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Full-Text Articles in History

Origins Of Great Traditions, Joseph J. Reidy Nov 2023

Origins Of Great Traditions, Joseph J. Reidy

KSU Distinguished Course Repository

This course is a systematic examination of five centers of civilization in Afro-Eurasia during their defining moments. The course focuses on the historical contexts that gave rise to China’s classical philosophies, India’s transcendental world-view, the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic synthesis, African mythoreligious systems of thought, and Latin-European culture in the West. The course’s content emphasizes cross-cultural influences and connections.


A Bad Time To Name Your Pet: Pet Names In The Age Of Witches, Evan Velez Jan 2022

A Bad Time To Name Your Pet: Pet Names In The Age Of Witches, Evan Velez

Emerging Writers

In early America, there were many strange superstitions about witches. Colonists looked for all sorts of forms of witchcraft “evidence”. According to The Penguin Book of Witches, the nature of pet names may have served as an unconscious form of evidence (Howe 239). While the author thought of this suggestion as a form of social logic, this essay investigates it as a phenomenon of language. Pet names had a key role in influencing negative feelings towards animals labeled as “familiars.” This affected colonists’ perceptions of an animal, and resulted in the familiar eventually becoming a hated “pet.”