You’d think a single disease would hit the whole world equally—we’re all human, after all. But some cultures have very specific disorders associated with them, with symptoms and consequences generally not extending outside of their particular country or ethnicity.

10 Retired Husband Syndrome

Japan is famous for its work ethic, with many spending long hours at the office and devoting all their waking hours to their careers. Couples neglect their marriages in favor of business, and once the man retires, all sorts of problems follow.

Once couples have no careers to focus on, forcing them to spend more time together, spouses find they don’t really know each other. Arguments pile up—especially after trips to celebrate retirement. In the last 10 years, the divorce rate in Japan has risen 27 percent, and it’s expected to keep climbing as more approach retirement age.

Many men, unable to transition from the work world to home life, treat their wives like coworkers or servants. Most husbands’ social groups are tied to their workplace and vanish once they retire. Many women can’t cope with the disruption—the husband is suddenly home 24/7 and tries to take charge of her life. These women suffer from stress and health problems like ulcers, rashes, difficulty sleeping, and even slurred speech patterns.

Adding to the issue, households no longer follow their traditional setup. Earlier, many retired couples would live with their children. Now, many of the younger generation stay unmarried longer, keeping them from helping their parents adjust to the transition with the help of children and grandchildren. It’s such a problem now that therapists and psychologists specialize in treating affected women, and thousands of support groups assist men with relationships post-retirement.

9 New World Syndrome

The industrialized world, particularly the United States, enjoys sedentary pastimes like watching TV and playing video games. Food, meanwhile, is high in fat and calories. While there’s more than that to the American lifestyle, that’s the stuff that gets exported, that’s the stuff that’s popular, and that’s the stuff that’s causing a weird, culture-bound disorder called New World Syndrome.

Places like Micronesia and other islands throughout the South Pacific were long ignorant of American delights like Spam and Oreos. Originally, the native people ate a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and freshly caught fish. When pirates discovered the islands in the early 20th century, they brought with them alcohol and infectious diseases. Then when a prosperous mining industry sprang up in the decades that followed, the islands suddenly imported fatty foods and were exposed to Western life.

The result was a massive spike in diabetes and heart disease. Some islanders suffer their first heart attacks in their twenties. By the time they’re in their late fifties, most consider themselves old. Around 85 percent of the population is classified as obese.

Interestingly, New World Syndrome has also introduced the idea that it’s very possible—and common—for people to be both obese and malnourished. The World Health Organization estimates the number who suffer from both at 1.1 billion.

8 Latah

Latah is a rare disorder from Malaysia. Meaning “nervous,” latah is characterized by an exaggerated reaction to sudden noises or other startling stimuli. Case studies describe individuals with uncontrollable movements ranging from gestures to cursing, singing, and dancing.

Sufferers also become unable to resist doing what they’re told. One case study tells of a woman who would hit other people on command, eat normally inedible objects, and react to dangers that were clearly not in the room. Another patient tried breast-feeding a hat when told that it was her hungry baby. Once the episode passes, the afflicted return to their natural personalities and are unable to explain their previous actions.

Just what causes latah hasn’t been confirmed. It may be genetic, but this is difficult to determine because many sufferers lack family records. Superstition says latah is caused by witchcraft or tickling a child too much when they’re young. The most commonly afflicted are post-menopausal women, although younger women and men can also develop latah. There is no outward manifestation of the disease, and those who develop it are physically normal.

7 Fire Sickness

Hwabyung (“fire sickness”) is unique to Korea and is characterized by burning, heavy sensations in a person’s chest. Other symptoms include insomnia, muscle pains, heart palpitations, weight loss, and blurred vision. It can ultimately turn into severe depression.

The disease happens most commonly in middle-aged women, occurring when they find themselves angry often but can’t express that anger. They focus anger inward instead of dealing with it, and when situations don’t change, that anger manifests itself in physical and mental ways.

Psychologists blame a combination of cultural and historical factors. Traditionally, Koreans have suffered massive unrest and political upheaval. For many, all that’s left is for them to bear it. Korean citizens who emigrate are also commonly afflicted with hwabyung, often finding a new life in another country as stressful as the situations they have left behind.

According to Korean folk beliefs, anger is fire. Keeping that fire inside means that it builds up in the body, disrupting the natural state of balance and causing an endless cycle of helplessness and depression.

6 Dhat Syndrome

Dhat syndrome hits young men living in the Indian subcontinent, most commonly Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. The syndrome describes a psychological concern that the body is losing semen, through urine or other unusual discharges. Symptoms include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, exhaustion, loss of appetite—and sexual dysfunction.

Those suffering from Dhat syndrome believe that they are losing a vital part of themselves. The concern comes from the philosophy of Ayurveda, which lists substances in the body as crucial to maintaining balance and well-being. These substances are blood, fat, flesh, bone marrow, chyle, and semen, with semen being the most important. All other fluids and substances in the body are thought to go through stages in which they transform, and at the end, they become semen, the key to a long, healthy life. Losing semen means something is very wrong.

Sufferers believe it a physical condition, but those treating it refer patients to psychiatrists. Without proper treatment, depression sets in.

5 Pa-Leng And Pa-Feng

Pa-leng and pa-feng strike Chinese individuals and immigrants who practice ideas connected with yin and yang. Classified as anxiety disorders, pa-leng is an extreme fear of the cold, while pa-feng is an overwhelming fear of the wind.

Both disorders are rooted in the idea that for the body to maintain balance, it needs a balance of temperature. Wind and cold both take valuable heat from the body, disrupting that natural balance. Wind is believed to bring with it disease; if a person feels fine in the morning and suddenly comes down with an illness, people often link it to the presence of wind.

Cold and wind are both associated with the yin, and individuals suffering from this disorder will go to great measures to preserve body heat, or yang. They may overdress in heavy clothing, avoid drafts, or even eat only hot foods. The person will also begin to suffer the consequences of an imbalance in their yin and yang, such as headaches, dizziness, stomach pains, and coughing.

4 Scrupulosity

Scrupulosity hurts the most devoutly religious, and it’s often associated with Catholicism (although sufferers can come from all faiths). People suffering from scrupulosity believe that they are in a constant state of sin. No matter what they do, they anger God.

Usually, individuals agonize over a single idea, such as following a biblical verse to the letter, avoiding any sort of blasphemous thoughts, or remaining pure—all while ignoring major ideas like the Commandments. More than just viewing themselves as sinners, they suffer from the debilitating idea that they are unworthy, to the point where they cannot come to peace with anything that they do.

Scrupulosity is classified as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it can result in self-chastisement or self-sacrifice to cleanse oneself of sin. Sufferers damage their social relationships by constantly seeking reinforcement from friends and family. Doctors treat it in much the same way as other obsessive-compulsive disorders—with behavioral therapy and sometimes medication—along with assistance from religious leaders.

3 Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome

Sudden unexpected death syndrome is prevalent throughout Southeast Asia, and it’s terrifyingly exactly what its name suggests. Healthy men—most not yet approaching middle age—go to sleep at night and never wake up. Most are found dead after crying out in the middle of the night.

According to folklore, these mysterious deaths are caused by a visiting spirit that kills men in their sleep. In Thailand, the spirit is said to be that of a widowed woman, stealing the souls of living men. In Japan, it’s known as pok-kuri. In Vietnam and Laos, it’s called tsob tsuang. In the Philippines, it’s bangungot or batibat.

References to the mysterious deaths date back at least to the turn of the 20th century, but only recently have scientists been able to associate the phenomenon with spikes in electrocardiograms. The ECG irregularity is shaped like a shark’s fin and is known as the “Brugada Sign” after cardiologists Pedro and Josep Brugada. Those who die from SUDS have no other health problems, save this weird spike in heartbeat.

A review of unexplained deaths in Manila between 1948 and 1982 revealed that most victims were about 33 years old, most died at around 3:00 AM, and the majority of deaths occurred in December and January. The factors combine to create a pattern weirdly different from other deaths in the same region.

2 Tabanka

Tabanka is the name given to an extreme form of heartbreak suffered by men in Trinidad. Historically, tabanka struck those who lost their significant other to a rival, but more recently, the definition has been extended to cover unrequited love. In most cases, someone suffering from tabanka loses interest in the world, goes without eating, and suffers from stomach pains and insomnia.

While that might just sound like normal heartbreak, sufferers from tabanka often move down a very dark path. Many drink heavily to forget their pain, which can lead to worsening depression and ultimately suicide.

Part of the problem with tabanka is that sufferers hide the condition, fearing mockery from peers. The general consensus is that those suffering from it should just move on. Men and women deride tabanka equally. Women suffer from it far more rarely than men, however, partially because they start out by accepting the high likelihood of losing a partner to another woman.

1 Zar Possession

According to the belief system of Ethiopian Jews, Adam and Eve had 30 children. Worried that the most beautiful of her children would attract the envy of God, Eve hid 15 of them in the Garden of Eden. God, of course, saw this, and as punishment, He made all 15 children invisible. The other 15 became the ancestors of the human race, while the 15 invisible children became the zar, spirits that haunt and hunt their worldly siblings.

Individuals diagnosed as possessed by the zar (but actually suffering from any of several conditions) first begin to suffer from headaches and fatigue. This spirit possession often happens alongside a traumatic or stressful life event, particularly a shift in relationship status, struggles with infertility, or major changes in a social circle.

If attempts at exorcising the zar aren’t successful, the individual might call on a cult healer. The healer puts them into a trance, during which time they talk to the spirit. Rather than fighting, the host and spirit form an understanding relationship. In exchange for a life free from the ill effects of spirit possession, the patient makes a promise to the spirit. This can be anything from eating particular foods to associating with certain people or dressing a certain way.

The world is filled with unique and vibrant cultures. These traditions and customs have spread throughout local communities and abroad. Some are delightful, but some may be shocking and unorthodox.

10Taarof

Taarof is the Iranian practice of performing a gesture of respect and deference, although it is generally understood that such a gesture should be refused. For example, in some establishments, it is considered polite for the shopkeeper to refuse payment from a customer of a higher social rank. The customer understands, however, that the proper response is to insist upon paying. The shopkeeper may refuse payment several times before allowing the customer to convince him to accept. This practice can be very confusing to hapless foreign shoppers.

Taarof may also extend to social invitations. It is understood in Iranian culture that an invitation to one’s home, no matter how enthusiastic, is a mere formality. Should the invitee accept, they may inadvertently put their host (who may not have wanted them in their house at all) in a very awkward position.

9Mano Po

Pagmamano is a gesture that symbolizes respect for one’s elders. It is akin to bowing, with the addition of taking an elder’s hand and pressing it to one’s forehead. The practice is predominantly found in the Philippines and some parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. It is said to have been borrowed from the Chinese centuries ago, when Filipinos began to acclimate to the culture of travelers and merchants. It is quite common at family gatherings to instruct children to ask for a blessing in this manner from their elder relatives.

A similar custom of addressing one’s elders with respect is the use of the words po and opo. For instance, “Ano yun?” (“What is that?”) is a common statement. However, adding po (“Ano po yun?”) signifies respect to the person you are addressing. When an elder or anyone of a higher status asks you a question, you should say opo to indicate the affirmative rather than oo, the common Filipino word for “yes.” In some cases, po and opo are also used as terms of endearment for others of equal stature.

8Bayanihan

Another unique aspect of Filipino culture is bayanihan, the practice of literally moving an entire home to a new location. The villagers gather to lift up the structures, carrying them over quite a distance. In some cases, it’s done to avoid damage to the home from impending floods or landslides, but it’s sometimes done simply to oblige a good neighbor.

Bayanihan occurs mostly in rural provinces, since the abodes found in these areas are made of lighter materials like bamboo and nipa palm wood. While it does take place in urban areas, it is limited to moving items such as hardware, playground contraptions like swings and seesaws, and basketball courts.

7Henna Weddings And The Blackening

Islamic weddings are steeped in centuries-old traditions and rituals. For one thing, it is generally believed that the best day for the ceremony to take place is on Thursday, since Friday is the holy day among Muslims. Another tradition is mehndi, or “henna,” night. Two nights before the wedding, the bride is surrounded by women from her side of the family, who paint designs on her hands, arms, and feet. This was to symbolize the bride’s entrance to womanhood. Some symbols are also meant to provide luck and fertility for the woman.

While henna night is an artistic and beautiful display, the same can’t be said for a custom practiced in parts of Scotland called “the blackening.” It involves friends of the bride and groom tying the two together in bathtubs, large crates, or behind pickup trucks before parading them through the streets to be pelted by passersby with an array of disgusting material. Feathers, soot, rotten eggs, curry, shoe polish, and mud are just a few of the horrors in which the couple can expect to be covered. This fun-filled tradition is believed to ward off evil spirits, and it also provides a bonding moment for the couple that symbolizes the hardships they are to endure and conquer together.

6Mudras

Mudras are seals, marks, or gestures unique to Hinduism and Buddhist cultures, most notably India. No fewer than 500 different meanings can be expressed by the way a person moves their hands and fingers. These movements are believed to allow the individual to control the flow of prana, or life energy, and focus their attention toward a certain goal. They can be seen in statues, paintings, dances, plays, yoga, and meditative techniques.

The gyana mudra, wherein the thumb and index fingers touch while the other fingers extend away from the palm, is said to promote mental clarity and calmness, making it the most popular mudra to use for meditative purposes. The abhaya mudra (simply raising one’s right hand with an open palm and fingers extended straight up) shares an almost universal meaning with other symbolic gestures of various religions and cultures. It’s related to the heart chakra and communicates openness and honest intent. The agni mudra (the thumb touching the middle finger while the rest extend away from the palm) symbolizes fire and is said to aid the digestive process.

5Arriving Late

In many parts of the world, arriving late to a social gathering is considered quite rude, but that’s not the case in South America. In Chile, if the host says that dinner will be served at 8:00 PM, guests are expected to arrive around 8:15 or even as late as 8:30. Arriving on time or earlier could mean catching the host unprepared, and the offender will be regarded as “too eager” for a meal. In Ecuador, arriving 15–20 minutes late is also considered being “on time,” and Brazilians consider meeting times “elastic,” showing up whenever they please.

Even parts of the United States have adopted these traditions, because they have attracted large populations of immigrants from these countries who brought their customs with them. For instance, in Miami, it’s more common for dinner to be served late and guests to be less punctual than in other parts of the country.

4Alcohol And The Devil

Although stereotypes can be harmful, it is true that Russia is one of the highest-ranked countries in the world in alcohol consumption. The country’s love of vodka is also its leading cause of death, from liver disease and alcohol poisoning to fatal accidents and crimes.

Since it’s such an integral part of their culture, there are many rules of etiquette surrounding drinking in Russia. For instance, you can’t place a glass of alcohol back on the table after a toast—it should be bottom’s up and empty. Arriving late for dinner means that you have to drink a full glass of vodka, no questions asked, as you’ll have to catch up with the rest. Between the first and second shots, there must be no interruptions whatsoever. Lastly, you should never make the mistake of offering a toast with an empty glass. If you do, you’ll have to drink the entire bottle.

Russians also love to swear, but their custom is steeped in superstition. It is said that when you curse another person’s health in a manner without malice, you should spit three times over your left shoulder. This symbolically spits in the eye of the devil, preventing bad omens or a temptation of fate. If the curse is made in writing, you should write the guttural sound, “Tfu, tfu, tfu!”

3Pearly Whites And The Tooth Fairy

There are several variations of the tale of the tooth fairy. In Denmark, the tooth fairy is called Tann Feen. In many cultures, the mythical figure is actually a mouse, known in France as La Petite Souris, in Spain as Ratoncito Perez, and in Colombia as El Raton Miguelito.

In Greece and Mauritania, a child does not simply leave his tooth underneath his pillow. Instead, children throw it as hard and as high as they can toward the roof of their home. In Greece, this provides good luck and strong teeth. In Mauritania, if there’s a rooster crowing by daybreak, he could keep the tooth.

In Jamaica, children are told horrible tales about a calf that will take them away unless they place their lost tooth in a can and shake it vigorously. The noise is said to drive the calf away. Malaysian children take a more spiritual view of their lost teeth—they bury them in the ground, as what was once part of the body must be returned to the Earth. In Turkey, lost teeth can be used to convey parents’ expectations to their children. For example, if they want their child to be a doctor, they might bury the teeth near a hospital.

2Bushido And Seppuku

Bushido, the warrior code of Japan, emphasizes strength, loyalty, and integrity. Some analysts and academics have recommended its implementation in the world of business, given the many irregularities that have faced corporations in the past and present. Conducting business inspired by bushido means working effectively and honestly, with the best interests of your superiors and the public in mind.

Seppuku, or ritual suicide as an alternative to defeat introduced by samurai, has a less vaunted reputation. It was particularly vilified in the wake of World War II, when thousands of Japanese soldiers carried on the practice by choosing to take their lives rather than surrender, but it continues to this day in many parts of Asia. Notable instances include the suicides of Yukio Mishima while protesting Japan’s military policies in 1970 and Masaharu Nonaka after he was laid off by his company in 1999.

In Korea, many people feel unbearable guilt and shame in the wake of great tragedy and see no other choice but to end their lives. When the MV Sewol sunk on April 16, 2014 and left hundreds of students dead or missing, the vice principal was so intensely plagued by guilt that he committed suicide.

1The Haka

The haka is a tradition of the Maori people of New Zealand. The spectacle involves menacing facial expressions, grunting, guttural howling, loud chanting, stomping, clapping, chest-thumping, and tongue-wagging intended to strike awe and fear into the tribe’s opponents.

Today, it is most often seen when it is performed by New Zealand’s national sports teams. Their rugby team, the All Blacks, perform the haka on the field prior to a match, as seen in the video above. During the 2014 FIBA tournament, the basketball team nicknamed the “Tall Blacks” performed the haka much to the bewilderment and surprise of their US opponents.

But the haka is more than just a war dance or a challenge for a fight. It can also invoke poetry and art detailing the history and the lore of the tribe, or be used to communicate peace, a welcome greeting, or a show of respect. One example is a moment that occurred after the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was filmed on the island and included many local actors. Viggo Mortensen was known for performing many death-defying stunts that earned him the respect of the team, so on his last day of filming, the Kiwi cast performed a haka for him and another crew member.

Jo is fascinated by various cultural traditions across the globe. Do you partake in any unique to your nation? Let him know via email.

Tribal people throughout the world are defending themselves against the incursion of a modern society that scorns their rights and their unique ways of living. Here are 10 fascinating indigenous cultures that are on the verge of extinction.

10The Korowai

The primitive Korowai have a long tradition of cannibalism, but it’s their tree houses in southeastern Papua, Indonesia that make them fascinating. A family of up to eight people will live in a wooden house with a sago-leaf ceiling that’s built 6–12 meters (20–40 ft) above the ground on a single tree. Sometimes, a house rests on several trees with wooden poles adding support.

The Korowai live in the trees to avoid imagined attacks after dark by walking corpses and male witches on the ground. Each house physically lasts about a year. But they’re so critical to each person’s identity that time is defined by the houses that a person has lived in. For example, a unit of time may be described by the number of houses that fell apart during it. An event such as a birth, death, marriage, or killing happened at the time of a specific house. An era consists of a series of events that occurred when a series of houses were inhabited.

The Korowai usually die before middle age because they lack any kind of medicine. There are about 3,000 tribe members left. Wearing only banana leaves, these hunter-gatherers eat bananas, sago, deer, and wild boar.

Until the 1970s, when anthropologists came to study them, most Korowai didn’t know that outsiders existed. But in recent decades, the younger Korowai have drifted away to settlements built by Dutch missionaries. Soon, only old tribe members will remain in the trees. Their culture is expected to disappear within the next generation.

9The Samburu

For hundreds of years, the Samburu roamed semi-arid northern Kenya in search of water and grass for the livestock that are their sole source of food. The Samburu are now threatened by intense droughts, and they face an ever greater threat from the Kenyan authorities. The police rape the Samburu, beat them, and burn their houses down.

The recent harassment began after two American wildlife charities bought Samburu land and gave it to Kenya to create a national park. The charities believed that they were purchasing land from a private owner, possibly former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi. Thousands of Samburu families were forced to relocate or live like squatters on the edge of their disputed land. The Samburu are now challenging their violent eviction in court.

But life for young Samburu girls is brutal within their tribe, too. A systematic rape ritual called “beading” is supposed to prevent promiscuity in girls, some as young as six years old. A close male acquaintance, often a relative, who wants an early promise of marriage will contact the child’s parents and put a necklace of red beads on the girl. “Effectively, he has booked her,” says Josephine Kulea, a Samburu woman. “It’s like a [temporary] engagement, and he can then have sex with her. ”

The girls are forbidden from getting pregnant, but no contraceptives are used, so many become pregnant despite the taboo. The infants who don’t die naturally are killed or given away. If a girl keeps her baby, she won’t be permitted to marry when she’s an adult.

Kulea has tried to rescue some of these girls by placing them in a shelter and moving their babies to orphanages.

8The Loba

Hidden in the harsh terrain of the Nepalese Himalayas is the former Tibetan kingdom of Mustang, also known as Lo. To enter its capital, Lo Manthang, is to step back in time to a 14th-century walled city steeped in a purely Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Mustang was closed to most foreigners until 1992 and was only accessible by foot or on horseback until recently. We’re now learning about its history from ancient texts, painted murals, and other religious artifacts discovered in Mustang caves built into steep cliffs.

The people of Mustang, called the Loba, live off the land with almost no modern technology and few educational opportunities for their children. But the Loba do have a history of cultural resistance against Chinese rule. When the Dalai Lama sought refuge in India in the 1960s, CIA-backed resistance fighters (called the Khampas) made Mustang their base. Eventually, the CIA stopped its support, and Nepal was pressured by China into taking military action against the Khampas. The Dalai Lama called on the Khampas to surrender. The few who didn’t committed suicide, and the resistance was formally over. China has closely watched this region ever since.

Now, China is funding a new highway between the cities of Lhasa in Tibet and Kathmandu in Nepal that will make Mustang part of a major trade route. While some of Mustang’s people welcome modernization, their leaders are concerned that their Tibetan Buddhist culture will be lost forever, especially as more residents leave the area for better jobs and education elsewhere.

7The San

We’ve previously looked at the San’s religious beliefs, their language and even their giraffe dance. Now, we’re going to examine the possible extinction of Africa’s first people.

The government of Botswana evicted these hunter-gatherers from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in the name of conservation while permitting diamond mining, fracking, and tourism. The San (or Bushmen) were forcibly resettled into camps with goats or cattle to become herders, a lifestyle they don’t understand. Unemployment is rampant.

As Goiotseone Lobelo described it, “The police came, destroyed our homes and dumped us in the back of trucks with our belongings and brought us here. We are getting AIDS and other diseases we didn’t know about; young people are drinking alcohol; young girls are having babies. Everything is wrong here.”

The San fought the government in court and won the right to return to CKGR. But government officials only granted this to the few whose names were in the court documents. The government has also banned all hunting except on ranches or game farms, which effectively destroys the San way of life.

According to Jamunda Kakelebone, another displaced San, “Our death rate is increasing. They want to develop us. To eradicate us. Our people die of HIV and TB. When we were on our own, our death rate was low. Old people died of age. Now, we go to funerals. It’s terrifying. In 20 years, it’s going to be bye-bye, Bushmen.”

6The Awa

Before their territory was invaded, the nomadic Awa tribe had lived in harmony with the Amazon rain forest in Brazil for centuries. They were hunter-gatherers who made pets of orphaned animals. They shared mangoes with parakeets and their hammocks with coatis, which are similar to raccoons. The women sometimes breastfed monkeys and even small pigs.

Then, in 1967, American geologists on a survey mission accidentally landed their plane on the world’s largest iron ore deposit, which was in the Carajas Mountains. That led to the Great Carajas Project, a huge mining operation backed by the World Bank and industrialized nations such as the US and Japan. The Awa’s territory was invaded by loggers, ranchers, and settlers, who destroyed large swaths of the rain forest for the minerals and other resources there.

The invaders also killed many of the Awa, sometimes by shooting them and other times by giving them gifts of poisoned flour. There are only about 350 Awa left, 100 of whom have no contact with outsiders.

Finally, under pressure from rights groups such as Survival International, the Brazilian government launched Operation Awa to evict the invaders and return the dwindling Awa to their land. The question is whether Brazil will make sure the loggers and ranchers don’t return.

5The Cocopah

The Cocopah (which means “River People”) are fighting to preserve their dying culture against governments that manipulate the tribe’s access to water. These natives farmed and fished for over 500 years in the delta of the lower Colorado River, which lies in Arizona in the US and the states of Baja California and Sonora in Mexico. At one time, this people numbered around 22,000, but now they’ve dwindled to about 1,300. Only 10 native speakers remain. Traditionally, there was no written language.

Starting in 1922, the US and Mexico diverted most of the Colorado River away from the delta where the Cocopah lived. Two million acres of wetlands dried up, crippling the tribe’s ability to farm and fish. Then, during the 1980s, the US managed El Nino flooding by opening dam reservoirs, sending floodwaters surging through the delta and destroying the Cocopah’s homes. The tribe was forced to move to El Mayor, which had no water rights or arable land.

A couple of years ago, the US and Mexico agreed to let about 1 percent of the Colorado River flow to the delta in an effort to restore the wetlands. But even if that works, the Cocopah face another problem.

In 1993, the Mexican government created the Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Rio Colorado Biosphere Reserve, a conservation project that soon restricted the Cocopah’s fishing so much that they couldn’t make a living. Many members of the tribe left to find jobs elsewhere. As 44-year-old Monica Gonzalez says, “Sometimes I think our leaders talk about the Cocopah as if we had already died, but we are alive and still putting up a struggle.”

4The Mursi

A tribe of less than 10,000 people from southwestern Ethiopia, the Mursi are known for the lip-plates worn by their women. Lip-plates are a symbol of social adulthood and potential fertility. At 15 or 16 years old, a girl has her lower lip pierced, inserting a wooden plug to hold the cut open until it heals. Over the next several months, the girl will stretch her lip with a series of increasingly larger plugs. The most persistent girls will eventually wear lip-plates of at least 12 centimeters (5 in) in diameter.

Although the Mursi are considered nomads by the Ethiopian government, they’re actually quite settled. Depending on the rainfall, they may move to find a place with water to grow crops like sorghum, beans, and maize. They also need grasslands to feed their cattle—which are not only a food source, but also a currency to trade for grain and to validate social relationships like marriage.

In recent decades, the Ethiopian government has begun large-scale development of the Mursi’s land into national parks and commercial irrigation schemes. Thousands of the tribe have been evicted. Aid agencies agree that abuses such as beatings and rapes have occurred, but not in a “systematic” way. It’s possible that some international aid to Ethiopia, though intended for local road construction and other services, is being used by the government to forcibly resettle the Mursi. This will likely destroy their traditional culture.

3The Tsaatan

The Tsaatan’s affection for and dependence on their reindeer makes them unique. The reindeer give them milk and cheese as well as transportation across the frigid mountains and taiga (a swampy forest) of their homeland in northern Mongolia.

There are only about 500 Tsaatan left. Disease and problems from inbreeding have caused their reindeer to dwindle, too. So the Tsaatan no longer wear reindeer hides or use animal skins to cover their tepees. They’re nomads, moving every five weeks to find lichen for their beloved animals.

The tribe has an uneasy relationship with tourists. Too many visitors come without an interpreter, litter the environment, and take photos as if the Tsaatan are in a zoo. It’s also important to them that tourists ride horses that won’t hurt the reindeer.

But the Tsaatan’s biggest problem is that their 3,000-year-old culture may not survive past this generation. Without the government assistance that they once relied on, the Tsaatan are struggling. The children turn to computers and other technology to prepare them to live in the modern world. Younger people are leaving the taiga for the cities, and the older Tsaatan are afraid they’ll be left alone.

2The Ladakhis

Imagine the most idyllic culture you can. Patience, tolerance, and honesty are held above all other values. People always help one another, and there’s no money but also no poverty. Lying, stealing, aggression, and arguments are almost unknown. Major crimes simply don’t exist. Everybody is irrepressibly happy. You’re imagining the actual Ladakh culture that existed for centuries before the modern world intruded to destroy it like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Of course, life wasn’t really perfect. Set high in the Himalayas in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh is a barren desert in the summer and a frozen moonscape in the winter. With few resources and no modern technology, the Ladakhis established farms, supplemented by herding. Ladakh was almost completely isolated until a road was built in 1962 to connect this area with the rest of India. But modernization didn’t have a major impact on this society until 1975, when tourism slithered in.

Then, like Adam and Eve after eating the fruit, the Ladakhis saw their nakedness (or, in this case, their primitive lifestyle) and became ashamed. They compared themselves to the free-spending tourists and the glamorous people they saw in films and on TV. For the first time, they felt poor and inferior. Their self-sustaining culture and their family structure began to break down as they chased happiness through material wealth.

As they modernize, they’re becoming selfish, competitive, frustrated, and argumentative. They’re becoming intolerant of other religions, dependent on the government, insecure, and alone in a crowded world. They’re becoming us.

1The Huaorani

The Huaorani have a long history of using deadly spears and blowguns against everyone else in their Amazon rain forest home in Ecuador. For them, revenge is a lifestyle.

Energy companies want to drill in the Amazon rain forest to extract the huge reserves of crude oil that lie beneath the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) area of Yasuni National Park. Despite environmental concerns, it’s coming down to a battle between the Ecuadorian government and the Huaorani. Both sides have alternated between high-minded words and possible ransom demands whenever it suits their purposes.

In 2007, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa proposed that governments around the world give Ecuador $3.6 billion in exchange for Ecuador not drilling the ITT. In 2013, when it became clear that world leaders weren’t paying up, Correa went to Plan B, drilling for oil. He also abandoned his commitment to protect Amazon tribes from drillers by denying that the tribes exist. Correa claims to need the Amazon oil revenue to help the poor.

As for the Huaorani, some claim that they’ll fight to the death with blowguns, machetes, and spears if oil companies drill on their land and threaten their way of life. But the Huaorani are no military match for the government.

Weya Cahuiya, who represents a Huaorani tribal organization, says, “Every time the oil companies expand, they divide us. There are fights between families because some people get things and others don’t. The government needs to pay us. All of us. They need to respect us and if they want to come in, they have to pay us or we’ll kill them.”

Some people talk about the past like it was a free-for-all of love and expression. They imagine a time when sexuality had no bounds and nothing was forbidden. We think of it that way because we see the past as a reflection of our present—but it isn’t.

The cultures of the past weren’t some paradise of freedom; they were just different. Ancient peoples had taboos of their own as well as their own ideas of what was right and wrong. A lot of those values aren’t what you think, and they’re wildly different from how we see the world today. But if you’d grown up in any of these cultures, odds are you’d have seen the world the same way.

10 Ancient Greece

It’s been said that the ancient Greeks had “no concept of homosexuality,” and in a way, it’s true. It was perfectly normal for an ancient Greek man to take a boy as a lover, and some have even said that man-boy love was the cornerstone of how Greek culture functioned. The Greeks were perfectly okay with two males being in love—as long as one of them was a child.

If two consenting male adults were in a relationship, though, the Greeks thought it was a little strange.^[1] One partner, they believed, had to take a role of a “woman,” and any man over 17 years old who was willing to take a backseat role was considered a little weird. They wouldn’t stone you death for it, but people would talk.

One of the best examples of adult male love in the Greek world was the Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of warriors who strengthened their bond by becoming lovers. In a toast to their bravery, one Greek said, “Perish any man who suspects these men either did or suffered anything that was base.” He was defending them, but the implication is that most people thought they were doing something “base” and disgusting.

After all, they were grown men in love, and in ancient Greece, that was odd. It would have been one thing if they had some children in there, but a bunch of grown consenting men, to the ancient Greeks, was just plain bizarre.

9 Ancient Rome

The Romans’ views were similar to the Greeks, but they were a little less accepting. Men could sleep with slave boys or with teenage male prostitutes, but any adult male who was willing to be on the receiving end was considered effeminate or even pathologically ill.

Their attitude to lesbians, though, was even stranger. A lot of Romans simply didn’t believe lesbians existed. The poet Ovid called lesbianism “a desire known to no one,” musing that, “among all animals, no female is seized by desire for female.”^[2]

When they had to face the reality that lesbians existed, they were disgusted by it. Roman writers—who, of course, were men—called lesbians “against nature” and “an abuse of their sexual powers.” One even said that being a lesbian was as perverse as having sex with a dead animal.

8 Native Americans

The phrase “two-spirited” has become an LGBT catchphrase. It’s something a lot of people embrace, imagining a precolonial America in which LGBT people were celebrated. In a way, they were—but it was a bit different than most people imagine.

The concept of “two-spirited” people existed in about 130 North American tribes, which is a lot, but there were more than 500 tribes, so it was by no means the majority. Every tribe was different, too, so the details were never exactly the same.

Generally, though, a two-spirited person was someone who didn’t fit gender norms. If a young boy showed an interest in sewing, for example, or a girl showed an interest in hunting, some tribes would say that they had two spirits and would give them a special role in the community.

A two-spirited man might end up wearing women’s clothing and doing a woman’s work, but he wasn’t necessarily gay. It was perfectly natural for a two-spirited person to be heterosexual or even to switch between male and female clothes from day to day.^[3]

7 Ancient China

Of every culture, ancient China’s seems to be closest to that paradise of liberal sexuality that we like to imagine once existed, but it’s still not quite the same as our culture today.

Ancient China did have male concubines and prostitutes, who were valued for their looks. One Chinese story tells about Mizi Xia, a concubine of the king of Wei who could do no wrong, until his looks faded, and the king turned against him.

Unlike Rome and Greece, nobody thought these relationships were weird. There’s a story about Emperor Ai and his lover Dong Xian, in which Dong Xian falls asleep on the emperor’s sleeve. Not wanting to wake his lover, the emperor cut off his sleeve and sneaked away. The whole court, touched by the story, showed their support by cutting off their sleeves in tribute.

That all sounds pretty accepting, but in all of these stories, the men are concubines or fleeting passions and almost never life partners. And, usually, both men have wives and children.^[4] These men could have an affair, but in their culture, they had a duty to procreate. Having a male lover on the side in ancient China was okay—but they were still expected to marry women.

6 Mesopotamia

There was a law in Assyria that said if a man lays with a male neighbor, he shall be made into a eunuch. That seems pretty cut-and-dry: Homosexuality, in Assyria, was against the law. In practice, though, it was a bit more complicated.

Men couldn’t sleep with their neighbors, but there were male prostitutes everywhere in Assyria. They even had cross-dressing priests whose whole jobs were to be taken as lovers, and sleeping with them was considered perfectly fine.

The best insight we have into Assyrian sexuality comes from a manual meant to predict someone’s future. Sleeping with a male prostitute, is says, is a good omen, but it warns against falling in love. If “mating with men becomes his desire,” it says, a man will “experience evil.” That suggests that homosexuality was okay—but only if it was with a prostitute.

Here’s where it gets really strange. Falling in love with men may have been bad, but the best omen was this: “If a man copulates with his equal from the rear,” the book promises, “he becomes the leader among his peers and brothers.”^[5]

Love between two men in Assyria, it seems, was a bit more like the rules for a prison cell than a loving home.

5 Medieval Japan

By the 14th century, Japanese samurai had started taking their proteges as lovers. Usually, this was similar to the relationships you’d see in Greece: an older man with a younger boy. It was so common that one samurai said, “A young man without a pledged, elder he-lover is likened to a young girl without a fiance.”^[6]

Unlike the Greeks, however, the Japanese were tolerant of adult male love. A pair of aging male lovers, they said, were like “two old cherry trees still in bloom.” Medieval Japan was an incredibly tolerant place for homosexuality.

Heterosexuality, though, was another matter. Some Japanese men were almost intolerant of male-female love. Like the Chinese, they were expected to marry women, but some treated it like a terrible burden.

Male love versus female love was a common topic of debate, and while different people had different opinions, some men were pretty misogynistic about it. One, condemning heterosexuality as frivolous, wrote, “A woman is a creature without any importance whatsoever, while sincere homosexual love is true love.”

4 Medieval Europe

We usually think of medieval Europe as a place where any deviation in human sexuality had to stay hidden in the shadows, but that wasn’t always the case. While the Europeans were generally against homosexuality, they were aware it existed, and they had a few workarounds.

The French, in particular, had an institution called affrerement. Two men would pledge to live together with one bread and one purse. They would share a home, hold joint property, be one anothers’ legal heir, and live in every way like a married couple. Officially, this was meant to be a way for two brothers to live together, but it didn’t end up being used that way. Instead, men who weren’t related would use it to marry one another, usually as lovers.^[7]

These people didn’t live in the shadows. The community knew that they were living together, and they accepted what was going on. It would be under a thin—but transparent—veil that no one felt the need to tear down.

3 The Islamic Golden Age

The Quran isn’t exactly ambiguous about human sexuality. If you “come to males in lust,” it says, you “commit an indecency.” There might be some debate on the details of what that means, but the core idea is pretty clear: Homosexuality is frowned upon.

What a culture believes, though, isn’t always what it practices, and the Islamic Golden Age had a bit more variety than you might be imagining. There was a class of men called the mukannathun, who were said to “resemble women” and were “promiscuous” lovers of other men.

Muhammad didn’t care for them; he banished them from the land. Later rulers, though, had a different attitude. Some rulers, like Caliph Al-Amin, were openly gay. Officially, it was frowned upon, but people were willing to throw a blind eye.

Later on, the mukannathum were accepted as part of society. They were often musicians, and they had a major impact on the culture of the era. One Islamic philosopher, Al-Kirmani, even wrote that some people were just born that way.^[3]

2 The Victorian Era

The Victorian era was a bit complicated. In practice, it wasn’t as strict and stuffy of a place as we usually imagine. There were somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 prostitutes in London alone, so people certainly weren’t staying chaste.

Some people were celibate, though, and that’s why the era has the reputation it does. Even if the common man was as red-blooded as ever, the extremists were incredibly repressed—and probably nobody more so than John Kellogg, one of the two men behind your favorite breakfast cereals.

Kellogg’s true passion was getting people to stop touching themselves, which he saw as an absolute and complete sin. He never touched his own wife or himself, and he took some serious measures to keep from doing so. He recommended circumcising pubescent boys without anesthetic so that they connect the pain to the idea of being punished for touching themselves.

For women, he suggested that “the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris” was a good way to get them to calm down their urges.^[9] And, for adult men, he suggested sewing the foreskin shut in a way that would make having an erection completely impossible.

Of course, for every John Kellogg, there was a man browsing London’s 50,000 prostitutes, but that’s how the Victorian era was: full of extremes.

1 Ancient Egypt

When two ancient Egyptian men were found buried together in an embrace, people started sharing the story as an example of what a tolerant and wonderful place ancient Egypt must have been, but that story’s a little misleading. Aside from that grave, nothing we know about ancient Egypt makes it sound like a sexually liberated paradise.

There’s one story about a gay Egyptian king, Pepi II, but it’s not written like a celebration of love. The king and his lover have to sneak out at night to meet, and it’s treated like a scandal.

A truly twisted myth, though, gives us the best insight into how Egyptians saw homosexuality, and it’s nothing like the way people see the world today. We’ve already told you the story of Horus and Seth, but basically, Seth wants to steal the throne from his nephew Horus, so he comes up with a plan: He’d sexually assault his nephew. If he did that, he figured, they’d make him king.

That sounds like the ramblings of a madman, but in the story, Seth’s plan works. He tells the court: “Let me be awarded the office of Ruler, for as to Horus [ . . . ] I have performed the labor of a male against him.”^[10] Not only does everybody agree, but they actually spit in poor Horus’s face.

To put that in perspective, the Egyptians apparently believed that a pedophilic, incestual rapist was more fit to lead them than a victimized boy. Being gay in ancient Egypt wasn’t inherently bad—but being on the bottom was.

Every Egyptian would have known this story. It would have been a part of their culture that they would have heard from childhood, and it would have influcened the way they saw the world. As strange as they are to us, the values in this story would have made perfect sense to them, just as the values in our stories make perfect sense to us today.

There is one part of the human body that has been the greatest source of numerous myths, legends, and superstitions—the eye. The symbolism of the human eye has been found in cultures around the world for thousands of years, and many of these symbols still exist today.

The eyes have long been considered the windows to our soul, the omniscient presence of God, of prophecy, and as symbols of inner spirituality and the cosmos. Here is a list of ten ways cultures around the world are obsessed with eyes.

Related: 10 Body Parts That Are Secretly Awesome

10 The Evil Eye

Most cultures around the world have some version of the evil eye. Whether it’s the “mal de ojo” in Mexico, the “mati” in Greece, or the “ohlo gordo” in Brazil, all of them share one thing in common—that a person could be cursed or harmed with an unwanted gaze or stare given out of jealousy or envy.

Believed to have originated in ancient Greece or Rome, the eyes were considered to have strong powers which could be used to curse or hurt someone with merely a glance. Over the centuries, the superstitious belief of the power of the evil eye took hold across the world, taking unique elements from the various cultures that embraced it.

Various methods and cultural artifacts were used to ward off the evil eye. Brides used veils to escape the glare of jealous people. Newborn boys, prized in ancient cultures, were given protective amulets with blue beads. And, in India, babies’ eyes were lined with kajal, a form of powdered charcoal.

Wherever you find yourself in the world, ancient symbols of the evil eye are sure to be found.^[1]

9 The Eye of Horus

Look no further than the Eye of Horus, which originated in ancient Egypt, as an eye symbol still seen around the world today. According to Egyptian myth, Horus lost his eye in a battle to avenge his father’s death. After his eye was magically restored by an Egyptian goddess, the symbol of his eye—the Eye of Horus—became a talisman that represented protection, health, and restoration. It was one of the most frequently used symbols in ancient Egypt and has been discovered in tombs dating back to the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2613–2494 BC).

The Eye of Horus is made up of six parts, each one representing a fraction of a geometric formula. Amazingly, when superimposed over an image of the human brain, each section corresponds to one of six major sensory centers. These sections are believed to represent the six senses—smell, sight, thought, hearing, taste, and touch. Many sources believe the RX symbol we see on all our doctors’ prescriptions today evolved from the Eye of Horus due to its connection with healing powers.

Even today, the Eye of Horus can be seen in many homes, used as a symbol for protection from danger or threats. ^[2]

8 Ocular Opals

Opals are the only gemstones that naturally refract light, in a process eerily similar to the way the human eye sees color. In the human eye, light travels through a prism, and wavelengths separate into the different colors we see. In opals, the white light splits into the colors of the spectrum and bounces back to give each gemstone its distinct color pattern.

For some, the stones were prized for their magical qualities. They were thought to protect them from eye diseases and could possibly even make them invisible. The opposing view, however, was that they were evil incarnate. Witches were said to use black opals to increase their powers or to possess people they wanted to harm, and some linked the opal to the eyes of detested creatures like toads and snakes.

In the Harry Potter book series, JK Rowling references opals three times. Using the folkloric belief that opals provide “eyes” to see the future, she uses them as a powerful symbol of vision and to predict what might befall the witches and wizards of her fictional world.^[3]

7 Fill in the…Daruma Dolls

Look at a daruma doll, a traditional Japanese doll, and the first things you notice are its eyes.

When first purchased, the odd-looking dolls, featuring a bearded man’s face, contain oversized, blank, white circles for eyes. The big eyes are only left blank temporarily, however—an eyeball will be painted in one of the eyes upon receipt of the doll as a gift. The second eye will only be filled in when a determined life goal or wish has been attained.

The dolls are modeled after a 5th-century monk named Bodhidharma, who, legend says, faced a cave wall in deep meditation for five years. He was so committed to his search for enlightenment that eventually, his body atrophied, but his spirit remained steadfast. The eyes on the doll represent his determination and the eye-on-the-prize mental strength needed to accomplish his goal.

Unsurprisingly, the expression “Both eyes open” is commonly used in Japan to wish someone the best of luck and success.^[4]

6 Third Eye of Shiva

Legend has it that the Hindu god Shiva opened his third eye after being shot at with an arrow by Kama, god of lust. He burned Kama to ashes out of anger and frustration at being tempted by him. In the Buddhist and Hindu religions, “awakening one’s third eye” is a metaphor for achieving inner clarity, as Shiva did in order to crush his temptation.

Commonly seen on women worldwide, the bindi—a colored dot or sticker placed on the forehead—is linked to the importance they put in the symbolism of the third eye. It is said to be placed on the spot of the sixth chakra, or energy points, located slightly above and between the eyes and is linked to wisdom.

Scientists describe the pineal gland as a dormant “third-eye” controlling the hypothalamus, which plays an important role in releasing hormones and regulating behavior. Famed scientist René Descartes also referred to the pineal gland as a third eye, the place where all of our thoughts are formed and the principal location for the soul.^[5]

5 Unmatching Eyes

We all know about Alexander the Great, the legendary king of Macedonia who changed the course of history, but did you know he had two different colored eyes—one blue and the other one brown? He is said to have had heterochromia—a condition that occurs when a melanin imbalance occurs in the irises.

There was a time when people with two different colored eyes were feared. In some Eastern European cultures, a child born with heterochromia was thought to have had one eye replaced the eye of a witch. People with the condition were considered evil and were connected to supernatural events. Today, heterochromia is regarded as a unique, intriguing trait. Some recognizable people with the condition are Kate Bosworth, Dan Akroyd, Jane Seymour, and New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer.

Some animals such as dogs and cats are also affected by the condition, making for a dramatic appearance. Some Native Americans called dogs with two different colored eyes “ghost dogs” and believed they could see heaven with one eye and Earth with another.

Although it affects less than one percent of the world’s population, there is a day—July 12th, National Heterochromia Day—when we can all obsess about the beauty of people with different eyes!^[6]

4 The Eye of Providence

The earliest example of the symbol of the Eye of Providence, an open eye set within a triangle, was found in the religious art of the Renaissance as a representation of God’s omnipresence. Artist Pontormo’s 1525 painting, Supper at Emmaus, features the divine eye, a symbol of God the Father, within the trinity triangle.

In 1782, the Great Seal of the United States was unveiled, featuring the Eye of Providence. It was Charles Thompson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, who came up with the image of a pyramid along with the eye, representing God’s oversight over the new nation. Some people contend that the symbol was linked to Freemasonry, but that has been proven incorrect. Benjamin Franklin was the only Mason on the committee that decided on the seal, but the all-seeing eye only became a Masonic symbol in 1797, fourteen years after the adoption of the seal by Congress.

The all-seeing eye symbol has been the source of conspiracies involving the Illuminati, other “secret elites,” and even pop star conspiracies with Madonna, Kanye West, and Jay Z using it in their art. But all of this is more likely part of the obsession we all have for a powerful symbol of the eye.^[7]

3 The Eyes of the God Tāwhirimātea

The Maori New Year revolves around the Matariki constellation, sometimes known as Ngā mata o te ariki Tāwhirimātea, or the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea. The Maori name of the constellation comes from the legend of the sky-mother Ranginui and the earth-father Papatūānuku, who are split up by two of their unhappy children. They recruit Tane Mahuta, the god of the forest, to banish their parents, and he succeeds. Their other child, Tāwhirimātea, the god of wind, is angered by the events. Out of contempt for his siblings and love for his parents, he gouges out Tane Mahuta’s eyes, crushes them, and throws them into the sky. These “eyes” are now called the Matariki constellation.

Each of the nine stars of the Matariki is a separate “eye” that forms a connection of importance to the Maori people. The nine stars include the “mother of all the other stars” of the constellation; the star that connects to their ancestors; the ones that connect to food from the ground, trees, freshwater, or saltwater; the stars that connect to the rain and the wind; and the youngest star where wishes are sent.

The celebration of Matariki, for the Maori, is a time to unite people, share memories and make plans for the future. And the inspiration for this comes from the eyes in the sky of Tāwhirimātea.^[8]

2 Two Eyes—On a Platter

Santa Lucia, or St. Lucy, the patron saint of light, is often represented with her two eyes…on a platter. This bizarre symbolism reflects the devotion to her, among people of the Christian faith, as a protector of sight.

How Lucy ends up holding her eyeballs on a platter is a tragic story. She was born to noble parents in Sicily, Italy, in AD 283. Her father died, leaving a young Lucy and her mother alone. She dedicated her life to God and spent her dowry on helping the poor. To Lucy’s chagrin, her mother arranged her marriage to a pagan man who disagreed with her charitable endeavors. Her husband turned her over to an evil Roman governor who forced her to make sacrifices to his idols, which she refused to do. Her stubbornness frustrated the governor, and he had her tortured until a) the Romans removed her eyes or b) she gouged out her own eyes, depending on the version of events.

The stories of St. Lucy inspired many Renaissance artists, known for their flair for the dramatic, and paintings of her are most often painted with a side of eyeballs. In the painting Saint Lucy by Francesco del Cossa, Lucy holds a branch with two eyeballs, instead of flowers, at their tips. In another painting by Francisco de Zurburán, also titled Saint Lucy, she is portrayed holding a pewter dish topped by a pair of realistic-looking eyeballs.^[9]

1 The Whites of the Eyes

When George Ohsawa correctly predicted the death of President Kennedy in an August 1963 interview, he credited his prediction to his belief that the president had Sanpaku eyes—to him, a sign of ill fate and sickness.

Sanpaku, roughly translated from Japanese as “three whites,” is when the white is visible above or below the iris. According to the same George Oshawa, the first step of Oriental Physiognomy is the observation of the eye and if and/or to what extent Sanpaku is present. Ohsawa says those with Sanpaku eyes are physically and/or emotionally distressed and can be untrustworthy, suspicious, and fearful, as well as prone to accidents and death. Examples of Sanpaku eyes can be seen on Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Manson, and Sylvester Stallone.

Sanpaku is based on unproven theories and superstitions—something to keep in mind next time a person you meet gazes at you with some extra white in their eyes.^[10]