Morec has created an ultra-conservative and puritanical society that is oppressive and judgmental of its fellow citizens.

Thus, rationalists, who are all puritans, have never considered the fact that disbelief in magick is found only in puritanical societies.

The son, the opera's hero, is a dummy who never once sings; he is a nonconformist who must be made to fit into a puritanical society.

The slow degeneration of the once-idealistic kibbutz into a puritanical society, the strait-jacket of its conservative view of masculinity, and the conformity of her daughter all provide a backdrop to Atalia's problems.

Yet the puritanical society of Better Britons was never the whole story.

"The idea that a serious woman is not interested in earrings is a pernicious one afflicting our puritanical society, and others before ours," she said.

Her stories explore and reflect the patterns of her life: the return of the little girl from America to the strange, puritanical society of her mother's people" in Western Ireland.

But on one point Saudis agree: the cataclysmic event has turned this devout, puritanical and deeply conservative society topsy-turvy.

On top of everything, "The Edge of the World" tells a romantic story of star-crossed love, a child born out of wedlock and feuding families in a fiercely puritanical society.

Northern Ireland has very few people infected with HIV (the low rate is attributed to a relatively puritanical society, and one that includes virtually no intravenous drug abusers, in part "due to the security situation").