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12-1 Superstitions

Part One: Superstitions play an interesting role in society.

To explore this topic further, work with a partner or group, and discuss answers to the following questions:

What are some superstitions that are common in your culture? Do you believe in them?
What superstitions do the photos below refer to?
Do you know the origins of any superstitions?

The following phrases or sentences come directly from the video you are about to watch.
Ensure your understanding of the vocabulary and the way it is used in the phrase or sentence.

to dismiss superstition as nonsense
to dictate every waking hour
...has played a vital part in the lives of primitive people
...ritual dance helps appease gods who may be angry
...dance also atones for sins of the tribe
...a stern and clear warning to those who would desecrate the tomb of King Tutankhamun
...others placed a curse on the entrance
As for anybody who should enter this tomb in his impurity, I shall wring his neck as a bird’s.
As for him who shall destroy this inscription, he shall not reach his home. He shall not embrace his children. He shall not see success.
...others reported strange coincidences
...it was found to have a wound in the same position as the insect bite on Carnarvon
...others had credited the mummy’s curse with 21 victims
...while those who grew to fear the curse died around him, he continued to scoff

…one of the most powerful and all pervading superstitions in the Western world
...it is the number 13 that has had sinister overtones to it since the start of recorded history
...his own men assassinated him
...with the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas
Judas was the thirteenth person to sit down at the table for the last supper.
...the stories surrounding the number 13 are filled with contradictions
...13 constellations
...the number 13 for these advanced civilizations was a revered number
...some naval traditions to this day are deeply rooted in superstition
...which reigned supreme over all the world’s oceans, tried to dispel superstitions that it was courting death to set sail on Friday the thirteenth
...had a vessel especially built
...we chose a skipper called Captain Friday
...the mission seemed jinxed
...ground control was forced to devise radical new uses of space technology
...he won a charity raffle
...the odds are stacked against us
...a morbid fear of this number
...it’s not the number 13 that evokes fear
Even sophisticated business people won’t willingly tempt fate by associating with the unluckiest of numbers.

...it is hard to imagine a more remote and harsher place
He not only provided medical and emergency aid for the settlement, but he also saw a real need to improve the lifestyle of the local aboriginal people.
In many ways, the health standards of non-urban aboriginal people is very much on par with anything else in the third world.
...they’re too far away from adequate medical services
...he set about bridging that gap
...the level of antagonism from the medicine man really began to rise
...if that had happened to them, they would have instantly been mortified and quite often struck with paralysis
Australian aborigines people, it is said, can summon supernatural forces
...doctors couldn’t find any wound
…whatever he believes with all his heart is manifested for him
...it’s where they initiate young males into adulthood
...the aboriginal ranger was telling me...
I was struck down with the worst migraine headache of my life and I was paralyzed in bed.
He sent me a string of beads which I placed around my neck.

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