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Romanians do not recognize Dracula as their hero, nor do they identify themselves with his basic life concepts. Looking at the history of the appearance and circulation of this character, and the stories connected with his life, we are seemingly faced with a case of cultural globalization. In Romanian tradition, this kind of immortality, not connected to the resurrection at the end of times, is perceived as a curse brought about by sin. It is significant and obvious that Romanian tradition forbids to „eat up” the raw essence of life, the blood, as a token of absolute respect for everything alive. Associating perpetual body life with sin, or the involvement of sin in anomalies of this kind, is part of the community system of religious beliefs, including a particular angelology and demonology.Dracula is the typical contemporary vampire of international renown. Created by mass-media and cinematography industry and exported through various communication channels, he has become the power-bearer hero of a contemporary legend – a malignant, terrifying figure, catastrophic for redemption and afterlife, but endowed with absolute power on earth.
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Among the different types of grazing practiced by Romanians – local grazing within village border and pendulous grazing where in summer sheep are taken up the mountains, while in winter they are kept in the villages at the feet of the mountain - the transhumant grazing is the newest, efficient and spectacular at the same time.In summer sheep graze up, in the Carpathian Mountains, at heights of over 1.500 m, and in winter time they graze on lowlands (Tisei Plain, Romanian Plain, Dobruja). Sheep movement is done by feet, from mountain to the plain and viceversa. It is not expected that sheep owners hold large lots of land for fodder, because sheep eat almost the entire year only grass.It started in the 13th-15th centuries in Transylvanian villages from the lower side of the Carpathian Mountains, to the northern parts, for economical and social reasons, dictated by German towns: Orăştie, Sebeş, Sibiu, Braşov, Mediaş, in full demographical growth and industrial development.The sheep breeder movement offered raw material for smithies, leather industry, groceries, and milk products also for the same towns and not only.Transhumant grazing reached its climax at mid 19th century, going far beyond the Romanian territories – shepherds moved their sheep to the plains of three empires: Austrian, Turkish, Russian.In the last 20 years it entered a dissolution stage due to certain obstacles occurred during its performance.Its importance is huge for Romanians because it contributed to the uniformity of Romanian language and literature.
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The sacred dimension of the funeral feast is defining, as at the basis of all such feasts there lies the idea that in the afterlife the deceased shall continue its existence just like in the world of the living and consequently it needs all the elements it needed when alive. The funeral feasts, referred to in Romanian by the word praznice (of Slavic origin) mediate thus the transcendentalization of all goods offered by family members to be used by the deceased.The first mention in a Romanian document of the temporal cycle of the funeral feasts dates back to the 15th century, in a document issued by Stephen the Great. All later documents, such as the lists of funeral expenses, confirm the cycle thereof, carried out both with the occasion of the funeral, and thereafter, at three, nine, 20 and 40 days since the decease. There follows, usually the half year commemorative feasts, but the three-month and the nine-month feasts were also found. Yearly feasts were also carried out each year during the first seven years following the decease, when the remains of the body were exhumed. All these customs have survived unchanged until now in the Romanian villages of Moldavia. Generally, with any occasion that might come up, especially a celebrative one, the ancestors were to receive their part on the other world, where they eat and drink as they used to do on earth. The mental universe of the archaic world has been preserved in the Romanian traditional village and persisted in the Romanian society until full modernity, and nowadays it can still be identified in the rural universe, where the memory and the connection with the ancestors is still alive.
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Eugen D. Neculau was born in 1900, at Ungureni-Botoşani. When he was 17 he applied for being sent to the front, but his request was denied, as he was underaged; he was though accepted as a scout, and then as a corpsman. Here, in the middle of the young peasant soldiers, he has the revelation of a deep drama the Romanian village was living. The solemn oath, made to himself, of sacrificing himself on the front for the country, was replaced by another one, that he was to follow all along his life: the peasant’s illumination and welfare. In 1925, Neculau became a graduate of the Faculty of Letters of the University in Iaşi, with a diploma of license in Philosophy. Between 1929-1948 he was a professor at the „Veniamin Costache” Seminar in Iaşi. In 1944 he obtains the PhD in Letters and Philosophy, within the University in Iaşi, the PhD thesis having a suggestive title, Conditions and Perspectives of the Romanian Village.In 1927, Neculau founded the Cultural Hostel of Ungureni, which was turned into a People’s University in 1936; the scale of its influence is now extended to 12 localities. His initiative started from the premise that the peasant is „sensitive to two calls: one from heaven, wherefrom results all his spirituality, and another one, from the earth, to which his material essence is linked”. Neculau thought his whole approach on two plans. First of all, an educational one, aiming at eliminating illiteracy and raising the condition of the grown-up of the rural environment by culture. This plan was correlated with a wide campaign of sociological knowledge of the village, on the basis of which he would be able to write the monograph of the locality. The second plan, tightly linked to the first, aimed at raising the economic condition of the villages. In order to assure the feasibility of his whole action, he placed it under the sign of the science of pedagogy. Thus, the People’s University of Ungureni opened and proposed the Romanian villages a path to follow, path that involved the salvation of the village by its own powers. World War II, drought, starvation and above all the communist regime determined in 1948, the so-called „self-dissolution” of the People’s University. In the years that followed his retirement of 1959, he dedicated himself more and more to the assiduous work of elaboration and completion of his fundamental works, Sate pe Jijia de Sus (Villages of Upper Jijia) and Istoricul Căminului şi Universităţii Populare de la Ungureni pe anii 1927-1948 (History of the Hostel and People’s University of Ungureni during 1927-1948), both preserved nowadays at the County Direction of National Archives in Iaşi. Following a whole life of service, in modesty, to the highest chair, the natal village, Eugen D. Neculau left this world on 20 October 1974, entering the world of peace and eternity. He was buried in Eternitatea cemetery of Iaşi.
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Romanian cultural memory preserves in its folklore the poetic image of Saint Basil the Great, shaped throughout the centuries especially in traditional carols. The icon of Saint Basil the Great has thus moved from the calendar and the church and, passing through the filter of the liturgical texts, it reached folklore. Bearing in mind the connections which Saint Basil had with Romania, the popularity of his intercessions, the liturgy that bears his name and his prominence among the calendar saints, the Romanians’ piety towards him should be no reason of wonder.The importance of the great Capadoccian hierarch among the saints, but also within the calendar, led to an appreciable primacy along the centuries in Christian piety all over the world. Saint Basil is the saint who is celebrated on the first day of the year and is someone who has attained the peak of holiness. Romanian carols are an important testimony to this effect. In carols from all over Romania, there is a hierarchy of the saints, and Saint Basil holds a specific place in folkloric hagiography. Romanian carols represent Saint Basil together with Saint Peter and other saints, to the right of the Holy Virgin, or living in the same house with Jesus Himself. Saint Basil’s presence in Romanian carols includes a large number of liturgical and folkloric images such as the crowning of the year, the judge of flowers, the intercessor, Jesus’ close friend, the liturgy creator, the apologist, the warrior, the peace-maker, the exorcist, and the protector of those bearing his name. All of these incorporate in archaic popular culture well-known hagiographic elements, demonstrating the extraordinary receptivity of the Romanians towards the powerful and enlightening figure of this glorious father of the Church.
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In rural communities nothing happens at chance, all practices and individual or collective gestures have a certain meaning, even when or especially when they refer to the rites of passage, the cult of the dead or its „ideology”.One of the signs that define the peasant way of naming and signifying death is the cross which, once released, ends the ritual „of the cycle pertaining to the liminality of soul. Only after the six week commemoration is organized and especially after the «shelter» is prepared too, the tomb becomes an eternal house on one side and on the other the soul can start its trip to „the ancestors’ land”.The pillar, the cross, the calvary represent a chapter of an ethnography of death, both by image, aspect, symbolic meaning or composing element within the death „scenario”, and by the event that composes, by its rituals and meanings, a window (one of the many) through which one can look inside a people’s culture.The present paper, describing the tomb crosses of Oltenia, is meant to be a reference in the updating of the „state” of the current mentalities and practices related to the cult of the dead by several precious pieces of information obtained by means of field research (in Salcia – Dolj co., Lungeşti – Vâlcea co., Pietrişu-Baldovineşti, Făgeţelu and Cornăţelu-Poboru – Olt co.), with the occasion of an investigation carried out in 2005 which aimed at observing the continuity of the cross-making craft, the changes interfered throughout time, concerning both the aspect/presence of wooden crosses with a certain specificity of this area, and the recording of those transformations produced in the attitude/mentality of the rural world concerning the current thanatological practices.
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L’étude présente le riche complexe des coutumes et pratiques traditionnelles des fêtes d’hiver, avec les anciennes pratiques, les influences et les innovations adoptées au fil des années. L'espace étudié est connu sous le nom de Zona Fălticenilor, un aréal marque d’interférences et particularités multiples
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Le sujet ci-dessus fait partie d’une démarche plus ample qui veut répertorier et cataloguer les cornes pour la préservation de la poudre qui se trouvent dans les collections du Musée Ethnographique de la Moldavie. Ces objets nous en parlent de l’importance et de la distribution de la chasse traditionnelle en Moldavie. Les 23 cornes enregistrées dans les collections du musée, sous des noms différents, proviennent de Moldavie, mais aussi de Transylvanie et sont classifiées, d’après leur forme, en simples et doubles. La technique de réalisation est presque unitaire et le décor est surtout géométrique, avec la rose solaire comme motif central.L’apogée dans l’utilisation des cornes pour la préservation de la poudre a été enregistrée aux XVIIIe – XIXe siècles, ces récipients disparaissant au fur et à mesure que les armes à feu commencent à être utilisées, de sorte que de nos jours les répliques n’ont qu’un rôle décoratif.
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The paper describes different kinds of ritual offerings in the Romanian folklore, in comparison to the Balkan folk traditions (mainly Bulgarian ones). Thus, the offerings are made generally to beings from the world beyond, the patron demons of diseases (The Plague, The Cholera, the demon of the Smallpox) and the souls of the dead. The offerings are presented in their temporal and spatial occurrences, with a stress on their representative sequences (specific elements, sequences, performers). An important place is given to archaic elements rarely found nowadays in the funeral practices.
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Moldavia is one of the historical Romanian provinces impressive by its cultural heritage: in the fields of craftsmanship, in arts or in science, Moldavia is characterized by its unsurpassed fantasy in the textile art. The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga considered that, among the Romanian carpets, the Moldavian ones were the most traditional.16th century documents provide interesting information regarding the names and some characteristics of different fabrics, confirming their variety.The rich and various decors illustrate different aesthetic conceptions. Depending on the historical period and the geographical region, motifs had a certain meaning. Some of these signs have universal significance, some others have only local significance. In the fields of the carpets, motifs of far away origins were interpreted in the spirit of the Romanian people. They are testimonies of long trips in the Balkan world, in the Middle East, in the Mediaeval Western world, into the Byzantine world and finally in the Renaissance, grafted on the autochthonous background of forms and decors where, at the same time, they were enriched thus increasing their value. Analyzing the originality of the Moldavian textile art, we can say that on the background of cultural influences from nations coming from north and from east, the Moldavian carpet contains motifs taken from the Polish and Ukrainian tapestry. The oldest Moldavian fabrics are decoratively characterized by geometrism, expressed by schematical shapes, stylizations of some elements taken from the surrounding world. The ornaments of the carpets show two modalities of expression: the geometrism and the stylization. The simplest system of ornamentation is the linear one, made of chromatically alternated stripes. The fabric composition is a crucial criterion in establishing the specificity of the carpets. The ornamental compositions are forming a system of decorative and chromatic motifs with added elements and motifs that give aesthetic content to the object.In contrast with the wall carpet, destined to the smaller space of the peasant household, the carpet destined to the boyar’s houses had other dimensions. The size was determined by the destination of the carpets. Those of smaller dimensions, specific to the peasant household, were hanging on the walls or they were kept on the dowry chest. Those destined to the aristocratic houses were displayed on the walls as tapestry works, spread on the sofas and, only in later times, even on the floor. If the Moldavian wall carpets (păretarele) were rural creations, the carpets (scoarţele) were the result of specialized craftsmanship, reflecting a higher socioeconomic status. By size, composition and decorative interpretation, they reveal the relation between the boyars and the Moldavian bourgeoisie, the Western world, and the Ukrainian circles. The cultural influences that came with the commercial exchanges and personal relationships led to the integration and interpretation of motifs and designs, in their manner. This led to the joining of the geometric and vegetal motifs in a particular manner.
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The paper is based on field researches undertaken in 1998-2000 in Roşcani and Mihăieşti villages (Hunedoara District). Starting from several personal narratives and ethnographic descriptions recorded in these villages, we outline some characteristics of the funeral rites based on mythic structures and representations. We draw a parallel between the informers’ testimonies and the ethnological opinions of Ion H. Ciubotaru’s as formulated in his book, The Great Passage. We analyze the rites that are intended to ensure the community’s protection against the unexpected return of the dead as malefic spirit and the reflection of beliefs in ceremonial practices and also in the stories. Although people accomplish all these rites, ’the restless dead’ is a strange but not upsetting presence either as a dream vision or as a ghost haunting in their household, on the cornfield or on the narrow streets of the village. Sometimes these spirits seem to keep important protective features defining themselves as guardians of the family’s or of the community’s traditions.
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The mythology of death captured numerous crucial symbolic elements, whose roots go down to ancient times. A contemplation symbol specific to the ritual of passage to the netherworld is the tree of alms or the tree of life. By its presence and spiritual load, this substitute of the dead has a regenerative purpose, symbolizing also the continuation of the deceased’s life on the mythical plan. This vegetal symbol interferes in the funeral traditions with the goal to reestablish the equilibrium lost by death. As an act of symbolic communication, the tree, in particular, implies the simplification of the transfer and the benefic integration of the dead in the netherworld. Therefore, the presence of the tree as a feature of the funeral ceremony can be integrated, on the basis of structural parameters, in the afterlife requisite, while according to the magic spiritual components (established by Arnold Van Gennep), the tree is placed in the integration rituals. Throughout time, the tree, an important object of the funeral requisite, gradually loses space and its symbolic value, being replaced by the tree of alms.
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This article brings into scientific circulation information from manuscripts that are kept in the Archives of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg (dated to 1848, 1849), the Institute of Manuscripts from the Library of the Academy Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine (dated to 1884), and the Archive of the Mikluho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in Moscow (dated to 1889). The topic of clothing etiquette is treated in the larger frame of etiquette and social communication in order to point out the relationships which they determine.Towards the end of the 19th century, the folk dress, as celebratory clothing, and a mark of ethnic identity, passed even deeper into the passive sphere. Only the elderly continued to maintain its full functions. Meanwhile, socially active groups (youth and working adults) wore traditional pieces underneath, and overtop-industrially produced pieces, marked by modernity and lacking the nexus of traditional symbolism. Due to many historical and socio-economic factors, this complex process unfolded at different speeds throughout Bessarabian settlements, being monitored by the Russian empires ideology of denationalization and the inevitable rhythms of modernity. The research of the manuscripts allowed the identification of some clothing pieces, and revealed ways in which the components of traditional clothing were integrated. These data are very useful for the reconstruction of folk costume in Moldova.
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The notion of fantastic has been repeatedly defined during different periods of time. It has often been discussed as part of a larger system of concepts, together with other notions, such as miraculous, supernatural, unreal or imaginary. Many scholars (for instance: Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Marcel Brion Roger Caillois, P.-G. Castex, Rene de Solier Louis Vax, Tzvetan Todorov, Silviu Angelescu, Marian Beşteliu, Sabina Ispas, Vasile Tudor Creţu, Ioan Vultur, Constantin Prut, Sergiu Pavel Dan, Petru Ursache, etc.) have provided various definitions of the term, trying to identify the characteristics of this notion. However, the fantastic is a complex concept that may be discussed in connection with the fairy tale and the novel, but not exclusively. In fact, the miraculous is more specific to the fairy tale than the fantastic, and this is another important problem brought about by the various definitions of the two terms. Scholars, however, have not succeeded in providing an accurate definition, reason why the discussion remains open.
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In the traditional perspective, woman is an element of stability within family, while man is related to the outside world and the public sphere generally. The division according to genders deeply influenced the concept of individual identity, starting from the fact that this kind of gender division operated both in the social and religious spaces, such as in churches. Woman’s preeminence within all rituals of passage in the traditional society as well as in the normal rituals over the year make us conclude that Romanian women always had the role of maintaining the relation between mundane and sacred spaces. In past times, when coming to childbirth, the woman had the major role, while the man was responsible of only the social integration of the newborn. At present, the institution of midwifery is suffering an active process of reorganization, the woman is still the main character, but the midwifery is deeply changed. In the case of weddings, one could speak of a certain equilibrium of roles, as well as of the change of authority, as the bride passes from the parental authority to the one of the husband. The woman had the role of spiritual sustenance in the rites of passage. In the funeral ritual, the woman was providing the balance between the real world and the netherworld. She is also the one who maintains and celebrates the memory of the deceased. The woman’s role preeminence demonstrates she is aware of her responsibilities in front of her own destiny. The individualism of the Romanian family developed through a series of rules and norms of behavior, and was maintained and adapted to the requirements of each epoch, without ignoring tradition.
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Aşa numita „cultură Čalga” domină Bulgaria atât în spaţiul privat, cât şi în cel public încă de la sfârşitul anilor ’90. Čalga e un adevărat complex cultural – deci cu propriile modele comportamentale, atitudini, sistem de valori, atribute, estetică – ce s-a dezvoltat pe un stil de muzică populară rudimentar (numit Folk, Popfolk sau Čalga), care în perioada socialistă reprezenta subcultura fără prezenţă în media şi considerată emblematică pentru gustul celor din straturile de jos ale societăţii. Locul de origine al acestei culturi este cârciuma, serbarea populară sau contextul familial, unde este receptată în special în forma spectacolelor live. Cea mai importantă trăsătură a fenomenului Čalga este caracterul sincretic, amestecul între elementele de şlagăr, muzică pop şi romanes, ritmurile orientale şi cele balcanice. O imagine ideală a sa este muzica Turbo-Folk, apărută cu mult timp în urmă în fosta Iugoslavie. Drumul ei victorios în cultura muzicală bulgară a început la mijlocul anilor ’90. Pe de o parte, era promovată de proaspăt îmbogăţiţii şefi ai mafiei, toţi de origine ţărănească, care şi-au impus gustul propriu ca învingători ai schimbării (de după ’89) şi care constituiau un model pentru numeroase categorii sociale; pe de altă parte, mulţi bulgari vedeau în Čalga o muzică „dizidentă”, deoarece fusese respinsă de cultura socialistă oficială. Prin acest argument apărea ca singurul curent muzical neinfluenţat de comunism şi care putea prelua, după schimbare, funcţia unui nou fenomen reprezentativ identitar, al unei culturi bulgare autentice.După 1989, atât cultura populară, cât şi cea cultă a Bulgariei au intrat într-o criză profundă, criză care durează până în ziua de azi, astfel încât cultura Čalga, fără concurenţă şi fără alternative pe măsură, a ocupat un spaţiu din ce în ce mai mare. La sfârşitul mileniului, toate mijloacele media îi stăteau la dispoziţie (în contrast cu perioada comunistă şi cu începutul anilor ’90, când nu era transmisă prin media). S-a afirmat că reprezintă cultura bulgară prin excelenţă, preferată de cca. 85% din populaţie. Astăzi, estetica starurilor Čalga modelează întreaga scenă a mediei. Chiar mai mult, ea a devenit treptat şi cultura elitelor politice ale ţării, care, prin finanţarea/susţinerea ei, încearcă să se legitimeze în ochii populaţiei.Spaţiul balcanic, cel care, în viziunea UE şi a Vestului, este întotdeauna legat de diferite probleme şi lipsuri, încearcă în prezent – din ce în ce mai mult – să-şi păstreze propriile valori culturale printr-o atitudine de rezistenţă faţă de cele occidentale. Ca urmare a încercării de a păstra concepţiile culturale autohtone, are loc un fenomen de revalorizare a propriilor forme populare, o reîntoarcere la spaţiile comunicative proprii şi o redefinire a noţiunii familiare de „balcanic”, proces care duce şi mai mult la îndepărtarea de normele şi de valorile europene
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The rite known in Moldavia as the midwife’s sleeves consists in a gift that unfolds on three different levels. The most important of them is the cloth meant to be sewn as sleeves on the midwife’s shirt. They reconfigure the arms of gold, a motif found in literary folklore worldwide. The midwife’s arms are defiled by the birth blood and they need to be reconstructed in a higher form. Apart from purification, this rite is meant to influence the child’s good future and to magically ensure a good lactation for the mother.
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Le poème Călin le fou représente un modèle exemplaire de synthèse de la poétique populaire et de la poétique culte dans la création de Mihai Eminescu. L’auteur a travaillé son texte pendant la période 1869-1875, en s’inspirant d’un conte de fée recueilli au nord de la Moldavie. Nous pouvons à juste titre nous demander pourquoi Călin, un personnage exceptionnel, a reçu le déterminant „le fou”, dépréciatif à un premier regard? Le roumain présente plusieurs sens pour „fou”: „paresseux”, „dépourvu de sagesse”, „sot”, mais aussi „énorme”, „extraordinaire”. Un lexème équivalent de „fou” est, d’une perspective étymologique, „merveilleux” – „fou, étourdi; magique, surnature”.Ce n’est pas par hasard qu’un manuscrit d’Eminescu datant de 1869, contient l’esquisse: „Călin le petit fou – fou – merveilleux”. La lecture du poème mentionné mais aussi d’autres créations du grand poète, suggère que les fous et les merveilleux étaient pour lui des marginalisés, méprisés, qui détenaient des vertus et connaissances dépassant le quotidien. La même idée apparaît dans plusieurs traditions mythologiques – religieuses et littéraires du monde. Călin le fou de Mihai Eminescu anticipe, donc, le motif du génie et de sa destinée dramatique, ayant comme point de départ l’image folklorique du fou.
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Purpose of Research. The article covers the problem of the research in the historiography of the scientificheritage of the Ukrainian scientist-ethnographer Zenon Kuzelya and his contribution to the study of the traditional culture of the Ukrainian people. Methodology. The methods of historiographic analysis and synthesis, criticism of historiographic sources, problem-chronological, retrospective and comparative methods were widely used. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty reveals in the systematization of works, which concern traditional culture and life of Ukrainians, as well as the theoretical foundations of ethnographic research of the scientist. Conclusions. The historiographic assessments of the scientific heritage of Zenon Kuzelya in the field of studying the traditional culture of the Ukrainian people are rather ambiguous. On the other hand, many of the ethnological and cultural problems of the scientific heritage of Z. Kuzelya remain open.
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