Literary notes about practices (AI summary)
The word “practices” in literature is remarkably versatile, conveying everything from established rituals and institutional procedures to everyday habits and even questionable behaviors. In ancient and classical texts, it often denotes religious or mystical rites—consider the divinatory and magical practices noted in Philippine folklore [1] or the solemn rituals critiqued in Durkheim’s work [2]—yet it can also refer to mundane or socially prescribed routines, as seen in references to rowing with shattered oars [3] or the daily customs of convent pupils [4]. Moreover, “practices” carries a moral dimension in works like the Kama Sutra [5, 6] and Biblical texts [7, 8], while in satirical or critical narratives, it may denote both corrupt habits and innovative systems, such as the consulting practices lampooned in Jeeves’s world [9] or the reformation of practices essential for societal benefit [10, 11]. This multiplicity of uses underscores the term’s adaptability to a wide range of human actions and social orders across literary genres.
- It is constantly used in divination and magical practices and repeatedly occurs in their folk-lore.
— from Philippine Folk Tales - But this is a misunderstanding of the special nature of the practices under discussion.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - In vain the victor he with cries implores, And practices to row with shatter’d oars.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - Outside of these austerities the pupils of the school conformed to nearly all the practices of the convent.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - In the same way there are some men, some places and some times, with respect to which these practices can be made use of.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - She should study alone in private the sixty-four practices that form a part of the Kama Shastra.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - The Lord will not afflict the soul of the just with famine, and he will disappoint the deceitful practices of the wicked.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - He warns them against false teachers, by describing their practices and foretelling their punishments.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - That's how these big consulting practices like Jeeves's grow.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse - These practices, then, which our ancestors have delivered to us, and by whose maintenance we have always profited, must not be given up.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - Systems of government and theories of the state have been built upon this notion, and it has seriously affected educational ideas and practices.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
