Fortune Tellers - Research

Human beings have always searched for a glimpse of the future. Any good country fair has its fortune-teller, modelled on the image of a mysterious gypsy woman swathed in colourful scarves and dripping with earrings.

There are hundreds of techniques for divination (fortune telling), many dating back to before recorded history. Evidence indicates that forms of fortune-telling were practiced in ancient China, Egypt, Chaldea, and Babylonia as long ago as 4000 BC.

Predictive methods of fortune-telling include astrology, numerology, and the utilization of objects such as playing cards, tea leaves, crystal balls, dice, fire, water, and scattered salt.[1]

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But forecasting also had deeper roots the inherent of human beings to find certainty in life by knowing the future: What will I be when I grow up? Where will I live? What kind of work will I do? Will I be fulfilling? Will I marry? What will happen to my parents and other family members? To my country, to my job? To the economy in which I live? Forecasting addresses not just business issues but the deep-seated human wish to divine the future. It is the story of the near universal compulsion to avoid ambiguity and doubt and the refusal of the realities of life to satisfy that impulse. [2]

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Traditionally, throughout history the Gypsy people have been associated with fortune telling. The Gypsies, who call themselves Roma or Romany, are a nomadic culture which throughout history been mistreated and discriminated against. The Gypsy people have been associated with fortune telling, magic and shamanism. Gypsy fortune telling traditions are much the same everywhere, gypsy women used normal playing cards to predict the fortune of the person they were telling the fortune to. [3]

How this links to us

We haven't gone for the full on stereotypical gypsy fortune teller with the earrings, but we have included a few scarfs and materials around the set, as an influence. We have also just decided to focus on the crystal ball method of fortune telling, again not conforming to the gypsy stereotype of cards. We wanted ours to stand out, but still have a few influences of the roots of fortune telling. 

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Fortune telling is also still popular according to Friedman, so we still have an audience for our live stream. Wanting and craving to know the future is a human instinct.

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[1]‘History of Fortune Telling’ http://istina.rin.ru/eng/para/text/614.html (27.11.2016)
[2] FRIEDMAN, W. (2013) ‘Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters Princeton University Press. New Jersey
[3]AMBER. ‘Gypsy Fortune Telling Traditions’ https://tarotamber75.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/gypsy-fortune-telling-traditions/ (27.11.2016)