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While we don't claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of world cultures, this question does allow us the opportunity to showcase a terrific web site and the beauty of user-created content. We knew that there was a site out there with just this kind of information, but we couldn't remember the title or the URL. Luckily, knowing the power of descriptive listings, we searched Yahoo! using the terms "ethnic differences" and we don't mind boasting that, voila!, up popped an entry for Y? The National Forum on People's Differences -- exactly the site we were picturing. According to project director Phillip Milano, the premise of the forum is to "get people talking across their differences." It encourages people to ask questions about other
cultures, genders, religions, and occupations, even about subjects that are normally too embarrassing to broach. Once submitted, the forum posts the best questions and solicits responses from the general public. At the site, we tried browsing through the archives. Unfortunately, the titles weren't very helpful. Luckily, the site also offers a search feature, and after several attempts the simple combination of "Indian" and "dot" yielded some successful results. According to the two posted responses to a very similar question, the short answer is that the mark is a "tika" (which, when circular is also known as a "bindi") and is meant to signify that a woman is married. The traditional tika were made of vermilion paste, ash,
or sandalwood, whereas now they are usually created with more conventional liquids or powders (or even stickers!). Apparently, the symbolism of the bindi is no longer strictly followed and they are largely used as "beauty accoutrements."
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