Resumo de Cleanliness

Cleanliness is the absence of dirt, including dust,
stains

and bad smells. In more recent times, since the germ
theory

of disease, it has also come to mean an absence of
germs

and other hazardous materials. A recent shift has now
taken

place to recognise that ?dirt? may play a useful role
in

our immune systems. This shift in thinking can be
traced

back to 1989, when David Strachan put forth
the "hygiene

hypothesis" in the British Medicine Journal. Strachan

looked at the records of 17,000 British children and
found

that the greater number of older siblings they had, the

less likely they were to come down with hay fever?a
disease

which, despite its name, is far more common in the city

than the country. Strachan wondered if the older
children

were bringing home more viral infections to their
younger

siblings, priming their immune systems so they could
better

tolerate pollen. The "hygiene hypothesis" has now been

linked with asthma, allergies, intestinal diseases

including Crohns disease, childhood leukaemia and
atopic

dermatitis and the list is growing It can apply to
humans,

animals, clothing, eating utensils, plates, pans, cups,

etc., food, other movable objects, floors, windows,
walls,

toilets, etc.

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness," a common phrase,

describes humanity's high opinion of being clean,

attributing to it being almost god-like.

Purposes of cleanliness include health, beauty, absence
of

offensive odor, avoidance of shame, and to avoid the

spreading of dirt and contaminants to oneself and
others.

In the case of glass objects such as windows or

windshields, the purpose can also be transparency.

Washing is one way of achieving cleanliness, usually
with

water and often some kind of soap or detergent.

A broom is a cleaning tool consisting of stiff fibres

attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical
handle,

the broomstick. In the context of
witchcraft, "broomstick"

is likely to refer to the broom as a whole.

History of broom design

Brooms have undergone significant changes in their

construction, ever since they evolved from ad-hoc use
of

branches and bundles of various natural fibres.
Originally,

all brooms were round, a shape that is easy to
construct

but inefficient for actually sweeping. Brooms could be

attached to a handle, either short for a whisk broom,
or

long for a broom used to sweep the floor or fireplace.
The

fibres used in modern brooms are from "broom corn,"

actually a variety of sorghum, and are unusually well

suited to brooms. They are long, straight, durable, and

bound together in the plant. The most recent major
change

is the flat broom, invented by the Shakers in the
1800s.

This broom has far more width for pushing dirt and
nearly

all brooms produced today are flat brooms, the round
broom

being essentially obsolete.

[edit]

Brooms and witchcraft

Brooms have long been connected with witchcraft, almost

universally portrayed as medieval-style round brooms
and

associated with female witches.

Some people speculate that in the Middle Ages, women

publicly accused of being witches (or at least women
with

knowledge of herbology), did "ride" brooms. In such

accounts, a woman applied a layer of paste made out of

trance-inducing plants (such as belladonna) to the

broomstick and straddled it as one would a beast of
burden

to ride it, and this had the effect of applying the

hallucinogenic herb to the thin skin of the labia where
it

might be quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.
However,

due to the witchhunts and the general beliefs of the
time,

little-to-no reliable information exists to corroborate

this belief. Records concerning witches of that time
and

their behavior are extremely unreliable, often having
been

extractedunder torture.

Anecdotally, the broom served another purpose during

periods of persecution. Witches and other magic

practitioners would disguise their wands as broom
sticks to

avoid suspicion. It is also a tradition that brooms
have

been used by some as receptacles to harbor temporarily
a

particular spirit.

Today the broom is included in lists of ritual tools in

many pagan guide books, where it is often referred to
as a

besom. A broom is sometimes laid at the opening of some

coven's rossets. Representing the element air, brooms
are

utilized in the purification of areas. They are used to

symbolically sweep ritual circles clean. The high
priestess

or high priest walks clockwise, traces the cast circle
and

sweeps with the broom a few inches off the ground. This

practice can be used in place of incense to purify a
ritual

space. It is often employed by those allergic to
incense,

and during rituals practiced in smoke free areas. It is

also a technique associated with "kitchen witches" who
use

what's on hand to work spells.

[edit]

In Fiction

In many works of fiction, broomsticks are pictured as a

means of air transport for witches.

The Harry Potter book series is distinctive in
portraying

magical flying brooms as used equally by both sexes,
and

especially prominently by Quidditch players as
analogues of

polo ponies.

Many toys and costume accessories have been made in the

form of brooms. In some countries, a vibrating
toy "Harry

Potter Nimbus 2000 Broom" for 8-12 year-olds was
marketed.

It became controversial, and was taken off the market.

Resumos Relacionados