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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: ancient customs

ancient customs stories: 6 news summaries

Mauritian Girls Force-Fed for Marriage

'Torture' returns as ideal of large women makes a comeback

Mar 1, 09 4:00 PM CST
(Newser) - A military coup in Mauritania has erased years of advances in women's rights, bringing a resurgence of the practice of force-fattening young girls to prepare them for marriage, the Guardian reports. "A woman's size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husband's heart," explains an activist,... More »

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obesity • Africa • women's rights • Mauritania • forced marriage • ancient customs • force feeding

 Scientists 
 Sniff Out 
 Ancient Stash 
 of Pot 

2 lbs. of green plant material found in 2700 year-old grave

Dec 3, 08 5:24 PM CST
(Newser) - Scientists excavating a grave in China’s Gobi desert have found what they believe is the world’s oldest marijuana stash, reports Discovery News. Two pounds of still-green plant material were found in a 2,700-year-old grave belonging to a Caucasian man researchers believe may have been a shaman. More »

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China • discoveries • marijuana • scientists • ancient customs • burial site

  Dirty Jokes of the Ancients Unearthed

Academics discover 3,000-year-old Sumerian fart joke

Aug 1, 08 8:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - Academics studying ancient texts have discovered bawdy jokes that wouldn't be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie, the Daily Telegraph reports. "What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?" asks a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon manuscript.  "... More »

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humor • joke • history • ancient Egypt • ancient customs

TRAVEL

 11 Travel Faux Pas to Avoid 

Touching is too intimate in some Asian nations

Jun 21, 08 1:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - A great pleasure of this wide world of ours is the multiplicity of cultures and customs. That diversity can also get you into a heap of trouble. So, when traveling, here’s what not to do, and where not to do it, from Travel and Leisure.
  • Touching: Too
... More »

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travel • eating • hospitality • gaffe • tourists • ancient customs • tradition • misunderstanding

Evangelicals Turn Back
to Ritual

Some adopt previously shunned  confession, communion, Lent

Mar 8, 08 12:51 PM CST
(Newser) - Evangelical Christians are increasingly turning to long-shunned traditions as a means of practicing their faith, reports the Washington Post. In a trend some call “worship renewal,” some are reviving Catholic customs such as fasting for Lent, going to confession, and weekly communion. “Evangelicalism is coming to point... More »

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Christianity • Catholicism • Christians • monasteries • evangelicals • communion • Catholics • Lent • ancient customs • rituals • traditions • confession

Wealth Doesn't Always
Aid Health

UN finds child mortality rates uneven in
developing nations

Feb 18, 08 3:17 AM CST
(Newser) - Citing new child mortality statistics, analysts say a nation's wealth doesn’t always translate into better health for its youngest citizens, the BBC reports. Every year, 10 million children die before their fifth birthday, with 99% of the fatalities occurring in the developing world. But even when conditions improve, survival... More »

MORE ABOUT:
health • India • wealth • Gordon Brown • Tanzania • Malawi • doctor • Nepal • Bangladesh • Save the Children • malnutrition • child mortality • Angola • ancient customs • Millennium Development Goals

6 Stories


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