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meaning and morality: a semiotic approach to evil eye accusations in a Greek village
Author(s) -
HERZFELD MICHAEL
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1981.8.3.02a00090
Subject(s) - semiotics , morality , meaning (existential) , sociology , epistemology , possession (linguistics) , ethnography , value (mathematics) , aesthetics , philosophy , linguistics , anthropology , machine learning , computer science
Anthropological approaches to the evil eye have suffered from the analytical inadequacy of the evil eye construct itself. Utilizing material from a Greek (Rhodian) village, this article seeks a wider frame of reference in which evil eye accusations are treated as expressions of a moral‐value system and in which that system is shown to articulate concepts of fate and character with the criteria for inclusion in the village society. The primary focus is thus semiotic; it is an attempt to show how villagers interpret personal habits and characteristics, including the possession of an allegedly dangerous eye, as signs of the individual's failure to satisfy those membership criteria adequately. On the basis of this ethnographic evidence, it is suggested that the concept of boundary transgression may prove to be a more useful tool of cross‐cultural analysis than the generalized stereotype of “the evil eye.” [evil eye, witchcraft, moral systems, social boundaries, semiotics, Greece]