by Christina Ramey

Created on: December 02, 2008   Last Updated: December 08, 2008

The blood of Christ, represented by red wine by Catholics with communion. Shakespeare's symbolic bloodletting in his play Macbeth. The isolation of women in tribes across the world during menstruation for fear of evil taint. Cross-culturally, blood is a powerful symbol.

In many cultures, the context in which blood appears changes how it is perceived. Women's menstruation in some tribal cultures is seen as a taint, while other cultures perceive or did perceive it as an extremely powerful but volatile force that could inadvertently hurt men, leading to the

isolation of menstruating women. Christian mythology holds great reverence for the blood of Christ. This is especially true of the stigmata, an unexplained bleeding from the palms and feet that mimics the holes in Jesus Christ's hands when he was nailed to the cross. In Judaism, it is forbidden to consume blood in any form, leading to many dietary restrictions for Jews, because as Leviticus dictates: "For the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off."

The strong tie of blood to our perception of life is visible throughout many sayings and common metaphors. This is especially true of metaphors relating to family relations, such as "blood of my blood," "blood brother," "blood-related," and finally "blood is thicker than water."

Blood has also been associated with temperament. In Japanese culture, blood type is a common way to identify one's personality and temperament. In Greek history, Hippocrates named blood as one of the four humours which needed to remain in balance, along with black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. If one had too much blood in proportion to its three counterparts, they were described as sanguine, perhaps given to impulsive behaviors due to their whimsical nature.

The reason behind humanity's equal part attraction to and repulsion from blood isn't hard to identify. Instinctively, when humans watch blood flow from their veins, we feel as if we're seeing our very life drain away. This is true throughout every race, every religion, every ethnicity. Life is the most powerful natural force and humans live in awe and fear of it and by association, we live in awe and fear of blood and its power inside and outside of us.

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