Hex Hex: Origins and Meaning

If you have ever heard the word “hex” you may know it to have several different definitions.  It can refer to a shape (e.g., hexagon) or be used in the contexts of witchcraft, serving as either a verb or noun.  While you may be familiar with the term you may not have considered where it came from.  This is something that I recognized while considering the word in various contexts, leading me to learn more about its origins and changing meaning over time.  This blog post will explore these topics and address how and why the meaning changed.

 

As previously mentioned the word “hex” can be a noun or a verb.  One can put a hex on someone (noun), or they can hex someone (verb).  Both reference similar meanings.  As a noun the word hex refers to a negative spell cast upon someone, whereas as a verb it means to bewitch.  The word itself comes from the German words for witch or witchcraft, hexe and hexen respectively, but it morphed into the simplified hex when German immigrants began settling the Pennsylvania countryside.  Known today as the Pennsylvania Dutch (a mispronunciation of Deutsch, the German word for this group) the change in the pronunciation of hexe or hexen to simply hex demonstrates an anglicization of various non-English words, to which hex is just one.

 

But what brought about the incorporation of this word into the English language?  It actually derives from the early 1800s when the German immigrants/Pennsylvania Dutch settled the region.  As they built their homes and established their farms they painted a variety of symbols onto their barns.  These symbols ranged from hearts, circles, flowers, fictional animals, and stars.  It is unclear what led them to paint these symbols.  There are hypotheses that these were simply aesthetic works meant to decorate the barns, while others believe that these symbols had specific folk meaning associated with them and were painted to encourage good luck to the farm and land owners (e.g., prosperity, bountiful harvests, protection, etc.).  This led to them being called “hex signs”, and the folk meanings were eventually morphed into a type of folk magic.  Due to changing views of the German immigrants these symbols and the word hex became associated with witchcraft, leading to the formal recognition of the word hex referencing witchcraft in 1909.  This was further reinforced when local business people and tourism leaders capitalized on this idea to draw in visitors to the area, who were lured in by the notions of haunted tourism.

 

Ultimately, the phrase hex demonstrates a lot of cultural meaning and history.  It shows how language changes as groups come into contact with each other and how meanings change as those social relations either improve or sour.  This leaves us with the word as it exists today: a noun, verb, or adjective that strikes awe or fear into those who hear it, be it representing witchcraft or geometric shape.

 

Bibliography

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of hex.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/hex. Accessed 10 June, 2022.

Tuel, Brenna. Symbols of Blood and Soil: Identity Construction and the Hex Signs of the Pennsylvania Germans. Montreal: Concordia University, 2019. Print.

Vocabulary.com. Vocabulary.com. 2022. Electronic. 10 June 2022.

 

 

Space: New Frontiers in Archaeological Study

 

Humans have been fascinated by outer space for millennia.  This is evident in various studies that have come from the archaeological field known as archaeoastronomy, the study of past people’s understanding of the universe.  Several of these topics have been explored previously on this blog, including the celestial observatory at Nabta Playa, studies of cultural events and understandings of eclipses, and King Tut’s cosmic blade.  There is a wealth of information that has not yet been explored that falls within the subject matter of archaeoastronomy, but today’s blog post seeks to introduce you to new frontiers in this area of study: the archaeology of outer space. 

 

Alice Gorman, an archaeologist out of Flinders University in Australia, has been pioneering archaeological studies as they relate to outer space.  She believes that “space junk” holds a great potential for study that can provide greater insights into human cultures, beliefs, ideas, norms, values, and more.  She defines “space junk” as man-made materials (artifacts), which includes but is not limited to satellites, remnants of rockets, probes, landers, and various other orbital debris, and organic human remains (e.g., urine and feces expelled into space by astronauts).  Since the 1940s, when the “Space Race” first began, these materials have been deposited directly and indirectly by humans involved in various space exploration missions.  While many believe that these materials are culturally neutral, meaning they can provide little to no information about the humans who created them, Gorman believes otherwise.  She claims there is a great potential to study scientific advancements and the cultural values that drove these innovations, particularly when one considers the different citizens and nations that were involved in the creation of these objects.  While the dominant narratives of the Space Race focus on White American and Russian men there were several other nations that were involved in the Space Race from the beginning and contributed to the deposition of early “space junk”.  Furthermore, more nations as well as private corporations have joined space exploration, providing additional materials that have been left behind in space.  Taken together there is a great deal of cultural elements that can be assessed from the “space junk” that remains in the atmosphere and will most likely be deposited in the future.

 

This, however, is an area of future study, which does not help current scholars interested in understanding contemporary issues concerning culture and outer space.  Gorman has a solution to this problem.  Drawing upon the historical record and her own culture history (as an Australian) she points out that it was not just Americans and Russians who initially entered the Space Race.  Various European nations, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, also developed space exploration technology.  While they were not as successful as either the Americans or Russians their contributions to space exploration are important areas of study, particularly as they pertain to how cultural values drove the Space Race in those nations and affected other groups.  Gorman notes that the United Kingdom and France, both of which were colonial powers in the 1940s, used their colonial territories as landscapes to build their space exploration launch sites.  These were deliberate decisions that framed colonial territories, specifically Algeria and Australia, as uninhabited areas that were prime for development and construction of space launch sites.  The colonial powers’ rationale was that if something went wrong with a shuttle launch no one would be harmed, but the reality was that there were Indigenous populations who existed in those territories who were willfully ignored.  When both the United Kingdom and France sent scientists, engineers, and military personnel to those regions they began to interact with the local Indigenous populations, resulting in cross cultural exchanges between both groups.  Much of the material cultural remains from these interactions remain as the sites were eventually abandoned, but they have not been widely studied.  The cultural impacts of these interactions are also ripe for ethnohistorical study, which has not been previously done.

 

Ultimately, Gorman makes compelling arguments for how and why archaeological studies should evolve and focus on contemporary outer space matters.  From understanding the cultural impacts of the Space Race to how continued space exploration and use is changing contemporary cultures there is a wealth of cultural information that can be learned and interpreted.  This is a new area of study for interested contemporary archaeologists and anthropologists, as well as a definitive one for future archaeologists and anthropologists.

 

Bibliography

Gorman, A. (2005). The Archaeology of Orbital Space. Australian Space Science Conference , 338-357.

Gorman, A. (2005). The cultural landscape of interplanetary space. Journal of Social Archaeology, 85-107.

Gorman, A. (2009). The Archaeology of Space Exploration. The Sociological Review, 132-145.

Oman-Reagan, M. P. (2016, February 8). Anthropologists in Outer Space. Retrieved from Sapiens: https://www.sapiens.org/culture/anthropologists-in-outer-space/?fbclid=IwAR05GJosWCCipr8I-aZbmhRhoa2jE7u28-RM6aBKSaAGxK_m3LhW66cTZY0