Posted by James Allen on December 17, 1998 at 17:52:49:
In Reply to: Evil Eye posted by Marvin Amstey on December 17, 1998 at 10:25:34:
: No where in this discussion have I seen the old statement that the "mistake" is purposeful and done to ward off the Evil Eye. Has this idea fallen totally to mythology or is there some truth to this? Marvin
: Marvin this penchant for the purposeful mistake was so powerful that the Navajo,who I believe are descendants of horsemounted Asian nomads, had the same habit. In almost all of the early prolific Navajo weaving there was a spirit line to let the spirit in the piece "out". This is a little different than warding off malevolent spirits but it is the same "class" response. It goes without saying that we are deaf and dumb to the spiritual qualities the natives themselves appreciated. That means that what we value as beautiful they may not value in the least and what we think of as ugly very likely was the most important thing in the world to them. The depth of our misunderstanding is vast and the bridge requires much work to get across. Jim Allen