Астралната метла и левитациските перформанси на вештерското тело
Suzana Marjanić, “Astralna metla i levitacijski perfromansi vjestičjega tela”, Treća: časopis Centra za ženske studije, Zagreb, broj 1, Vol. IV, 2002., 226-249.
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Suzana Marjanić, “Astralna metla i levitacijski perfromansi vjestičjega tela”, Treća: časopis Centra za ženske studije, Zagreb, broj 1, Vol. IV, 2002., 226-249.
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An examination of surviving healing charm texts originating in Ireland between 1700 and the mid-nineteenth century suggests a strong link between the contents of this corpus and a select few national saints (Columcille, Bridget, and Patrick) and international Catholic religious figures (Christ, Mary, and the Apostles). By contrast, local Irish saints, which otherwise figure so prominently in religious practices of the time, are significantly underrepresented in the Irish charm corpus of this time period. This essay looks at the long-term status of highly localized saints in religious and medical discourse, the effect of church centralization in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and the rise of select national saints as factors in this feature of the Irish charms.
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In this article I will consider the general development of Welsh narrative charms from the earliest examples (late fourteenth century) up to the first decades of the Early Modern Era in Wales (mid-to-late sixteenth century). I will focus on the most common narrative charm types of this time: those that feature the motifs of Longinus, the Three Good Brothers, and Flum Jordan or Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. The development of these charms over time can provide insights into changing attitudes in Wales towards healing, religion, superstition, and even language. By the onset of the Early Modern era, Welsh narrative charms were increasingly subject to rhetorical expansions of the religious narratives that constituted the efficacious component of the charm. Additionally, by the end of the fifteenth century and into the early sixteenth, charms that once commonly featured Latin as the predominant language demonstrated an increased preference for the vernacular.
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“Virtue wands” do appear in Argentinean folk narrative as useful devices used by the hero to achieve his dreams. Using the correct charm and waving his wand, the Argentinean folk hero John the Lazy manages to marry the princess and to live without working. Charms show in this way how to do things with words, pronouncing the proper words in the right situation. In this presentation, I deal with the formulaic use of a magic charm in this Argentinean folktale, collected in fieldwork in 1988. This charm deals with an invocation to the “Wand of virtue” given to the hero by God`s mercy, whose proper use shows the performative force of language. The tension between the absence of effort and the need of working is solved in this tale in a world of dream, in which the real effort is to learn how to use the correct words. Social beliefs in the supernatural are expressed in this tale, in which the wand is a God`s gift that allows the hero to avoid struggling. But the main gift is actually the knowledge of language which permits the hero to make an accurate usage of formulaic discourse, structured in the charm in an epigrammatic way. In this way, I propose a metapragmatic consideration of such charms that, as Urban (1989) says, deal with “speech about speech in speech about action”. In the Argentinean context in which I collected this folktale, the hero is the young son of a rural peasant family, poor and struggling, like the narrator and his audience. The lazy poor boy who marries the princess thanks to the force of the dreams shows how the language is the key both to repair social gaps and to restore collective order.
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The role of charms in Iranian belief narratives remains largely unexplored. Hereby, I attempt a preliminary survey. First, I examine the text of the Iranian national epic, the Shahname of Ferdowsi (X–XI century A.D.), in which the word afsun denotes charm or magic spell. In contemporary folktale texts (I mainly rely on the voluminous Dictionary of Iranian Folktales), an Arabic loan-word verd (which also means a kind of prayer) is used to mean a charm which facilitates supernatural results such as shape-shifting, transformation or miraculous healing. Ritual prayer (namaz) and supplication (do’a) also function as charms in folk narratives. I also give a brief overview of the Iranian folklore scholarship.
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Although belief narratives and charms are regarded as two different folklore genres with different modes of transmission, performance and function, they are both in a constant dialectical relationship, yielding mutual feedback. One of the main forms of this interactive relationship concerns the etiology of a dis-ease (construction of a dis-order, i.e. belief narratives) and its therapeutic treatment (restoration of order, i.e. charms). This relationship between the cause of diseases and their treatment is clearly reflected in a Christian content belief narrative closely associated with incantations used to heal abdominal diseases. The basic personage embodying this belief narrative – registered in many and different areas of Greece – is the figure of a monk or Christ himself, who, often disguised as a beggar, is hosted by a family. Violations of both religious norms associated with fasting and social ethics connected with accepted behaviour towards a guest have as a result the manifestation of an abdominal disease, which eventually the monk or Christ treats using an incantation. This article shows that the parallel analysis of legends and charms, where possible, is necessary since it can provide useful information, not only on the ways by which the charm text is produced and reproduced, but also on the position and status of the genre in the context of a wider folk religious system. Furthermore, it could contribute to the understanding of the charm text, without which the knowledge of the belief narrative is often incomprehensible, if not nonsensical.
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In Latvian folklore, the Devil is a relatively common image, represented in all the genres. This paper analyses the verbal charms that mention the Devil or Thunder together with the motif of pursuing the Devil. The corpus of charms consists of texts taken from the first systematic collection of Latvian charms, published in 1881. Examples of charms are accompanied by a comparative analysis of folk legends and beliefs. There are correspondences in charms, legends and beliefs regarding the appearance and traits of the Devil as well as his activities and dwelling places. These genres also share the motif of pursuing the Devil. Texts from different genres complement each other by providing missing narrative fragments and aspects of meaning. In the legends and charms, black and red dominate in the Devil’s appearance, and the Devil can also appear in the form of animals. The Devil’s activities and presence are linked with the origins of evil and associated with a variety of diseases which, like the Devil himself, are overcome by similar techniques. These legends and beliefs help us understand the similarities expressed in the charms, deepen and expand the semantics of the images, and explain the associative links and anchoring of specific actions in the broader folklore material. The plot and length of texts in charms are determined by the specific style, structure, and function of this genre. Therefore, content is not expanded in detail; instead, only key figures or images, the foundation of the plot, and its most important elements are mentioned. The comparative material found in legends and beliefs provides more in-depth explanation of the concise messages expressed in the charms.
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Albasty is one of the most commonly known malevolent beings among Turkic peoples from the Altay Mountains via the Caucasus and up as far as the Volga River. This article focuses on Turkic data from the Volga region (Chuvash, Tartar, Bashkir) and the Eurasian Steppe (Kazak, Kyrgyz, Nogay, Uzbek). Various areas can be ascertained on the basis of verbal charms and folk-belief narratives. On the Eurasian Steppe, for example, Albasty was first and foremost a puerperal demon. In this territory, specialists (kuuču) were called in to keep away or oust the demon at birth. Many recorded legends and memorates concern healing methods and the process of becoming a healer. In contrast, epic texts or narratives are rarer,in the Volga region, yet there are certain verbal incantations against the Albasty, which here is rather a push or disease demon.
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The article presents child-threatening mythical creatures, their expressions and functions in Lithuanian folklore. Threats of the mythical world can be divided into two groups: real and constructed threats. The ones of the first group, real threats, are perceived as threats to children by adults. Real threats arise from two types of representations of the mythical world: mythical creatures and mythologised persons. The second group, constructed threats, is the is the phenomenon in which adults use folklore narratives to evoke fear in children, but adults do not perceive those narratives as real threats. Three types of folklore genres were used to frighten children: fairy tales, folk legends, and short, frightening expressions. This article focuses on the latter. The research analyses Lithuanian customs, beliefs, and narratives from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
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The present paper examines the relationship between incantations and belief narratives, two types of oral genres based on human contact with the supernatural. Such contact attests to a dangerous disruption of the boundary between the human and demonic worlds and to the intensive efforts to reinforce it so that participants may return to the space they belong in. For this purpose, various verbal and nonverbal tools are used in belief narratives (gestures, objects, plants, sound or light signals, certain activities – such as walking backwards, placing a cap over the forehead, etc.). In contrast, incantations, an inseparable part of vernacular magical practices, rely solely on verbal communication with impure forces. This paper will analyse the following aspects of interconnection between these oral genres: 1) the display of a genre within a genre – the presence of incantations in belief narratives, e.g., about dispersing hailstorm clouds; 2) the types of verbal communication with the supernatural in belief narratives (swearing, cursing, command, reproach) and their equivalents in incantations; 3) various motifs of protection from demons (counting the uncountable, using bodily fluids; thorn, fire, metal, broom, etc.). The consideration of shared elements in these genres that preserve the relationship with the mythological narrative include elements of the ceremonial context in which incantations are performed. I argue that some of these elements appear also in belief narratives, where they undergo a transformation.
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During the corpus-building operation of the Digital Database of Hungarian Verbal Charms we tried to augment the available material by the inclusion of witness statements of witch trials conducted in early modern Bihar County and the town of Debrecen. My paper explores the kinds of dilemmas and issues we were faced with concentrating especially on generic questions of verbal charms. As regards the exploration of early modern written sources of vernacular language use the most relevant recent approaches came from historical speech act research. Therefore, in the context of the corpus building project I shall also discuss to which extends the results of historical pragmatics, historical speech act research can offer any help (and if so, what kind of help) in solving the generic problems and questions of verbal magic.
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Magyar, Zoltán: A magyar történeti mondák katalógusa [A Catalogue of Hungarian Historical Legends]. 2018, Budapest. Kairosz Kiadó. Volume I–XI. ISBN 978-963-662-951-9 Domokos, Mariann – Gulyás, Judit (eds.): Az Arany család mesegyűjteménye: Az Arany család kéziratos mese- és találósgyűjteményének, valamint Arany László Eredeti népmesék című művének szinoptikus kritikai kiadása. [The Folk Tale Collection of the Arany Family. A Synoptic Critical Edition of the Arany Family’s Manuscript Collection of Tales and Riddles and László Arany’s Original Folk Tales]. 2018, Budapest: MTA Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont – Universitas Kiadó – MTA Könyvtár és Információs Központ. 737. ISBN 978-963-9671-71-3 Olosz, Katalin (ed.): Nagyszalontai népballadák és epikus énekek 1912–1919. [Folk Ballads and Epic Songs from Nagyszalonta 1912‒1919]. 2018, Cluj Napoca: Kriza János Society. 474. ISBN 978-973-843-998-6 Pócs, Éva (ed.): The Magical and Sacred Medical World. 2019, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 525. ISBN 978-1-5275-2252-7
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In the present paper, one chapter of the Jangar epic, chanted by the famous storyteller, khuurch Rinchin of Inner-Mongolian Baarin origin, is discussed from two main points of view: (1) the spread of Jangar among Mongols not belonging to Oirats and Kalmyks, and (2) how contemporary social circumstances transform the traditional heroic epic into another folkloric genre, i.e. the so-called khuuriin ülger. The chapter ‘Minggan, the Beauty of the World’ told by khuurch Rinchin—discussed here—is well known from other Jangar publications like the ‘Mingyan the Beauty of the World’ (published in the Thirteen Chapters Jangar/Jinggar: Takil ǰula qaγan-u üledel Tangsuγ bumba qaγan-u ači Üǰüng aldar qaγan-u köbegün üye-in önöčin Jingγar-un tuγuǰi arban γurban bölög). The life story of Rinchin and his creative innovation in traditional folklore genres are typical phenomena of the contemporary transitional period in preserving and sustaining folklore genres and performance.
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The author talks with the renowned ethnologist on the occasion of her round anniversary: in addition to issues related to her personal life path, he primarily wants to present her professional progress. The discussion covers all the works of Ilona L. Juhász published as independent books.
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The term culture is one of the best-known, most common and most widely used concepts which creates an illusion of its general intelligibility and comprehensiveness: everyone can use it, say an opinion about it, analyze from its own angle of research. For that reason the term culture requires more attention, because in generalizations the true meaning can be ignored. When exploring the notion of culture, we primarily consider social relationships, an individual’s attitude towards another individual, an individual’s relationship to nature, but also an individual’s relationship with the community. Starting from this connection system we can observe an intercultural phenomenon (the encounter of different cultures) and then we can define multicultural societies too. If we continue to look at the subject – the multicultural society in Vojvodina – where people with different cultural, religious and ethnic identities live together, we can easily identify the complicated system of relationships to which cultural intelligence gives proper answers. Cultural intelligence is a new concept that can be observed in times of global economic and political change. In a variety of life situations – in the workplace, in the handling of official affairs – the lack of cultural intelligence can cause problems, create unpleasant situations from which one or the other side or both may mistakenly interpret the situation. Therefore, cultural intelligence requires not only the need to understand different cultures, but also their correct and humane application, looks for factors, environmental challenges that affect human relationships and for a way how to deal with challenges without conflicts. In the multiethnic cultural milieu of Vojvodina cultural intelligence can be traced even further, where the knowledge and proper interpretation of the culture of the major ethnicity, as well as of its own, have a great importance. Cultural intelligence gives an answer to the question how can such a complicated network of relationships work in a non-conflict way. Through the example of Vojvodina the study seeks and analyzes whether cultural intelligence can be find in folk traditions, what kind of effect the knowledge of different cultures, traditions and customs could have on the community and could these kind of established relationships lead to conflict-free communications.
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The lives of people, farmers and stock breeders, the inhabitants of West Bácska, as well as their cattle and crops in our lowland climate, have always been in close connection with unstable weather conditions and infectious diseases, which have often spread among the inhabitants of this region. In order to avoid these disorders or troubles, people in those times sought help using well-known religious actions: vows to the supreme powers. Their knowledge about the changes in everyday life and their connection with religious traditions were so deeply rooted in their lives, that communities, inhabitants of entire villages, members of various ethnic groups swore to respect the specific saints or days of the year, in order to prevent disasters by taking dedicated vows. Thus, from the end of the 17th century, in the ethnically heterogeneous West Bácska almost every village developed various customs od commitment: protective procession, non-working days, strict fasting, worship services, apotropaic prayers, etc.
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Collecting traditional children's plays is an important task of our ethnographic research. Not only to capture the current knowledge, but also to deepen our self-knowledge, as children's plays are the remnants of events and rituals from ancient times. This thesis includes the part of the childlore with nursery rymes, lores, riddles and pranks. The material can be divided into two parts. The first part contains nursery rymes that adulsts tell or sing to infants (lullabies, caressing rymes, healing rhymes). In the second part there are rhymes that are commonly spoken or sung among children. In addition there are stories about nature and plants, fables, onomatopoeas and riddles. All children's rymes recorded in Csóka and its surrounding have characteristic rhythms and usually represent a boundary between speech and singing. The textual parts are often on the local dialect.
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Under the title “Wash Up and Wipe Yourself ...” we opened the 18th traditional Christmas ethnographic exhibition organized by the Cultural and Educational Center “Thurzó Lajos” with which we ehhibited in another ten similar cultural institutions and museums (Tornjoš, Novo Orahovo, Gornji Breg, Zajecar, Temerin, Subotica, Futog, Kikinda, Backa Topola, Belgrade). The last exhibition was organized in cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum in the capital of Serbia. The following work deals with the exhibition and accompanying text used for the exhibition activity with the subtitle “Sets for hygiene in the 20th century from the collection of the City Museum Senta, as well as from other ethnographic collections”. The exhibition of artifacts from the ethnographic collection of our museums related to everyday hygiene was largely enriched by two private collections. One of them belonged to Imre Veres, our fellow ethnologist, who died twenty years ago, and the other belongs to Magda Sabo, who lives in Tornjos. For the needs of my exhibition a lot of photographs and descriptions were borrowed from colleagues in the National Museum of Valjevo, the Vojvodina Museum of Novi Sad, the National Museum of Kikinda and the Museum of Srem in Sremska Mitrovica. In the missing places we used archival photographs of Senta City Museum and the Agricultural Museum of Hungary in Budapest (Erdélyi Mór – Budapest, Štica – Senta), while we supplemented the written material with quotations from the works of our ethnographers. Several members of the ethnological society “Kiss Lajos” also took part in collecting artifacts and shooting photo material with Ms. Anna Szőke as a team leader. Some good, contemporary photos of apple washing during Christmas holidays were recorded as well as pouring with water or parfume during Easter Monday as a photo material for festive customs. In order to describe the ethnographic significance of hygiene customs we managed to include citizens in artifacts collecting. The materials we received were sorted according to themes, and the written part of the exhibition with accompanying photographs were printed on 20 panels with the following thematic titles: Water, Water Cointainers, Well, In the Sanctuary, Clean-Impure “Washing Up”, Outdoor Washing Up – Easter, Christmas, Hygienic customs and accessories, Archaic Rural Washing, Rural-Urban Methods of Washing Up and Personal Hygiene, “Washing Up ...” – children's game, “Wash Up Nicely...” Festive Towels, Convenient Towels, “Comb Yourself Too...”, Soap, Bathing, Conclusion, Colophone. Adapting to the place and requirements of modernity, it is easy to vary the order of the panels and the visuality of the exhibition. The festive days of the Hungarian Catholic religion are linked to many folk customs regarding washing up and cleaning. The culture of hygiene has undergone radical changes during the 20th century; in the new millennium, many old accessories have been out of use or have been worn out. Some of the old objects, even when they became part of museum or local collections, did not become the topic of some serious professional researching. This work is an attempt to fill that gap.
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The bibliography contains articles on heritage preserving published between 1976 and 1990 in the youth newspaper Képes Ifjúság. In the articles activities, associations and individuals engaged in ethnic music and folk dances among Vojvodina Hungarians were written about. The examined material published for 15 years shows that the Hungarians of Vojvodina recognized and accepted the ideas of the movement of folklore centers already flourishing in Hungary. New ensembles of folk music were established, some folklore pedagogues participated in additional education in Hungary and began to organize regular folklore activities, while at the same time ensembles of traditional music and folklore within cultural centers continue to function. The renewed movement of folklore centers in Vojvodina, as well as in Hungary, can be linked with young intellectuals, so for that reason I chose to do the research on the youth newspaper. Each segment of the bibliography is related to an annotation that gives a brief description of the content in the given article.
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During 2018. the 135th year is celebrated since the arrival of Sekelis from Bukovina to these areas. Familiar with our history, we are aware that our ancestors escaped to Moldova because the massacre threat in Madefalva and settled down in Bukovina. After one hundred years spent in Bukovina, due to difficult life conditions they were settled down to the lower Danube basin. The village of Skorenovac was formed during these settling down. In this work, which is based on personal memories, as well as on the memories of people from Skorenovac, I wanted to describe wedding customs of Sekelis. The basis of the work is the graduation paper written in 1995 while I was studying in Subotica to be a folk dance educator. In my work I tried to record wedding ceremonies from Skorenovac based on the stories of several informants. Even on that occasion I used personal memories, since as a girl I was interested in wedding customs, and like every Sekeli girl of that time, I truly followed all the happenings during wedding days. In addition, I also recorded memories of my own wedding which took place in 1993. During the collection of data some of my informants told me about wedding customs before the Second World War, while the majority talked about the next period, about weddings from the second half of the 20th century. At that time the marriage customs of ethnic communities living in the village had already begun to combine and had formed a unique, wedding practice with colourful customs that the villagers called sekeli wedding. The folk tradition in this form reached its highlight during the eighties and nineties of the last century, and then in the new millenium changed again and impoverished in custom practice. In my work I mainly describe the most picturesque wedding customs, since I have experienced them myself. My work can also be viewed as a recording of personal memories which is truly emphasized by the way and style of my writing.
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