We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Već više od trideset godina radim na muslimanskim epskim pjesmama koje su sabrali Milman Parry, Albert Lord i Nikola Vujnović u regiji Stolac od 1933. do 1935. godine i kasnije u ranim pedesetim. Moje glavno usredotočenje, na osnovu uputa A. Lorda, bilo je usmjereno na umjetnost četiriju pjevača: Halila Bajgorića, Ibre Bašića, Muje Kukuruzovića i Salke Morića, koji su zajedno doprinijeli, s više od 35 pjesničkih izvedaba za Parryjevu zbirku, u jednom od tri medijska tipa, i to pjevanom, kazivanom i usmeno diktiranom. Tim dragocjenim snimcima dodati su razgovori sa četiri guslara i popisi repertoara svakog od njih.
More...
In the past, the Panagiri (“fairs”) were an implicit synonym and milieu of the Nestinarstvo. They were voiced for days and nights by songs and dances, by “common” and special musical instruments for the fair. In the following decades the traditional form of the dances that are performed while singing declined and for the real state of their repertoire and intonational specifics one can rely on the data of previous researchers and collectors. Panagiri songs contain the characteristic musical traits of the region. In different villages songs with identical texts are sung with different melodies and with a different calendar function (including the one known as “panagiric”). For that reason and because of the great intonational and verbal diversity of the Panagiri songs, there appears the question whether this song cycle is an independent one. Or, whether it is rather an “authentic” compilation – mainly of songs that belong to the spring and summer rituals (i.e. the period when the Nestinari danced in the fire). It is especially notable that, unlike the instrumental Panagiri and Nestinari melodies, the song performances did not belong to the list of “mandatory” ones. Parallel to the esoteric Nestinari rituals, the vocal element promoted another type of musical and poetic reality – the other ethos of the Panagiri, which sounded in the space open to the life of the community. The decline of this ethos and of the Nestinari practices as well took place in the second half of the 20th century.
More...
Individuals and crowds face a new challenge in postmodern era. In contrast to modernity, postmodernity is characterised by an extreme division of the subject (fragmentation) and by a complete illusion of means and aims, as propagated through alienating mediated messages (simulation). A third feature named “latency” has the sense of inconsistency of goals and flexibility of strategies. Both in the West and the Rest (to use Wallerstein’s distinction), people conceive the sacred under new influences coming mainly from the media and computer intervention in everyday life. Falsification of pictorial information in parallel with its uncontrolled inflation are responsible for spacio-temporal alienation. The result is the inversion of the classical scheme sacred/profane (conceived as the transgression of the former by the latter). One can speak today, rather, of the transgression of our everyday profanity by new forms of the sacred as developed and manifested under actual postmodern conditions. The focus here is on this recent development of the sacred as manifested in contemporary rituals such as Anastenaria comprising ceremonial bull sacrifice and ecstatic fire-walking.
More...
Bojidar Alexiev The article uses the information about practicing fire walking in Muslim mystical orders in the traveler’s account of Ibn Battuta (14th century), in the heterodox Ottoman hagiography (14th and 15th centuries), and in ethnographic observations (of B. N. Basilov) about fire walking in the small Turkmen ata community in Turkmenistan. The three groups of sources reveal the existence of a connection between the fire walking in Muslim milieu with the one practiced by mystical brotherhoods and with their rituals. This practice is widespread among communities united around a doctrine and including a specific ritual communion. Among the Turkmen ata community the ritual represents a synthesis of the simplest musical and dance elements: rhythmic speech and bodily movement. The ritual proceeds as an interaction between a limited circle of “ritual virtuosos” – fire walkers, and a small group of participants that do not remain only passive spectators. As among the Nestinari in Strandja in the past, the fire walking performance does not depend on the personal choice. Rather, it is expressed (or is at least interpreted in such a way) as an ability that appeared spontaneously and that is accompanied with characteristic physical and psychic states, with foretelling and curing skills.
More...
The Nestinari faith-ritualism has preserved its mysterial entirety. It is one of the most ancient and most complicated folklore realities, which is continuously innovated even in the present day. The research of the essence of the innovations of the nestinari faith, however, will always remain unconvincing if the researchers don’t include in it its ethnic substratum religiousness, its genesis, its time-space continuum, its entire ritualism organization, and the building of hierarchy. They penetrate each component of the faith. The Nestinari faith-ritualism is a tradition of cultural interactions not only on the Balkan Peninsula, but also on the entire Eastern Mediterranean. It spans over thousands of years. These interactions are activated by Early Christianity on different levels, beginning with the heretics in the village counties preserved in the new faith and ending with the decisions on the Ecumenical councils. Resulting from the enhanced interest towards the faith of the forefathers, various ancient knowledge, divinized and personified cosmic elements are reactivated, and the sacred places are rediscovered. The ancient rule discussed here calls the ancient gods to new life. They, the gods, are in a new stasis, and return as bearers of knowledge and keepers of the millenary traditions.
More...
Nestinarstvo is among the phenomena of folklore culture that are studied in a thorough and detailed way. Its ritual characteristics have been described and analyzed many times. However, its discursive aspects – especially in contemporary Bulgarian culture are still little researched. The attitudes and perceptions of Nestinarstvo vary within a very wide range. This seems to be natural for a ritual that is practiced and lived through with such a high emotional engagement both on behalf of its participants and by the Others – emotionally participating witnesses, spectators and representatives of various institutions. Nestinarstvo was approached by various interpretations from different communities that showed interest and motivation to understand it. The current text is an attempt to investigate the different and often contradicting visions of the fire mysteries. These include the discourse of the official church, which already from the first testimonies of the ritual follows the line of its marginalization; the contradicting attitudes to Nestinarstvo on behalf of “urban” and “rural” communities; its interpretation in light of modern and traditional cultures; the ethnic and “ethnicizing” discourses. What is a fact, however, after all these interpretations (and despite some of them) is that in Strandja Nestinarstvo still survives as a “living antiquity.”
More...
The article is dedicated to the Nestinarstvo between the Two World Wars. Special attention is paid to the practice of dancing in the fire in several new villages, as well as to the inclusion of attraction elements in this practice. The text shows the attempt of the society of “The Good Samaritan” to use Nestinarstvo for the popularization of the ideas about the Bulgarian people as God’s elect. Separate part is dedicated to the attitude of the Orthodox Church and the society of “The Good Samaritan” towards Nestinarstvo.
More...
The article is dedicated to the town hall of St. Konstantin in the village of Bulgari and the Nestinari trance. Inherently connected with the general meaning of the Nestinari ritual, these two issues are logically analyzed together. The attention is focused mainly on the Nestinari trance reached in the course of the Nestinari ritual dance in the town hall of St. Konstantin. The major reason for drawing upon this already analyzed problem is an incidental discovery made by the author in the sphere of geophysics and psychophysiology. It appeared that the town hall of St. Konstantin falls in the field of a rather dynamic geo¬magnetic anomaly, which obviously exercised a psycho-physiologic impact on the high sensors’ abilities of the dancers. It was namely them who showed the exact place for building the town hall. This phenomenon is part of the series of external factors that facilitated the more prompt achievement of the Nestinari trance. From that point, in unity with the firm faith in the Saint and his role as a special elect, the Nestinari women were guided into the fire dance. In this respect and in the context of the entire Nestinari cycle, the article pays detailed attention on the issue of being a specially elected. The analysis of the fire walking furthermore enhances the ethnological analysis.
More...
Out of Print Kamen Garena. Bulgarskijat krust v Tavria [The Bulgarian Cross in Tavria]. Plovdiv University – Kardjali branch / “Rodopi–Kardjali” Press. Kardjali, 2004. 346 pp.; Kamen Garena. Etnicheski i religiozni vzaimodeistvia v Odrinska Trakia i Iztochnite Rodopi [Ethnic and Religious Interactions in Odrin Thrace and Eastern Rhodopes]. Plovdiv University – Kardjali branch / “Rodopi–Kardjali” Press. Kardjali, 2004, 268 pp.
More...
