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103-450: The study of the forms of curses comprises a significant proportion of the study of both folk religion and folklore . The deliberate attempt to levy curses is often part of the practice of magic . In Hindu culture , the Sage or Rishi is believed to have the power to bless ( Āshirvada or Vara ) and curse ( Shaapa ). Examples include the curse placed by Rishi Bhrigu on king Nahusha and

206-501: A dragon breathing "covetous flames," as well as 83 red-painted diamonds and 112 yellow-painted diamonds to suggest a fleece shape. The piece fell into disuse after the death of Louis XV. The diamond became the property of his grandson Louis XVI . whose wife, queen Marie Antoinette , used many of the French Crown Jewels for personal adornment by having the individual gems placed in new settings and combinations, but

309-419: A "practical working definition" that combined elements from these various other definitions. Thus, he summarized folk religion as "the totality of all those views and practices of religion that exist among the people apart from and alongside the strictly theological and liturgical forms of the official religion". Yoder described "folk religion" as existing "in a complex society in relation to and in tension with

412-481: A bed of white silk and surrounded by many small white diamonds cut pear shaped". The new setting was the current platinum framework surrounded by a row of sixteen diamonds which alternated between old mine cut and pear-shaped variants. Mrs. McLean wore it to a "brilliant reception" in February 1912 when it was reported that it was the first time it had been worn in public since it had "changed owners." She would "sport

515-410: A belief in the rational order of nature, balance in the universe and reality that can be influenced by human beings and their rulers, as well as spirits and gods. Worship is devoted to a hierarchy of gods and immortals ( Chinese : 神 ; pinyin : shén ), who can be deities of phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of lineages. Stories regarding some of these gods are collected into

618-613: A curse on the Anglo-Scottish Border reivers and caused it to be read out in all churches in the border area. It comprehensively cursed the reivers and their families from head to toe and in every way. In 2003 a 371-word extract from the curse was carved into a 14-ton granite boulder as part of an art work by Gordon Young which was installed in Carlisle ; some local people believed that a series of misfortunes (floods, factory closure, footballing defeats etc.) were caused by

721-497: A focus on the apotropaic , or thaumaturgical , i.e. it is used to assist in protecting the individual from sickness, and misfortune. He emphasizes that while Rabbinical Judaism dealt with orthodox Jewish ritual, and Halakha , magicians claimed to use unorthodox magical rituals to help people in everyday life. He points to the example of a relatively professionalised type of magician being the Baal Shem of Poland, who beginning in

824-534: A gentleman friend named Putnam Strong, who was a son of the former New York City mayor William L. Strong . Francis Hope and May Yohé were divorced in 1902. Francis sold the diamond for £29,000 (£3.98 million today), to Adolph Weil, a London jewel merchant. Weil sold the stone in 1901 to the diamond dealer Simon Frankel, based in New York and/or London who took it to New York. One report stated that he had paid $ 250,000 ($ 9.2 million today). However, in New York it

927-699: A pendant Toison d ’or . It is a dark greyish-blue color under ordinary light due to trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, and it exhibits a red phosphorescence under exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a type IIb diamond . The Hope Diamond is currently housed in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It has changed hands numerous times on its way from Hyderabad , India, to France, Great Britain, and

1030-400: A piece to remember", and Pitau worked for two years, resulting in a "triangular-shaped 69-carat (13.8 g; 0.49 oz) gem the size of a pigeon 's egg that took the breath away as it snared the light, reflecting it back in bluish-grey rays." It was set in gold and was supported by a ribbon for the neck which was worn by the king during ceremonies. At the diamond's dazzling heart was

1133-555: A second, less definitive report claims that the Hope Diamond's "authentic history" can only be traced back to 1830. The jewel was a "massive blue stone of 45.54-carat (9.108 g; 0.3213 oz)" and weighed 177 gr (11.5 g) (4 gr (0.26 g) = 1 carat). The 1812 date was just days after 20 years since the theft of the French Blue, just as the statute of limitations for the crime had taken effect. While

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1236-557: A sun with seven facets—the sun being Louis' emblem, and seven being a number rich in meaning in biblical cosmology, indicating divinity and spirituality. In 1749, Louis XIV's great-grandson, Louis XV , had the French Blue set into a more elaborate jeweled pendant for the Order of the Golden Fleece by court jeweler André Jacquemin. The assembled piece included a red spinel of 107-carat (21.4 g; 0.75 oz) carats shaped as

1339-503: A three-dimensional leaden model of the latter was rediscovered in the archives of the Paris National Museum of Natural History in 2005. Previously, the dimensions of the French Blue had been known only from two drawings made in 1749 and 1789; although the model differs slightly from the drawings in some details, these details are identical to features of the Hope Diamond, allowing CAD technology to digitally reconstruct

1442-444: Is "a pure element" to religion "which is in some way transformed, even contaminated, by its exposure to human communities". As a corrective, he suggested that scholars use "vernacular religion" as an alternative. Defining this term, Primiano stated that "vernacular religion" is, "by definition, religion as it is lived: as human beings encounter, understand, interpret, and practice it. Since religion inherently involves interpretation, it

1545-517: Is a 45.52 carats (9.104 g; 0.3211 oz) diamond that has been famed for its great size since the 18th century. Extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur , India , the Hope Diamond is a blue diamond . Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. The Hope Diamond is a Golconda diamond . Its recorded history begins in 1666, when

1648-401: Is impossible for the religion of an individual not to be vernacular". Kapaló was critical of this approach, deeming it mistaken and arguing that switching from "folk religion" to "vernacular religion" results in the scholar "picking up a different selection of things from the world". He cautioned that both terms carried an "ideological and semantic load" and warned scholars to pay attention to

1751-442: Is often contrasted with elite religion . Folk religion is defined as the beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols originating from sources other than the religion's leadership. Folk religion in many instances is tolerated by the religion's leadership, although they may consider it an error. A similar concept is lived religion , the study of religion as practiced by believers. The term folk religion came to be increasingly rejected in

1854-466: Is relevant in the urban context, but it is neglected in ethnographic studies due to its negative connotations with folk (rural masses, illiterate). According to Chris Fuller (1994), popular Hinduism is not degenerate textual Hinduism in light of ethnographic evidence, although the category of folk Hinduism remains tenuous. According to Michael Witzel (1998), the folk religion is the religion of Prakrit speaking and Dravidian speaking lower caste while

1957-487: Is sometimes seen as a constituent part of Chinese traditional religion, but more often, the two are regarded as synonymous. With around 454 million adherents, or about 6.6% of the world population, Chinese folk religion is one of the major religious traditions in the world . In the People's Republic of China, more than 30% of the population follows Chinese popular religion or Taoism. Despite being heavily suppressed during

2060-456: Is the oldest, non-literate system of Indian religions . Folk Hinduism involves worship of deities which are not found in Hindu scriptures. It involves worship of Gramadevata (village deity), Kuladevata (household deity) and local deities. It is a folk religion, polytheist and animistic belief based on locality. These religions have their own priests, who worship regional deities. During

2163-610: Is their social ties to one another, illustrated by the finding that religious practices that would prevent social integration – such as a strict interpretation of dietary laws and the Sabbath – have been abandoned, whilst the practices that are followed – such as the Passover Seder , social rites of passage, and the High Holy Days – are ones that strengthen Jewish family and community integration. Liebman described

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2266-573: Is thus contrasted with a "universal religion" which cuts across ethnic and national boundaries. Among the scholars to have adopted this use of terminology are E. Wilbur Bock. The folklorist Leonard Norman Primiano argued that the use of the term folk religion, as well as related terms like "popular religion" and "unofficial religion", by scholars, does an extreme disservice to the forms of religiosity that scholars are examining, because – in his opinion – such terms are "residualistic, [and] derogatory". He argued that using such terminology implies that there

2369-486: The Earth approximately 1.1 billion years ago. Like all diamonds , it was formed when carbon atoms formed strong bonds with each other. The Hope Diamond was originally embedded in kimberlite and was later extracted and refined to form the current gem. The Hope Diamond contains trace amounts of boron atoms intermixed with the carbon structure, which results in the rare blue color of the diamond. People typically think of

2472-475: The Vedic Hinduism which comprises Vedas and Upanishads is the religion of Sanskrit speaking upper caste. According to Asko Parpola (2015), the folk village Hinduism is surviving from pre-rig vedic Indo-Aryan times and Indus valley culture. Hope Diamond 38°53′27″N 77°01′33″W  /  38.89094°N 77.02573°W  / 38.89094; -77.02573 The Hope Diamond

2575-630: The court jeweler Jean Pitau to recut the Tavernier Blue, resulting in a 67.125-carat (13.4250 g; 0.47355 oz) stone which royal inventories thereafter listed as the Blue Diamond of the Crown of France ( French : diamant bleu de la Couronne de France ). Later English-speaking historians have simply called it the French Blue. The king had the stone set on a cravat -pin. According to one report, Louis ordered Pitau to "make him

2678-467: The theologies and histories ." In one of the first major academic works on the subject, titled Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion , Joshua Trachtenberg provided a definition of Jewish folk religion as consisting of ideas and practices that, whilst not meeting with the approval of religious leaders, enjoyed wide popularity such that they must be included in what he termed

2781-446: The "folk interpretation and expression of religion". Noting that this definition would not encompass beliefs that were largely unconnected from organised religion, such as in witchcraft , he therefore altered this definition by including the concept of "folk religiosity ", thereby defining folk religion as "the deposit in culture of folk religiosity, the full range of folk attitudes to religion". His fifth and final definition represented

2884-419: The 16th century thrived with the popularity of practical Kabbalah in the 18th century. These ba'alei shem promised to use their knowledge of the names of god, and the angels, along with exorcism, chiromancy, and herbal medicine to bring harm to enemies, and success in areas of social life such as marriage, and childbirth. Charles Liebman has written that the essence of the folk religion of American Jews

2987-606: The 1920s and 1930s, theoretical studies of religiöse Volkskunde had been produced by the folklorists Josef Weigert , Werner Boette , and Max Rumpf , all of whom had focused on religiosity within German peasant communities. Over the coming decades, Georg Schreiber established an Institut für religiöse Volkskund in Munich while a similar department was established in Salzburg by Hanns Koren . Other prominent academics involved in

3090-503: The 1990s and 2000s by scholars seeking more precise terminology. Yoder noted that one problem with the use of the term folk religion was that it did not fit into the work of those scholars who used the term "religion" in reference solely to organized religion . He highlighted the example of the prominent sociologist of religion Émile Durkheim , who insisted that religion was organized in order to contrast it with magic . Yoder noted that scholars adopting these perspectives often preferred

3193-485: The 19th century, scholars had divided Hinduism and Brahmanism . Brahmanism was referred to as an intellectual, classical tradition based on Sanskrit scriptures, while Hinduism was associated with superstitious folk tradition. The folk tradition refers to the aspects of the Hindu tradition that exist in tension with the Sanskritic tradition based on textual authority. According to M. N. Srinivas (1976), folk Hinduism

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3296-591: The American concert hall singer May Yohé , who has been described as "the sensation of two continents", and they were married the same year; one account suggests that Yohé wore the Hope Diamond on at least one occasion. She later claimed that she had worn it at social gatherings and had an exact replica made for her performances, but her husband claimed otherwise. Lord Francis lived beyond his means, and this eventually caught up with him, leading to marriage troubles and financial reverses, and he found that he had to sell

3399-593: The Americas, the study of folk religion developed among cultural anthropologists studying the syncretistic cultures of the Caribbean and Latin America. The pioneer in this field was Robert Redfield , whose 1930 book Tepoztlán: A Mexican Village contrasted and examined the relationship between "folk religion" and "official religion" in a peasant community. Yoder later noted that although the earliest known usage of

3502-522: The Crown Jewels in a five-day looting spree. While many jewels were later recovered, including other pieces of the Order of the Golden Fleece , the French Blue was not among them and it disappeared from history. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was guillotined ; Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 16 of the same year. These beheadings are commonly cited as a result of the diamond's "curse," but

3605-532: The French Blue and the Côte-de-Bretagne spinel , to Le Havre and then to London , where the French Blue was cut in two pieces. Morel adds that in 1796, Guillot attempted to resell the Côte-de-Bretagne in France but was forced to relinquish it to fellow thief Lancry de la Loyelle, who put Guillot into debtors' prison . In a contrasting report, historian Richard Kurin speculated that the "theft" of

3708-460: The French Blue around the recut stone. The leaden model revealed 20 unknown facets on the back of the French Blue. It also confirmed the diamond underwent a rather rough recut that removed the three points and reduced the thickness by a few millimeters. The Sun King 's blue diamond became unrecognizable and the baroque style of the original cut was definitely lost. Historians suggested that one burglar, Cadet Guillot, took several jewels, including

3811-716: The French Blue remained in this pendant (except for a brief time in 1787, when the stone was removed for scientific study by Mathurin Jacques Brisson ). On September 11, 1792, while Louis XVI and his family were imprisoned in the Square du Temple during the early stages of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror , a group of thieves broke into the Royal Storehouse—the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (now Hôtel de la Marine )—stealing most of

3914-528: The French Crown Jewels was in fact engineered by the revolutionary leader Georges Danton as part of a plan to bribe an opposing military commander, Duke Karl Wilhelm of Brunswick . When under attack by Napoleon in 1805, Karl Wilhelm may have had the French Blue recut to disguise its identity; in this form, the stone could have come to Great Britain in 1806, when his family fled there to join his daughter Caroline of Brunswick . Although Caroline

4017-671: The French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchased it in India in uncut form. After cutting the gem and renaming it "the French Blue" ( Le bleu de France ), Tavernier sold it to King Louis XIV of France in 1668. It was stolen in 1792 and re-cut, with the largest section of the diamond appearing under the Hope name in an 1839 gem catalogue from the Hope banking family , from whom the diamond's name derives. The Hope Diamond's last private owner

4120-472: The Hope Diamond appeared in a published catalog of the gem collection of his brother Henry Philip Hope , members of the Anglo-Dutch banking family Hope & Co. The stone was set in a fairly simple medallion surrounded by many smaller white diamonds, which he sometimes lent to Louisa de la Poer Beresford, the widow of his brother, Thomas Hope, for society balls . After falling into the ownership of

4223-553: The Hope Diamond as a historic gem, but... it's [important] as a rare scientific specimen that can provide vital insights into our knowledge of diamonds and how they are formed in the earth. Several accounts, based on remarks written by French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier , who obtained the gem in India in 1666, suggest that the gemstone originated in India , in the Kollur mine in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh (which, at

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4326-565: The Hope Diamond. It was displayed in the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 and at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris , but was usually kept in a bank vault. In 1861, Henry Thomas Hope's only child, Henrietta, married Henry Pelham-Clinton (and later Duke of Newcastle ). When Hope died on December 4, 1862, his wife Anne Adele inherited the gem, but she feared that the profligate lifestyle of her son-in-law might cause him to sell

4429-399: The Hope family, the stone came to be known as the "Hope Diamond". Henry Philip Hope died in 1839, the same year as the publication of his collection catalog. His three nephews, the sons of Thomas and Louisa, fought in court for ten years over his inheritance, and ultimately the collection was split up. The oldest nephew, Henry Thomas Hope , received eight of the most valuable gems, including

4532-516: The Hope properties. Upon Adele's death in 1884, the entire Hope estate, including the Hope Diamond, was entrusted to Henrietta's younger son, Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton , on the condition that he add the name of "Hope" to his own surnames when he reached the age of legal majority. As Lord Francis Hope, this grandson received his legacy in 1887. However, he had only a life interest in his inheritance, meaning that he could not sell any part of it without court permission. In 1894, Lord Francis Hope met

4635-462: The Hope", and times when she hid the diamond somewhere on her estate during the "lavish parties she threw and invite guests to find it." The stone prompted elaborate security precautions: William Schindele, a former Secret Service man, has been engaged to guard the stone. He in turn will be guarded by Leo Costello and Simeon Blake, private detectives. The stone will be kept at the McLean mansion during

4738-711: The Iceman ". While such curses are generally considered to have been popularized and sensationalized by British journalists of the 19th century, ancient Egyptians were, in fact, known to place curse inscriptions on markers protecting temple or tomb goods or property. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article Cursing , the Bible depicts God cursing the serpent , the earth, and Cain ( Genesis 3:14 , 3:17 , 4:11 ). Similarly, Noah curses Canaan ( Genesis 9:25 ), and Joshua curses any man who should [re]build

4841-666: The Islam of the "urban poor, country people, and tribes", in contrast to orthodox or "high" Islam (Gellner, 1992). Sufi concepts, which are found in orthodox Islam as well, and perennialism and syncretism are often integrated into Folk Islam. Folk Christianity is defined differently by various scholars. Christianity as most people live it – a term used to "overcome the division of beliefs into mainstream and heterodox ", Christianity as impacted by superstition as practiced by certain geographical Christian groups, and Christianity defined "in cultural terms without reference to

4944-455: The McLeans, but finally, in 1911, the couple bought the gem for over $ 300,000 (over $ 9.8 million today), although there are differing estimates of the sales price at $ 150,000 and $ 180,000. An alternative scenario is that the McLeans may have fabricated concern about the supposed "curse" to generate publicity to increase the value of their investment. A description was that the gemstone "lay on

5047-528: The Spanish as "myths" and "superstitions" in an effort to de-legitimize legitimate precolonial beliefs by forcefully replacing those native beliefs with colonial Catholic Christian myths and superstitions. Today, some of these precolonial beliefs are still held by Filipinos, especially in the provinces. Folk Islam is an umbrella term used to collectively describe forms of Islam that incorporate native folk beliefs and practices. Folk Islam has been described as

5150-453: The Sultan. A contrary report, however, suggested that Sultan Abdul Hamid did own the gem but ordered Habib to sell it when his throne "began to totter." Habib reportedly sold the stone in Paris in 1909 for $ 80,000 ($ 2.71 million today). The Parisian jewel merchant Simon Rosenau bought the Hope Diamond for 400,000 francs and resold it in 1910 to Pierre Cartier for 550,000 francs. In 1910, it

5253-710: The United Kingdom , possibly through Caroline of Brunswick ; however, there is no record of the ownership in the Royal Archives at Windsor, although some secondary evidence exists in the form of contemporary writings and artwork, and George IV tended to mix up the Crown property of the Crown jewels with family heirlooms and his own personal property. A source at the Smithsonian suggested there were "several references" suggesting that George had indeed owned

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5356-467: The United States, where it is on public display. It has been described as the "most famous diamond in the world". You cradle the 45.5-carat stone—about the size of a walnut and heavier than its translucence makes it appear—turning it from side to side as the light flashes from its facets, knowing it's the hardest natural material yet fearful of dropping it. The Hope Diamond was formed deep within

5459-469: The associations that each word had. In Europe the study of "folk religion" emerged from the study of religiöse Volkskunde , a German term which was used in reference to "the religious dimension of folk-culture, or the folk-cultural dimension of religion". This term was first employed by a German Lutheran preacher, Paul Drews , in a 1901 article that he published which was titled " Religiöse Volkskunde, eine Aufgabe der praktischen Theologie ". This article

5562-458: The blue diamond was not retained by the British royal family. The stone was later reported to have been acquired by a rich London banker named Thomas Hope , for either $ 65,000 or $ 90,000. It has been suggested that Eliason may have been a "front" for Hope, acting not as a diamond merchant venturing money on his own account, but rather as an agent to acquire the diamond for the banker. In 1839,

5665-602: The body of Chinese mythology . By the 11th century ( Song period ), these practices had been blended with Buddhist ideas of karma (one's own doing) and rebirth, and Taoist teachings about hierarchies of deities, to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day. Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized with Taoism , since over the centuries institutional Taoism has been attempting to assimilate or administer local religions. More accurately, Taoism emerged from and overlaps with folk religion and Chinese philosophy . Chinese folk religion

5768-576: The city of Jericho ( Joshua 6:26–27 ). In various books of the Hebrew Bible , there are long lists of curses against transgressors of the Law ( Leviticus 26:14–25 , Deuteronomy 27:15 , etc.). The 10 Plagues of Egypt , preceding the 10 Commandments , can be seen as curses cast from the rods of Aaron and Moses acting on instruction from the God of Israel, in order to enable the enthralled to come free from

5871-534: The culture's development". This definition would view folk religion in Catholic Europe as the survivals of pre-Christian religion and the folk religion in Protestant Europe as the survivals of Medieval Catholicism. The second definition identified by Yoder was the view that folk religion represented the mixture of an official religion with forms of ethnic religion ; this was employed to explain

5974-422: The curse, and campaigned unsuccessfully for the destruction of the stone. Curses have also been used as plot devices in literature and theater. When used as a plot device, they involve one character placing a curse or hex over another character. This is distinguished from adverse spells and premonitions and other such plot devices. Examples of the curse as a plot device: A number of curses are used to explain

6077-498: The desire of people who otherwise infrequently attend religious worship , do not belong to a church or similar religious society, and who have not made a formal profession of faith in a particular creed , to have religious weddings or funerals, or (among Christians) to have their children baptised . In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions , John Bowker characterized "folk religion" as either "religion which occurs in small, local communities which does not adhere to

6180-478: The development of Vodun and Santería , and similar mixtures of formal religions with folk cultures. In China, folk Protestantism had its origins with the Taiping Rebellion. Chinese folk religion , folk Christianity , folk Hinduism , and folk Islam are examples of folk religion associated with major religions . The term is also used, especially by the clergy of the faiths involved, to describe

6283-403: The diamond at social events" and wore it to numerous social occasions that she had organized. The Hope Diamond in its original pendant must have looked fantastic at parties circa the 1920s, when it hung around the neck of owner Evalyn Walsh McLean's Great Dane, Mike. There were reports that she misplaced it at parties, deliberately and frequently, and then make a children's game out of "finding

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6386-423: The diamond for $ 400,000 ($ 13.56 million today) to a Salomon or Selim Habib, a wealthy Turkish diamond collector, reportedly on behalf of Sultan Abdulhamid of Ottoman Empire; however, on June 24, 1909, the stone was included in an auction of Habib's assets to settle his own debts, and the auction catalog explicitly stated that the Hope Diamond was one of only two gems in the collection which had never been owned by

6489-541: The diamond had disappeared for two decades, there were questions whether this diamond now in Great Britain was exactly the same one as had belonged to the French kings. Scientific investigation in 2008 confirmed "beyond reasonable doubt" that the Hope Diamond and that owned by the kings of France were, indeed, the same gemstone. There are conflicting reports about what happened to the diamond during these years. Eliason's diamond may have been acquired by George IV of

6592-474: The diamond's supposed "ill luck" prompted a worried editor of The Jewelers' Circular-Weekly to write: No mention of any ill luck having befallen Eliason, Hope, or any of their descendants was ever made. The Frankels surely were very prosperous while the stone was in their possession, as were the dealers who held it in Europe. Habib's misfortune referred to in the newspaper accounts occurred long after he had sold

6695-571: The diamond, but after having learned about its unfortunate supposed history, the couple had wanted to back out of the deal since they knew nothing of the "history of misfortunes that have beset its various owners." Both Ned McLean and his pretty wife are quite young, and in a way unsophisticated, although they were born and reared in an atmosphere of wealth and luxury. All their lives they have known more of jewelry, finery, banquets, automobiles, horses, and other articles of pleasure than they have of books, with their wealth of knowledge. The brouhaha over

6798-528: The diamond. In 1896, his bankruptcy was discharged, but, as he could not sell the Hope Diamond without the court's permission, he was supported financially by his wife during these intervening years. In 1901, the financial situation had changed, and after a "long legal fight," he was given permission to sell the Hope Diamond by an order of the Master in Chancery to "pay off debts". But May Yohé ran off with

6901-405: The diamond. After his death in 1830, it has been alleged that some of this mixed collection was stolen by George's last mistress, Elizabeth Conyngham , and some of his personal effects were discreetly liquidated to cover the many debts he had left behind him. Another report states that the king's debts were "so enormous" that the diamond was probably sold through "private channels". In either case,

7004-531: The failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or even cities. For example: Folk religion In religious studies and folkloristics , folk religion , traditional religion , or vernacular religion comprises various forms and expressions of religion that are distinct from the official doctrines and practices of organized religion . The precise definition of folk religion varies among scholars. Sometimes also termed popular belief , it consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under

7107-616: The field of religion. This included unorthodox beliefs about demons and angels, and magical practices. Later studies have emphasized the significance of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem to the many Jewish folk customs linked to mourning and in particular to the belief in hibbut ha-qever (torture of the grave) a belief that the dead are tortured in their grave for three days after burial by demons until they remember their names. This idea began with early eschatological aggadah and

7210-480: The gem, perhaps who had bought it from Frankel and owned it temporarily who met with ill-fortune, but this report conflicts with the more likely possibility that the gem remained in the hands of the Frankel jewelry firm during these years. Like many jewelry firms, the Frankel business ran into financial difficulties during the depression of 1907 and referred to the gem as the "hoodoo diamond." In 1908, Frankel sold

7313-505: The historical novel, The French Blue , gemologist and historian Richard W. Wise proposes that the patent of nobility granted to Tavernier by Louis XIV was part of the payment for the Tavernier Blue. According to the theory, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (the King's Finance Minister at the time) regularly sold noble offices and titles for cash; an outright patent of nobility , according to Wise, was worth approximately 500,000 livres. That amount, plus

7416-473: The historical record suggests that Marie Antoinette had never worn the Golden Fleece pendant because it had been reserved for the exclusive use of the King. A likely scenario is that the French Blue, sometimes also known as the Blue Diamond, was "swiftly smuggled to London " after being seized in 1792 in Paris. But, the exact rock known as the French Blue was never seen again, since it almost certainly

7519-792: The last two centuries, from the Taiping Rebellion to the Cultural Revolution , it is currently experiencing a modern revival in both Mainland China and Taiwan . Various forms have received support by the Government of the People's Republic of China , such as Mazuism in Southern China (officially about 160 million Chinese people are worshippers of Mazu ), Huangdi worship, Black Dragon worship in Shaanxi , and Cai Shen worship. The term Shenism

7622-490: The norms of large systems" or "the appropriation of religious beliefs and practices at a popular level." Don Yoder argued that there were five separate ways of defining folk religion. The first was a perspective rooted in a cultural evolutionary framework which understood folk religion as representing the survivals of older forms of religion; in this, it would constitute "the survivals, in an official religious context, of beliefs and behaviour inherited from earlier stages of

7725-438: The one placed by Rishi Devala. Special names for specific types of curses can be found in various cultures: There is a broad popular belief in curses being associated with the violation of the tombs of mummified corpses, or of the mummies themselves. The idea became so widespread as to become a pop-culture mainstay, especially in horror films (though originally the curse was invisible, a series of mysterious deaths, rather than

7828-433: The organized religion(s) of that society. Its relatively unorganized character differentiates it from organized religion". Alternately, the sociologist of religion Matthias Zic Varul defined "folk religion" as "the relatively un-reflected aspect of ordinary practices and beliefs that are oriented towards, or productive of, something beyond the immediate here-and-now: everyday transcendence". In sociology , folk religion

7931-529: The place of folk religion in the syncretic belief systems of the Americas, where Christianity had blended with the religions of indigenous American and African communities. Yoder's third definition was that often employed within folkloristics, which held that folk religion was "the interaction of belief, ritual, custom, and mythology in traditional societies", representing that which was often pejoratively characterised as superstition . The fourth definition provided by Yoder stated that folk religion represented

8034-480: The point where she suddenly requested to see the stone. She recalled later that Cartier "held before our eyes the Hope Diamond." Nevertheless, she initially rejected the offer. Cartier had it reset. She found the stone much more appealing in this new modern style. There were conflicting reports about the sale in The New York Times ; one account suggested that the young McLean couple had agreed to purchase

8137-548: The recent CAD reconstruction of the French Blue fits too tightly around the Hope Diamond to allow for the existence of a sister stone of that size. A blue diamond with the same shape, size, and color as the Hope Diamond was recorded by John Francillon as in the possession of the London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason in September 1812, the earliest point when the history of the Hope Diamond can be definitively fixed, although

8240-440: The remit of scholars operating in both folkloristics and religious studies, by 1974 Yoder noted that U.S.-based academics in the latter continued to largely ignore it, instead focusing on the study of theology and institutionalised religion; he contrasted this with the situation in Europe, where historians of religion had devoted much time to studying folk religiosity. He also lamented that many U.S.-based folklorists also neglected

8343-456: The reported sale to the King, would have totaled about 720,000 livres, half the price of Tavernier's initial estimate for the gem. There has been controversy regarding the actual weight of the stone: Morel believed that the 112.1875-carat (22.43750 g; 0.791460 oz) stated in Tavernier's invoice would be in old French carats, thus 115.28 metric carats. In 1678, Louis XIV commissioned

8446-503: The rituals and beliefs of contemporary Jewish folk religion in his works, The Ambivalent American Jew (1973) and American Jewry: Identity and Affiliation . June McDaniel (2007) classifies Hinduism into six major kinds and numerous minor kinds, in order to understand the expression of emotions among the Hindus. According to McDaniel, one of the major kinds is Folk Hinduism, based on local ethnic traditions and cults of local deities and

8549-644: The stone is made. Historian Richard Kurin has built a highly speculative case for 1653 as the year of acquisition, but the most that can be said with certainty is that Tavernier obtained the blue diamond during one of his five voyages to India between the years 1640 and 1667. One report suggests he took 25 diamonds to Paris , including the large rock which became the Hope, and sold all of them to King Louis XIV. Another report suggested that in 1669, Tavernier sold this large blue diamond along with approximately one thousand other diamonds to King Louis XIV for 220,000 livres —the equivalent of 147 kilograms of pure gold. In

8652-465: The stone... As Francis Hope never had the stone and May Yohe probably never saw it ... the newspaper accounts at the time mentioned were laughed at, but since then it has been the custom not only to revive these stories every time mention of the stone appears in the public press, but to add to them fictitious incidents of misfortune as to alleged possessors of the stone at various times. The tenuous deal involved wrangling among attorneys for both Cartier and

8755-468: The study of the phenomenon were Heinrich Schauert and Rudolf Kriss , the latter of whom collected one of the largest collections of folk-religious art and material culture in Europe, later housed in Munich's Bayerisches Nationalmuseum . Throughout the 20th century, many studies were made of folk religion in Europe, paying particular attention to such subjects as pilgrimage and the use of shrines . In

8858-517: The subject of religion because it did not fit within the standard genre-based system for cataloguing folklore. Chinese folk religion is one of the labels used to describe the collection of ethnic religious traditions which have historically comprised the predominant belief system in China and among Han Chinese ethnic groups up to the present day. The devotion includes the veneration of forces of nature and ancestors , exorcism of demonic forces, and

8961-407: The term " folk belief " over "folk religion". A second problem with the use of the term folk religion that Yoder highlighted was that some scholars, particularly those operating in the sociology of religion , used the term as a synonym for ethnic religion (which is alternately known as national religion or tribal religion), meaning a religion closely tied to a particular ethnic or national group and

9064-526: The term "folk religion" in the English language was unknown, it probably developed as a translation of the German Volksreligion . One of the earliest prominent usages of the term was in the title of Joshua Trachtenberg 's 1939 work Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion . The term also gained increasing usage within the academic field of comparative religion , appearing in

9167-600: The time, was part of the Golconda kingdom of the Qutb Shahi dynasty ). Tavernier's book, the Six Voyages (French: Les Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier ), contains sketches of several large diamonds that he sold to King Louis XIV , possibly in 1668 or 1669; a blue diamond is shown among these, and Tavernier mentions the mines at "Gani Coulour" (Kollur Mine) as a source of colored diamonds, but no direct mention of

9270-650: The titles of Ichiro Hori 's Folk Religion in Japan , Martin Nilsson 's Greek Folk Religion , and Charles Leslie 's reader, the Anthropology of Folk Religion . Courses on the study of folk religion came to be taught at various universities in the United States, such as John Messenger 's at Indiana University and Don Yoder 's at the University of Pennsylvania . Although the subject of folk religion fell within

9373-464: The umbrella of a religion ; but outside official doctrine and practices. The term "folk religion" is generally held to encompass two related but separate subjects. The first is the religious dimension of folk culture , or the folk-cultural dimensions of religion. The second refers to the study of syncretism between two cultures with different stages of formal expression, such as the melange of African folk beliefs and Roman Catholicism that led to

9476-503: The victim of expiation for sin ( Galatians 3:13 ), to sins temporal and eternal ( Genesis 2:17 ; Matthew 25:41 ). Cursed objects are generally supposed to have been stolen from their rightful owners or looted from a sanctuary. The Hope Diamond is supposed to bear such a curse, and bring misfortune to its owner. The stories behind why these items are cursed vary, but they usually are said to bring bad luck or to manifest unusual phenomena related to their presence. Busby's stoop chair

9579-493: The walking-dead mummies of later fiction). The " Curse of the Pharaohs " is supposed to have haunted the archeologists who excavated the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun , whereby an imprecation was supposedly pronounced from the grave by the ancient Egyptian priests, on anyone who violated its precincts. Similar dubious suspicions have surrounded the excavation and examination of the (natural, not embalmed) Alpine mummy, " Ötzi

9682-529: The yoke of enforced serfdom , slavery and the like. In the New Testament , Christ curses the barren fig tree ( Mark 11:14 ), pronounces his denunciation of woe against the incredulous cities ( Matthew 11:21 ), against the rich , the worldly, the scribes, and the Pharisees , and foretells the awful malediction that is to come upon the damned ( Matthew 25:41 ). The word curse is also applied to

9785-419: Was designed to be read by young Lutheran preachers leaving the seminary, to equip them for the popular variants of Lutheranism that they would encounter among their congregations and which would differ from the official, doctrinal Lutheranism that they had been accustomed to. Although developing within a religious environment, the term came to be adopted by German academics in the field of folkloristics . During

9888-602: Was evaluated to be worth $ 141,032 ($ 5.17 million today). Accounts vary about what happened to the diamond during the years 1902–1907; one account suggested that it lay in the William & Theodore safe during these years while the jewelers took it out periodically to show it to wealthy Americans; a rival account, probably invented to help add "mystery" to the Hope Diamond story, suggested that some persons had bought it but apparently sold it back to Frankel. There were reports in one story in The New York Times of several owners of

9991-610: Was first published by AJA Elliot in 1955 to describe Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia . Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines , where most follow belief systems in line with animism . Generally, these indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anitism or Bathalism . Some of these beliefs stem from pre-Christian religions that were especially influenced by Hinduism and were regarded by

10094-457: Was offered for $ 150,000 ($ 4.91 million today), according to one report. Pierre Cartier tried to sell the Hope Diamond to Washington, D.C. socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean and her husband in 1910. Cartier was a consummate salesman who used an understated presentation to entice Mrs. McLean. He described the gem's illustrious history to her while keeping it concealed underneath special wrapping paper. The suspense worked: McLean became impatient to

10197-407: Was recut during this decades-long period of anonymity, with the largest remaining piece becoming the Hope Diamond. One report suggested that the cut was a "butchered job" because it sheared off 23.5-carat (4.70 g; 0.166 oz) from the larger rock as well as hurting its "extraordinary luster." It was long believed that the Hope Diamond was cut from the French Blue, but confirmation came when

10300-517: Was reportedly cursed by the murderer Thomas Busby shortly before his execution so that everyone who would sit in it would die. According to the Bible, cursed objects are those which are used in idolatry whether that idolatry is indirectly or directly connected to the devil. A list of those Bible references along with a comprehensive list of occult and cursed objects can be found online. In 1525 Gavin Dunbar , archbishop of Glasgow , Scotland, pronounced

10403-604: Was the American jeweler Harry Winston , who bought it in 1949 from the estate of the mining heiress and socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean . After exhibiting the diamond on tour for several years, Winston donated it in 1958 to the Smithsonian Institution 's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. , where it remains on permanent exhibition. The Hope Diamond is a large, 45.52-carat (9.104 g; 0.3211 oz), deep-blue diamond , studded in

10506-527: Was the wife of the Prince Regent (later George IV of the United Kingdom ), she lived apart from her husband, and financial straits sometimes forced her to quietly sell her own jewels to support her household. Caroline's nephew, Duke Karl Friedrich , was later known to possess a 13.75-carat (2.750 g; 0.0970 oz) blue diamond which was widely thought to be another piece of the French Blue. This smaller diamond's present whereabouts are unknown, and

10609-564: Was then further developed by the kabbalists. Raphael Patai has been acknowledged as one of the first to utilize anthropology to study Jewish folk religion. In particular he has drawn attention to the important role of the female divine element, which he sees in the goddess Asherah , the Shekhinah , the Matronit , and Lilith . Writer Stephen Sharot has stated that Jewish popular religion in common with other forms of folk religion, has

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