2024

Text: “In Ethiopian culture, people are generally wary of foreigners and the lower class, believing many of them invoking the power of buda or demons to curse others. As such it is rude for these people to sustain eye contact, and they generally take effort to sustain eye contact with them as an attempt to curse them. They also believe these demon-invoking people to be capable of changing into hyenas and thus also avoid making eye contact with wild hyenas”

Context: This was told to him at a young age by his family and is a cultural aspect with spiritual components. He clarifies though that it is not something he participates in and personally believes in. Especially with the fact that he was mainly raised in the United States and it is not a social norm that is practiced.

 Analysis: This was an example of how heavily they believe in signs of misfortune and curses, even on a smaller scale not involving magic. I was able to draw parallels between the “tabooistic” belief of the evil eye, that by holding eye contact they can be inflicted with misfortune. Both stem from glaring and believe that one who is jealous, or in this case lower in stationary, they can evoke a curse to lessen your fortune.

Protection from Garlic Clove

The informant speaks on a superstition they practiced whenever they left their house. His parents always said that whenever they went to a party or event or if there were a lot of people, they must carry a garlic clove in their pocket. The informant stated that his mom told him it was meant to prevent mal ojo, the evil eye, or bad juju. His mom would state that by the time they came back home, the garlic would be dry and shriveled. The dryer it was, the more it had protected you from evil and bad that was wished upon you.  He also stated that el mal ojo was explained to him as someone envying you and wishing bad upon you. Garlic keeps vampires away so it is probably something similar to that notion like religion or just good at keeping bad energy. 

The informant comes from Veracruz, Mexico and believes that it is practiced a lot there. Veracruz is believed to be the place where there are the most witches, so lots of superstitions and white magic, black magic come from there. The informant  mentioned a similar thing is putting a whole lime in your bag, letting it absorb all the negative energy, then at the end of the week you throw it away. 

This seems to be similar to other rituals and folk beliefs that people use for protection. They are rooted in protection from stuff that hasn’t happened or doesn’t necessarily exist. The protect people from stuff they can’t explain other than something they attribute to as the “evil eye”. For example, the informant stated that they would use the garlic whenever there were a lot of people so their family was expecting that they would receive the evil eye despite not knowing any of the people. This reflects a view of others in a negative light, most likely due to unexplained illnesses and mishaps in life and blaming others for these unexplained things.