Xilogeneza şi litogeneza omului. Eseu despre originea şi evoluţia credinţelor în Europa Orientală

Author(s): Petru Caraman / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

The present study is based on the myth of xylogenesis, meaning wood’s metamorphosis into human. The author analyzes the area of Oriental Europe in particular; yet, this part would remain just a reference point, as this phenomenon is met within our entire continent, as well as in many areas outside Europe. In all these places the myth of xylogenesis derives from a generous background of ritual beliefs and practices originating in early Antiquity and in some of the areas it still subsists.Firstly, introspections are made on Romanian ethnologic documents highlighting the analyzed theme. These documents are then related to similar sources from the entire Slavic world, as well as from other areas within Central or Western Europe. Common aspects, owed to presumable borrowings, and particularities, such as oogenesis or parthenogenesis indicating other origins, are equally observed.The comparison of anthropogenous fairytales in different places leads the author to the conclusion that “in all the countries it exists, the theme of xylogenesis resides in the old autochthonous heritage”. Xylogenesis cannot be separated from other folk vestiges regarding wood liveliness, which include dendrogenesis in the first place. Beliefs concerning human metamorphosis into tree and their reverse seem to have had a huge influence on the myth of xylogenesis. However, this myth preserves many elements that situate it in the proximity of the births of human type.

Trunchiul de arbore ca stâlp (picior) al mesei din altarul bisericii

Author(s): Eugen Bâzgu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

The paper deals with an ancient ritual of building wooden churches, related to the pre-Christian age. The rite consisted in fixing the chancel table on a tree trunk, cut on its upper side, while its root remains in the earth. This practice has been previously witnessed in the Romanian cultural area, but only now the author examines it. He studies the connections of the custom with folk Christianity, with the rites of building churches and the cult of trees. In the context of the rite’s emergence and development, he enquires, as well, the legends and different information related to it. Considering the trunks found in old wooden churches, the author analyses the species of trees, the forms and the decoration of the foot of the chancel table. From the viewpoint of the symbolic thought, due to this chancel table, the newly erected building stood on the pillar of the earth and on the column of the sky. The author treats also the conditions that contributed to the preservation of this practice through the ages, as well as the causes of its later disappearance.

Fântânile şi dreptul de patronat

Author(s): Arcadie Bodale / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

During Middle Ages, building a place of prayer in the Romanian principalities was influenced by a legal mixture of the Byzantine builder right and the autochthonous custom known as “the patronage” in the Catholic world. This situation generated the right of the builder-proprietor to manage the assets of his monastery/church, to take back the properties he had given to it, to choose the hegumen or the parish priest, also to transmit or to sell it, by beneficence or sale. This assembly of legal norms grew into a control of not only the rights and obligations of those who built or renew a place of prayer, but also of all the deeds considered by people favourable to soul redemption: making and taking care of a fountain, making a bridge, building a large cross or even planting/grafting a tree away from home. Placing a fountain and a church under the same system of norms was possible due to the fact that these deeds had the same significance. In our traditional culture, churches and fountains were both considered sacred places, as building a place of prayer and making a fountain were both bringing the redemption of the builder’ soul. On their deathbeds, people used to ask their descendants to make what they had not managed to during their lives, especially a fountain and a bridge. The fact that the place to be chosen for such a remembrance fountain was the field and at crossroads is eloquent to the intention to be raised in places where people and animals needed the fountain the most. It was no coincidence that the fountains and some of the churches had the names of their builders. Another parallelism between the two types of buildings is that people building the fountain or the church had to be honest. For both churches and fountains, the building right was transferred to the descendants. Consequently, the descendants had the right to be indicated as co-builders, but also the obligation of taking care of them, otherwise they could lose them. This particular concern to the buildings made by ancestors originated also in the traditional belief that empty churches and abandoned fountains were places possessed by the devil. Nevertheless, the most important parallelism between building a church and raising a fountain consists in the fact that they could be sold by the builder or his descendants. Obviously, the quality of builder was lost, meaning the obligation to take care of them and, implicitly, the right to be indicated as builders. The builder obligations and rights – endless remembrance and the belief in soul redemption – were automatically assumed by the buyer, instead. This is the reason why we believe that, in most of the cases, builders sold only the property and not their ancestors’ builder right.

Viţa-de-vie. Simboluri, credinţe şi practici populare

Author(s): Marcela Bratiloveanu-Popilian / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

This article refers to the exceptional cultural career of the grapevine, which has spread from the dawn of the Greek Antiquity until the modern era. Associated to the cult of Dionysus, the god of wine but also of pleasure and promoter of agriculture, the grapevine presents powerful forms of manifestation also in the Thracian-Dacian space, North Pontic Greek colonies as well as in the Roman Dacia, as the antique literary sources, epigraphic texts, coin issuing or various graphic representations attest. Vetero- and neotestamentary texts, which have a crucial role in our spiritual configuration, reveal the divine hypostasis of the grapevine, highlighted by folk beliefs and narrations presenting biblical themes. Relying on older documentary sources, but also on field research, the author refers to the climaxes of the viniculture calendar and brings under discussion the sequence of beliefs, rites and ritual ensembles that animate our ethnographic and folkloric landscape. Each stage included in the process of transforming vine into wine is accompanied and supported by a set of magic acts meant to insure prosperity. The article points out the positive potential of the grapevine, a plant that integrates an ample set of values; it also highlights the existence of a permanent dialogue between the religious and the traditional thinking, the exchange of values or the re-semantization.

Influenţe şi motive populare româneşti în arhitectura Muzeului de Artă Populară „Dr. Nicolae Minovici” din Bucureşti

Author(s): Loredana CODĂU / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

Built in Bucharest between 1904 and 1906 by architect Cristofi Cerchez, “The Villa with Bells” is a great example of how the Neo-Romanian style has promoted and exploited the Romanian folk art decorative and architectural elements. Being an original national artistic style, as a part of the artistic movement called the New Art, the Neo-Romanian architecture was especially influenced by the kulas from Oltenia region. The architectural design of the villa gathered Brâncoveanu style elements, as the loggia balcony with short, carved stone columns, and Romanian folk art elements, as the carved wood pillars, ornamented with solar rosettes, rhombs, the rope of life, decorative motives taken from traditional rugs of Muntenia, the religious seal, or the tower. The building was organized and opened for the public in 1906 as the first Folk Art Museum in Bucharest by its owner Dr. Nicolae Minovici and was declared an historical monument in 1930. The Fork Art Museum “Dr. Nicolae Minovici”, an authentic architectural gem, has been reinforced, restored and reopened for the public on the 18th of May 2016.

Arta figurativă a ţăranilor secui. Meşteşuguri, mitologie şi folclor în Corund – Harghita

Author(s): Marin Constantin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

The present article is written as a result of a field research that, in order to examine the ethnic self-identification in Romania, the author pursued in 2007 and 2010 among several minority groups also including the Szeklers from the village of Korond (Harghita County). The text below mainly focuses on artifacts (in ceramics, woodcarving, and tinder processing) and narratives – equally shown to reflect the Szekler folk culture. In accordance with such documents, local potters are described to reiterate their prestigious ethnic ancestry in the contemporary Sezkler worldview. Similarly, woodcarvers in Korond give shape to rich decorative themes that, in their compositions, appear to somewhat “unify” their civilization’s geographic and ontological regimes. As to the motives that are represented though the craft of tinder processing, their environmental imprint as well as traditional-occupation references, resonate with the ornamentation content from pottery or woodcarving artifacts. The ethno-folkloric accounts in Korond outline a sort of cyclical enactment of ancient Magyar / Szekler effigies, as a continuous reintegration of human life, cosmic rhythms and “strata”, together with the ineffable presence of ethnic ancestors.

Despre Ion Muşlea sau cum am devenit folclorist

Author(s): Virgiliu Florea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

Sărbătorile Crăciunului, Anului Nou şi Sântionului în Ţinutul Pădurenilor

Author(s): Rusalin IŞFĂNONI / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

Due to a relative geographical isolation, the inhabitants of the Land of Pădureni in Poiana Ruscă Mountains have created and developed a Romanian culture and civilization with many particularities. In this region, with a soil rich in iron, copper, talc, marble, etc, a millenary industrial activity has been performed and since the 17th century the natives have lived along with foreign artisans coming from other cultural areas (Western); nevertheless, and this might seem a paradox, the inhabitants of this land have preserved until nowadays one of the most original and archaic traditional culture.This study presents the particularities encountered in the Land of Pădureni in the performance of the winter customs, starting on Christmas’ Eve and ending at St. John’s Day (the 24th of December – the 7th of January). We think that carols, in the way they have existed in the traditional village until the second half of the 20th century, can be regarded as real odes dedicated by the members of the group of carolers to the householder, an acknowledgement of the fact that the family members had lived in accordance to the community’s norms throughout the year which is now at an end. In this time of the year, the family and the household turn from being a part of the community to being its centre. It is on this time of the year that there were highlighted the qualities of the family members, their occupations, their behavior in accordance to the moral norms of the community, in fewer words, all the qualities that provide the stability of the family and of the community, implicitly. Apart from having a good time and consolidating community cohesion, all the events taking place on Christmas feasts had as a special purpose to bring young women and men together in view of future marriages. It was no hazard in the fact that weddings began in the following period.

Muzeu. Management. Performanţă. De la un muzeu funcţional la un muzeu performant

Author(s): Mirela Creţu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2016

The museum must be analyzed as an organization. Defining the museum as an organization renders its identity, evolution and complexity, much more than the “static” institution does. The paradigms of the museums have changed in time, becoming an open space for heritage communication; from the “privilege” of visiting a museum to the “satisfaction of the public’s needs”. The museums, as public institutions, are resistant to change – nothing happens, they don’t meet their objectives, but they have the “monopoly” in a certain area (both as geographical space and as heritage representation). The museum does not aim to obtain financial profit, but to meet the social expectations. The performance in museums can also be defined as an excellence result, not only as an achievement of some performance indicators showing its functionality at some point in time, to a particular standard. Therefore, we propose for museums the necessity to fulfill the requirements of the fourth E – excellence. A performing museum is: a) an organization which studies and proposes (through awareness and professionalism), assumes and meets quality objectives, additional standards apart from the functional ones (sufficient for survival), established on the basis of knowledge and learning; b) an organization which (re)positions itself on the touristic cultural offer market, becoming a space for heritage communication/ edutainment and defines its vision, mission and strategic objectives by keeping track of the common interest of the society; c) an organization which orientates itself towards the 3 Es in executing the “social contract” and which applies a strategic, oriented, concise management with a scientific basis as a method for obtaining its performance. The performing museum is “the organization which permanently studies and develops itself as a means for communicating its heritage adapted to our present times in order to meet the society needs for edutainment to the highest standards, on the basis of a strategic management oriented in this regard.

Etnograful Cantemir şi folclorul. Orientului asiatic (II)

Author(s): Petru Caraman / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

The second part of the study begins with a monographic presentation of an ancient ritual named defamatory cortege. The custom presented by Cantemir is followed throughout several nations of the world, starting with the early Antiquity and ending with times very close to the present day. Following a thorough analysis, the author concludes that the practice has a Euroasian origin. Afterwards, he investigates nuptial and funeral practices performed by Turks and Tartars, the Islamic mythology and aspects of the Turkish folklore. The last part of the study is dedicated to several military and monachal institutions specific to Turks, while the end represents an outline of the Circassian ethnography.

Repertoriul vocal tradiţional rural din Basarabia interbelică: dialog cultural, inovare, modernizare

Author(s): Vasile Chiseliță / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

The study points out the mechanism and the basic directions in innovating and modernizing the traditional rural repertoire of the interwar Bessarabia in the context of connecting it to the national and European cultural dialogue. The author highlights the historical premises, the social factors and actors, the sources and resources of the second stage of modernizing the national cultural life during the second and the fourth decades of the 20th century, which was characterized by an enhanced flow of cultural values from the great urban society to the little rural community. The notion of “urban creation corporate association” is put forth as an important element within the cultural industry. Analyzing the documents from public and personal archives, six musical genres or species are determined within the vocal repertoire present in the villages of the former Bessarabia and the present Republic of Moldova: songs for soldiers, songs for recruits, new lyrical folk songs, theatrical songs, folk romances, folk songs with western choral arrangements.

Mituri pluviale româneşti în context universal

Author(s): Silvia Ciubotaru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

This study presents several Romanian pluvial myths in relation to similar motifs of the world mythology. The first part follows the characteristics and functions of clouds-carrying and precipitation-distributing serpent-like dragons. In legends and fairytales, these ophidian monsters watch over the most important sources of potable water. Saint Elijah, a worthy follower of old storm gods and mainly of Gebeleisis, god of the Dacians and Getae, is thoroughly analyzed. Many attributes of this saint of atmospheric violence are found in numerous Eurasiatic and Amerindian sky deities.Attendants of Saint Elijah, the solomonari (weather witches in Romanian mythology) are magicians of an archaic type, formed in a mysterious underground school. They can tame serpent-like dragons and start heavy rains or hailstones. Ordinary people in appearance, the solomonari, just like the cloud nymphs, have paranormal powers, being able to conduct the elements while being in trance. The last part of this paper deals with the theme of the hero related to underground dragons as the saviour of mankind and founder of civilizations. The prototype of this knight who risks his life in order to abolish the teratologic danger is Saint George. In his iconography, the Christian ideal of expelling the diabolic evil, symbolized by the ophidian, intertwines with the one of the ploughman, who works his land every spring, dissipating the sterile wintry inertia

Motive biblice şi apocrife în credinţele eshatologice româneşti

Author(s): Andrei Prohin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

The paper is dedicated to the Romanian folk beliefs about the end of the world. The author searches for the origin of the folkloric eschatological motifs in the Bible and in the medieval apocrypha, proposing thus an interpretation of these beliefs, considered as a coherent system. At different stages of the eschatological scenario, the allegorical images highlight moral values, considered to be fundamental for the existence of the family and society. The apocalyptic prophecies, despite their dark character, emphasize the responsibility of humans for their own survival, as well as for the existence of the entire world. The folk eschatology comprises a series of motifs inspired from the Holy Writ and from apocryphal texts, but being reformulated and interpolated, in a manner characteristic for the oral culture.

Identificarea sursei folclorice a basmului Cupidon şi Psyché de către Petru Caraman – în contextul cercetărilor internaţionale

Author(s): Ioana Repciuc / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

The paper explores the contribution of Petru Caraman’s work on identifying the folkloric sources of the Latin novelist Apuleius in writing the tale of Cupid and Psyché – part of his novel The Metamorphoses. The Romanian ethnologist’s thorough research on the historical and geographical origins of this type of tale is discussed within the broader context of the scholarly literature on the theme, starting with literary analysts or philosophers which found other sources than the folkloric one were more plausible to document Apuleius’ inspiration, to the ones which supported the general assumption that the narration reflects type 425 in the classification system Aarne-Thompson. It is also put under scrutiny the connection of these interpretations to the various theories on fairy-tales origins, such as the anthropological theory, the historical analysis of Propp, the Indianist or migrational theory. At last, Caraman’s perspective is shown to have brought a new and persuasive view on an intricate subject of research due to his intuition to discuss the archaic rituals which stand beyond Apuleius’ narrative

Instalaţii tehnice tradiţionale din Dobrogea

Author(s): Ion CHERCIU / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

This paper presents traditional technical installations from Dobruja, a special region within the Romanian and Balkan context, by means of combining data from the Romanian Ethnographic Atlas with the ones from the field research undertaken during 2006 and 2008.

Hanklich: bucătărie tradiţională şi identitate culturală la saşii din Cisnădioara – Michelsberg (judeţul Sibiu)

Author(s): Marin Constantin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2015

My text is an approach of ethnic cuisine in Romania, as particularly regards the hanklich dish among Saxons in the village of Cisnădioara – Michelsberg (Sibiu County). Two main ethnographic traits are examined, in terms of the hanklich general addressability in the Saxon community life (based on the local rites of passage), and the hanklich diffusion to another coexisting ethnicity in the Southern Transylvania, namely the Romanians. These facts show, on the one hand, the hanklich integration into the Saxon cultural heritage, as well as its cross-cultural convertibility, on the other.

Approaching socialist monuments nowadays

Author(s): Tihana Pupovac,Nevena Škrbić Alempijević / Language(s): English,Croatian Issue: 29/2017

Bibliografija Odsjeka za etnologiju i kulturnu antropologiju Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (2006. – 2016.)

Author(s): / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 29/2017

Izvještaji o znanstvenim projektima Odsjeka za etnologiju i kulturnu antropologiju (2006. – 2016.)

Author(s): Marijana Belaj,Milana Černelić,Tihana Petrović Leš,Marijeta Rajković Iveta,Drago Roksandić,Tihana Rubić,Goran Pavel Šantek,Tibor Komar,Petra Kelemen,Nevena Škrbić Alempijević / Language(s): English,Croatian Issue: 29/2017

Prikazi

Author(s): Milana Černelić,Suzana Marjanić,Jelena Marković,Anita Dremel,Valentina Gulin Zrnić,Matija Krizmanić,Marijana Paula Ferenčić,Duško Petrović,Tomislav Pletenac / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 29/2017

Review of: Godišnjak za znanstvena istraživanja, br. 4 – br. 8 Subotica: Zavod za kulturu vojvođanskih Hrvata, 2012. – 2016. Luka Šešo: Živjeti s nadnaravnim bićima: vukodlaci, vile i vještice hrvatskih tradicijskih vjerovanja. Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk, 2016., 295 str Evelina Rudan: Vile s Učke: žanr, kontekst, izvedba i nadnaravna bića predaja Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada – Pula: Povijesni i pomorski muzej Istre, 2016., 599 str. Miha Kozorog i Rajko Muršič, ur.: Sounds of Attraction: Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Popular Music Ljubljana; Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Zbirka Zupaničeva knjižnica (Ljubljana University Press), 2017., 232 str. Mirna Tkalčić Simetić: Hrelić – antropologija prijepornog mjesta Zagreb: Hrvatsko etnološko društvo, hed biblioteka, 2016., 112 str. Igor Duda: Danas kada postajem pionir. Djetinjstvo i ideologija jugoslavenskog socijalizma Zagreb – Pula: Srednja Europa i Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli, 2015., 276 str. Valentina Gulin Zrnić, Nevena Škrbić Alempijević, Josip Zanki, ur.: Mjesto izvedbe i stvaranje grada Zagreb: Hrvatsko društvo likovnih umjetnika i Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 2016., 204 str. Jonas Frykman i Maja Povrzanović Frykman, ur.: Sensitive Objects: Affect and Material Culture Lund: Nordic Academic Press Checkpoint, 2016., 285 str Halina Rusek, ur.: Dilemmas of old and contemporary culture in ethnographical and anthropological discourse Cieszyn – Katowice: University of Silesia in Katowice, 2011., 190 str.