Cultural Aspects
In Sicilian witchcraft it is customary to leave a fish head on the door step of one's enemy to ward off malicious intention. It is also performed by the eldest grandma when a mafia fishing family has been wronged by a business partner. The practice dates back to at least 1308, when Dante referenced it in his epic, the Divine Comedy.
In a more serious feud, escalation of hostilities can be signaled by the appearance of a goat head or horse head.
There are many references to talking fish heads in various dream sequences featuring Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos.
Recently, fish heads gained notoriety with a Green Peace publicity stunt, in which members of the activist group dumped 5 tons of fish heads on the door step of the French Fisheries Ministry.
Read more about this topic: Fish Head
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or aspects:
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)