Vernacular Religion Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by Mehmet Aksürmeli
- •
- Vernacular Religion, Lived Religion, Din Sosyolojisi

This article introduces a new analytical model for researching vernacular religion, which aims to capture and describe everyday religiosity as an interplay between knowing, being, and doing religion. It suggests three processes that tie this triad together: continuity; change; and context. The model is envisaged as a tool for tracing vernacular religion in ethnographic data in a multidimensional yet structured framework that is sensitive to historical data and cultural context, but also to individual narratives and nuances. It highlights the relationship between self-motivated modes of religiosity and institutional structures, as well as influences from secular sources and various traditions and worldviews. The article is based on an ongoing research project focusing on everyday Judaism in Finland. The ethnographic examples illustrate how differently these dynamics play out in different life narratives, depending on varying emphases, experiences, and situations. By bringing together major themes recognized as relevant in previous research and offering an analytical tool for detecting them in ethno-graphic materials, the model has the potential to create new openings for comparative research, because it facilitates the interlinking of datasets across contexts and cultures. The article concludes that the model can be developed into a more generally applicable analytical tool for structuring and elucidating contemporary ethnographies, mirroring a world of rapid cultural and religious change.

- by Ruth Illman and +1
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- Jewish Studies, Ethnography, Vernacular Religion
- by Janice Pinder
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- Medieval Studies, Vernacular Religion, Franciscan Studies, Littérature Française

"The paper deals with current monetary beliefs and magic shamanic practices in post-Soviet Altai. In traditional shamanism, known to us from ethnographic studies of the 19th–20th centuries, a shaman who takes money is punished by the spirits and could die. Despite the traditional taboos, for example, accepting money for their service, shamans take cash payment from their clients anyway. In the present socio-economic situation the shamans have to earn money, and they use several explanatory models that allow them to do so. This paper describes those models. Typically, the money is given to the spirits, and the shaman is only an intermediary, but then he takes the money.
The paper also discusses the importance of money in non-shamanic ritual practices: the semantics of copper and silver money in offerings to local spirits, to the springs and to the menhirs."

- by Dmitriy Doronin
- •
- Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Anthropology, Social Anthropology
- by Judit Kis-Halas
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- Medical Anthropology, Divination, Vernacular Religion, New Age spirituality

Therukoothu or sometimes referred to interchangeably as kattaikkuttu traces its origins to Gingee, a small town in the Viluppuram district (formerly known as South Arcot district) in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. An oral tradition that emerged during the Sangam period around 600-700 AD, Therukoothu is religious folk theatrical custom performed in various parts of Tamil Nadu and in select Tamil speaking regions of Sri Lanka. Usually epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Shivapuranam among others are enacted as a part of a ritual, however the theme may vary depending on the presiding deity in the temple; Gingee home to several shrines of Goddess Draupadi celebrates the Draupadi Amman by locally hosting a therukoothu performance based on the epic Mahabharatha through a dramatic re-enactment of episodes from the Tamil version of the epic composed in the 14th century by Villiputtur Azhwar. Dance, drama, music, poetry and prose stream seamlessly in and out of the various acts of a therukoothu performance; improvisations, deviations from didacticism into slapstick humour and social satire keeps the audience informed and engaged. Although once a popular theatre form, therukoothu is a dying tradition, facing stiff competition from the distractions of the digital world. This study is an attempt to explore the various folk aesthetics of this cultural heritage emphasizing on therukoothu as a medium of transmitting religion through vernacular practices.

- by Nimeshika Venkatesan
- •
- Vernacular Religion, Dialogism, Genres, Bhakti

The article deals with the relations of power and shamans in the USSR. On the example of the Altai shamans the author explores the phenomena of social meaning in different periods of the Soviet epoch. In the 1920s, the authorities had a patronizing attitude to shamanism. The Christian mission was closed and shamanism was seen as part of the national culture. In the 1930s, another model of power relations to shamans took over. In Soviet newspapers shamans renounced his craft, most of them victims of repression. In the 1930-1980s the shamanism exists in a secretive manner. It was dangerous to be a shaman. But the descendant of a shaman could not get rid of the "shamanic sickness", and various magic rituals were used to save the child from the shamanic spirits of his ancestors. Thus, in the Soviet era, there were two types of ways to destroy the "shamanic profession": а) a violence of the soviet power; b) a using of traditional rituals.

- by Dmitriy Doronin
- •
- Semiotics, Religion, New Religious Movements, Mythology And Folklore

Religious institutions establish collective identities through the production of a usable past, and thereby provide adherents with a sense of heritage. This article examines how this process functions in a Mormon pilgrimage site, Nauvoo, Illinois, where not one but two competing institutions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Community of Christ, have established alternative narratives of identity. I focus on the thousands of (almost exclusively) LDS pilgrims who visit the town each summer. I argue that the presence of multiple interpretations raises significant anxieties for many of these pilgrims. In an attempt to mediate these anxieties a vernacular religious site, a willow tree, is employed to point pilgrims to a Saint figure, Emma Smith, Joseph Smith Jr. 's widow, in order to fortify an alternative narrative existing outside of either official representation of Nauvoo's past.

- by Christopher Blythe
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- New Religious Movements, Folklore, Women's History, History of Religion

Traditionally, upland Garo have practiced shifting cultivation, and in many ways “Garoness” continues to be associated with that mode of agriculture. Shifting cultivation is closely tied up with the traditional Garo community religion since it requires the negotiation of relationships with innumerable deities (mitdes) who are considered a primordial presence. Songsareks, as the followers of this community reli- gion are known, have come to be perceived as arche- typical Garo. In recent decades Garo agricultural practices have changed. Garo farmers who live in the plains have become wet rice cultivators. In the hills, people have been planting more and more orchards and have come to depend significantly on cash crops such as areca nuts and cashew nuts. Disparities in terms of income and education have increased, and many Garo who gained higher education have taken on jobs as educators or civil servants. These social transformations have been enabled by, but at the same time induced, the replacement of the Garo community religion by Christianity.

- by Erik de Maaker
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- Sociology of Religion, Vernacular Religion, Religious Conversion, Indigeneity

Starting from the observation that researchers have often uncritically opposed vernacular religiosity to official, teologic religion, either minimizing the importance of popular religious behaviour of the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia or totally dismissing the role played the church in the life of this community, the author advocates for a change of perspective. This change of perspective is meant to bring about a different reading of the situation in the region, in which the local people become the focus of research, not church, religion or customs as abstract concepts. The first part of the article briefly discusses the role of the church in Eastern Serbia during the last two centuries, the co‑existence of vernacular and official religion, as well as the recent reintroduction of the religious service in Vlach Romanian in several churches. The second part of the article presents archival documents and testimonies of people who have met Mother Măndălina, the patron of the Malajnica Monastery, the first Vlach monastery in Eastern Serbia. The transcribed testimonies are crucial in understanding the rural world of this region in the first half of the 20th century, where, contrary to the common belief, Vlachs and Serbs together frequented with a certain regularity the church. The testimonies are even more valuable for a future tracing of the beginning of the cult of Mother Măndălina, who belongs to both communities and environments, Vlach and Serbian, vernacular and theologic.

- by Annemarie Sorescu-Marinkovic
- •
- Balkan Studies, Vernacular Religion, Cult of Saints, Saints' Cults

A Mária-kegyhelyek mindig is a csodás gyógyulások és a látványos jelenések színtereinek számítottak, zarándokok tömegei látogatták őket. Manapság azonban a New Age jelenségek is egyre gyakrabban megfigyelhetők ezeken a helyeken. A tanulmány a Baranya megyei Máriagyűd példáján mutatja be, hogy miként hangolódik újra és válik különleges „erő-központtá” ez a katolikus búcsújáróhely egy ezoterikus spirituális csoport tagjai számára. A szerző egyrészt a hazai New Age vallásosság és az etno-pogány diskurzusok kontextusában elemzi a terepen szerzett tapasztalatait, másrészt kiemeli a Magyar Katolikus Egyház New Age spiritualitással kapcsolatos attitűdjének változásait is.

- by István Povedák and +3
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- Vernacular Religion, Popular Culture and Religious Studies, Religious Syncretism, Neo-Paganism and Western Esotericism

¿Quién es San Simón? San Simón es la imagen de un señor sentado, con bigote, sombrero, que fuma puro, toma guaro y concede deseos. Esta vaga descripción es la única de la que nos podemos servir como criterio unificador de los miles, quizá... more

- by Antonio Garcia Espada
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- Vernacular Religion, El Salvador, Folk Religion, Cultura Popular

Focusing on three Orthodox Christian communities – St. Paraskeva and St. Luke in Midwestern US, and St. Nicolas in Atlantic Canada – this thesis examines the complex cultural dynamics surrounding Orthodox Christianity in North America. I explore the ways believers, both the Orthodox-born and new converts, negotiate with an ancient faith in a contemporary society where this faith may appear counter-cultural. Building on Leonard Primiano’s (1995) theory of vernacular religion, I propose the concept of vernacular theology to shed light on these processes. Despite the illusion of theology as the exclusive purview of clergy, laypeople exercise interpretive agency to creatively adapt doctrine to their individual life circumstances.
I consider the history of the Orthodox Church, including themes of empire, romantic nationalism, anti-Westernism, and Communism, focusing on Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine, the home countries of my Orthodox-born participants. I analyze the Orthodox Church’s response to globalization and how this may affect the future of the Church in North America.
I further consider encounters between converts and Orthodox-born immigrants within the walls of North American Orthodox churches, examining how Orthodox Christian communities meet the needs of these different groups. I argue that those who convert to Orthodox Christianity create exoteric folklore about ethnicity in terms of those who have cultural connections with the faith.
Lastly, I address theory and practice in the lives of Orthodox Christians, with specific emphasis on how women navigate this patriarchal faith in a society in dialogue with feminist ideas. Themes include understandings of clerical authority, spiritual obedience, and the interpretive agency of parishioners. I offer a theory of vernacular feminisms, in which women create strategies of empowerment within a patriarchal system. By creating these choices for themselves, they simultaneously subvert and support a system that limits them on the basis of gender.

The theme of this special issue of the Romanian Journal of Sociology
(Revista română de sociologie) – Transformation of Traditional Rituals – is derived from a panel convened at the 12th congress of the Société International d’Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF), held in Zagreb last June. The volume presents a collection of papers which were part of this panel (one of two panels organized by the SIEF working group on The Ritual Year).
Rituals are commonly associated with unchangeable human behaviour.
Despite this, there are numerous examples that prove the contrary. Rituals do transform in response to particular circumstances, or as a direct consequence of social change. Examples of traditional rituals which have been transformed are the subject of the articles included in this volume. The texts have been compiled into three sections: Rituals Confronted with Modernity, Rediscovery and Transformation of Rituals, and Rituals in Evolution. Two papers on Religion in Romania, in addition
to Academic life and Book reviews, complete this special issue.

- by Irina Stahl and +3
- •
- Vernacular Religion, Transformation, Religious rituals, Rituals

For nearly 150 years, the photographic process has been attributed with the apparitional ability to reveal discarnate beings and miraculous phenomena. In the nineteenth century, members of the Spiritualist movement embraced photography as a technological medium that provided evidence of the afterlife and contact with departed loved ones. Today, traditions of supernatural photography continue to thrive, particularly among the Catholic faithful at Marian apparition sites who regularly use cameras to document miraculous phenomena. This article examines the meaning and appeal of beliefs about photography as a revelatory technology, the popular desire for visible proofs of invisible realms, and the ways that the photographic process allows believers to ritually engage the otherworldly, the sacred, and issues of ultimate concern.

- by Daniel Wojcik
- •
- Vernacular Religion, Spiritualism, Folk Religion, Spirit Photography

This chapter investigates religious commemorative culture that has sprung up in Belarus in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. More specifically, it focuses on commemorative icons and religious artwork and how they are used in coming to grips with the consequences of radiation contamination. The author pays attention to the conflicting interpretations of the disaster and its proper commemoration by different individuals, interest groups, and religious institutions. According to her analysis, the struggles between various parties over legitimate representation pertain also to how gender comes to play in the imagery of Chernobyl icons and religious art.

- by Elena Romashko
- •
- Eastern European Studies, Gender Studies, Medical Anthropology, Iconography

УРОВНИ ВЕРБАЛЬНОГО ОПИСАНИЯ оптической характеристики образа мифологического персонажа УРОВЕНЬ 1: способность смотреть / видеть подразумевается Пример: телеутский шаман при первом своѐм камлании, связанном с изготовлением бубна, должен был в первую очередь показать свой новый бубен хозяину бубна мар äзи / чалу äзи [Дыренкова 1949: 114]. УРОВЕНЬ 2: оптическая способность духов выражается через глаголы визуального восприятия (глаза не упоминатся) Пример: 2.1. Шорский шаман показывает новый бубен духу-хозяину горы Мустаг, а затем Тазыгану. Затем Мустаг показывает бубен своим сыновьям (духам-хозяевам гор Караган, ÿш-таш, Карабур и Кöзäi), которые осматривали и оживляли бубен, ударяя по нему трижды. 2.2. шаман показывает бубен Эрлику, который также осматривает бубен и определяет, сколько бубнов и в течение скольких лет будет иметь шаман [Потапов 1947: 164].

- by Dmitriy Doronin
- •
- Semiotics, Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Folklore

[Preview sample of Czech monograph.] This monograph engages with Old Russian medieval homiletic literature as a source of knowledge about East Slavic paganism and the Christianization of Russia. The book is organized into two interconnected parts. Apart from analyzing the whole tradition of medieval Russian anti-pagan polemic in the first part (pp. 11-214), in the second portion, the monograph provides ten Old Russian texts in editions and their commented translations to the Czech language (pp. 215-356) and an extensive list of sources, abbreviations, bibliography, indices and English summary (pp. 357-407).

Presentamos aquí una serie de trabajos de campo, hechos desde la metodología de la observación participante, sobre fiestas y celebraciones relacionadas con el culto a san Simón en El Salvador entre los años 2011 y 2014. Nos ocuparemos, de la forma más descriptiva posible, de seis casos que mantienen entre sí sustanciales diferencias de forma y fondo y que, en su conjunto, prueban la extraordinaria maleabilidad de este culto, así como la imposibilidad de reducir su existencia y el extraordinario éxito de difusión experimentado en los últimos años a razonamientos simplistas y paternalistas como la pobreza, la ignorancia o la marginalidad

- by Antonio Garcia Espada
- •
- Vernacular Religion, El Salvador, Religious Studies, Centroamérica

The Christian Churches provide their ministers and believers with a complex set of prayers, rituals, and practices, intended to solve the various problems that an individual, family, or community may encounter in everyday life. An analysis of these services in their social and cultural contexts reveals fundamental aspects of religious life, as well as their role in explaining and dealing with issues such as diseases, marriage, thefts, and other woes. This paper aims to discuss the use of the Prayers of Saint Basil the Great in dealing with a wide range of problems that can be encountered by a believer. I will focus on the case of a Greek Catholic priest from Blaj (Transylvania) Monastery, who kept a diary about his liturgical activity in the final decades of the 19th century. In the first part of my paper, I intend to examine his records, in order to reveal which were the most required and recommended prayers and rituals, which were the most frequent situations and problems that required the Prayers of Saint Basil the Great, and which were the most frequent combinations of rituals, prayers, and practices either required by the believers, or recommended by the priest himself. Based on the conclusions drawn in the first part, I will discuss the relation between the Prayers of Saint Basil the Great and the complex set of charms and maledictions that, according to folk beliefs and Church tradition, could harm people in various ways and degrees – from a simple disease, or misfortune, to demonic possession and death.
Keywords: Priest, prayers, healing, charms, Transylvania.

- by Valer Simion Cosma
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- Vernacular Religion, Transylvania, Spiritual Healing, Exorcism

In the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, the god Nagaraja, associated with the pan-Indian god Krishna, is an extremely popular deity. However, there exist key disjunctures in how Nagaraja is known, experienced and worshiped in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand by jāgar performers—low-caste ritual specialists, storytellers, and musicians—on the one hand, and high-caste temple priests, on the other. Temple priests were generally dismissive of the practices of the jāgar performers, often re-directing my interest in regional narratives of Nagaraja to the Sanskrit-language Bhagavadgita and Bhagavata Purana (the Gita-Bhagavat), which they saw as authoritative and ‘original' sources of oral and vernacular traditions. This interpretation, however, was highly contested by jāgar performers who articulated a non-essentialist, ritually efficacious, rhetorical, oral and vernacular ‘textual ontology.' Jāgar performers not only critiqued Brahminical notions of textual purity and essentialism but also assumptions within the academic study of Hinduism about the relationship between vernacular religious practices and textual Hinduism, or the so-called Great and Little traditions of Hinduism. By ‘textual ontology,' I describe how different relations to textual authority and knowledge in turn reveal distinctive ways of creating, knowing, and interacting with deities and the world. In challenging priestly and western scholarly notions of text, this article offers a radically different view of textual production, transmission, and authority.

- by Aftab S Jassal
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- Vernacular Religion, Ritual, Himalayas, Caste

This study is based on the materials collected during the field study of speech and traditional culture of Timok region, done between 2015 and 2017. Research attention was focused on the sacred crosses, especially on stories about the founding and/or restoration of these cult places, and the narratives linked to such ritual practices. Structural and semantic narrative characteristics are established and their functioning and “life“ in oral culture. Narrative manifestation of methaphysics experience is interpreted as “legitimization“ of sacred space, and stories about dreams are seen as a part of vernacular religion as well.

- by Smiljana Djordjevic Belic
- •
- Mythology And Folklore, Cultural Studies, Folklore, Vernacular Religion

This article examines the tension between publicly affirmed religious identification and private religious practice among Britain’s Nepali diaspora population. It compares census and survey figures for religious affiliation with religious shrines in people’s homes. In some cases there is complete congruence between religious affiliation and home worship (most strikingly in the cases of Sherpas, whose affiliation and shrines are unequivocally Buddhist). Among many other groups, however, there is plenty of evidence of multiple belonging. The most common case is singular identification for census purposes and multiple practice, but there are also many instances of multiple identification when offered the opportunity. For example, when asked for their religion, Gurungs often affirm a Buddhist identity, but when given the option to be both Hindu and Buddhist, they frequently embrace it as it more closely describing their actual practice. Many Kirats keep no shrine at home because they believe that their tribal tradition is properly aniconic. Our material clearly shows that the distribution of ecumenical attitudes is not random, but reflects particular ethnic, regional, and caste histories within Nepal. The ethnic/caste makeup of Britain’s Nepali diaspora is not identical to that of Nepal, mainly because of the history of Gurkha recruitment, and this demographic shift is reflected in the higher proportion of Buddhists in Britain. Nonetheless, we suspect that the findings of this study would be replicated in an urban context in Nepal.

- by Krishna Adhikari and +2
- •
- Religion, Vernacular Religion, Migration, Religion and Identity (Anthropology)

In 2003, 2011 and 2012, the author of the article conducted research of religious movements and leaders among urban and rural indigenous Turkic peoples of the Republic of Altai: Altai (Altai Kizhi), Telengits, Kumandin, Tubalar, Chelkans.
The article addresses transformation of the institute of "knowledgeable people" (shamans, fortunetellers, diviners, healers) in the Soviet and post-Soviet times. The following issues are analyzed: professionalization of modern shamans, their political activities, different approaches to organization of diverse professional specialties of modern "knowledgeable people".
Since late 1980's a peculiar social situation takes place in the Altai society, when being a shaman (kam) is associated with the status and financial benefits. Modern shamans begin to receive not only traditional offerings, but also money.
The present stage of shamanic traditions in the Altai is characterized by increased interest and demand in the activities of shamans, desire of a number of people to become a shaman, or other magical person. In the conditions of almost total unemployment in rural areas, the practice of a shaman or a healer may be perceived as professional development, as getting a job with a steady income.
Traditional social roles and strategies of "knowledgeable people" are transformed into new ones: for example, there are shamans-politicians, shamans-businessmen, shamans-writers and artists, and public figures being a part of the group of "knowledgeable people" who claim the spiritual leadership over the Altai people.
On the one hand, these innovations are logically derivable from the classical period of shamanism (described by ethnographers of the 19th – early 20th centuries). Even in traditional concepts of the Altai shamans, there are "prerequisites" to their current political activities, such as notions of hierarchy and subordination of power in the spirit world.
On the other hand, the Altai religious reformism (Burkhanism) of the early ХХ century, repression and prohibition of shamanism in the Soviet times caused serious transformation of the institute of the "classical shamanism". For example, disappearance of such ritual attributes of "large kames" as shamanic tambourine/drum and robe leads to re-actualization of ritual objects specific to more archaic practices of "rites without tambourine". Re-actualization of these ritual objects in the social aspect of the practice of modern "knowledgeable people" can be interpreted with the metaphor of social neoteny. Neoteny is a biological term used to describe the ability of larval or baby birds to apply scenarios of adults (e.g., to reproduce).
In the post-Soviet times lower kams (kams without drums) in the absence of "senior shamans" begin to behave like large cams, while retaining the attributes and content of the "small" activities.
In modern ritual practice of the indigenous Turkic peoples of the Altai Republic, the same ritual attributes are involved both in neo-shamanic and neo-Burkhanist practices; this means that there are no rigid impermeable boundaries between contemporary religious beliefs and Burkhanist and shamanic practices.
Over the last century the symbolic status of ritual objects of "knowledgeable people" in the Altai has been transformed. During the time before collectivization and repressions of the Soviet era, these objects served as important markers measuring the professional and ritual-spiritual level of shamans. Now those things almost lose their marker function in the activities of a magic specialist. Currently, in contrast to external "criteria of authenticity" of the "knowledgeable people" used in the past, "internal criteria" are becoming increasingly important, for example, personal history created by the shaman him/herself.

- by Dmitriy Doronin
- •
- Religion, New Religious Movements, Mythology And Folklore, Sociology of Religion
- by Nimeshika Venkatesan
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- Religion, Folklore, Southeast Asian Studies, Vernacular Religion
- by Dmitriy Doronin
- •
- Semiotics, Mythology And Folklore, Anthropology, Mythology

One of the purposes of this study is to outline the research problem related to the wizard called táltos and a hypothesized shamanism in the pagan, pre-Christian religion of the Hungarians. Another purpose is to present the results of new research on this issue. The first part of the study is the analysis of the activities of a weather wizard called táltos from the 16th to the 21st century, as well as its related beliefs and narrative motifs. Then I present the process in the course of which researchers of the pre-Christian pagan “ancient religion” – Gyula Sebestyén, Géza Róheim, Sándor Solymossy, Vilmos Diószegi and others – created the fictitious construct of the táltos and reconstructed the Conquest-era shaman in line with the model compiled from the attributes of shamanism of various periods and various peoples. The criticism of Vilmos Diószegi’s construct of the táltos is followed by the introduction of new research results. Their main points: modem táltos beliefs and narratives show many correlations with Balkan – especially Bulgarian – folk beliefs and folk epics. The táltos and táltos-epics show the closest correlation with the beliefs of Bulgarian dragon-men who were fathered by a dragon or eagle and born with wings or other animal traits, as well as with the adventures of heroes of epic songs who slay the dragons of the underworld and are protected by the spirit of the eagle, dragon, rooster, crane, etc. We also need to consider the influences of Slavic storm wizard practices and the werewolf beliefs and narratives of the Balkans. The influences of Balkan peoples on Hungarian culture are indubitable, partly the result of the Bulgaro-Turkic relations between the 5th and 9th centuries and partly the consequences of Slavic relations after the Conquest. It is likely that at the time of the Hungarian Conquest, there was a weather magic practice similar to those of the Balkan dragon-men, as well as a weather wizard called táltos. However, the construct of the research tradition represented by Diószegi must be refuted: there is no evidence of a shaman-táltos similar to the “classic” Eurasian shaman who was initiated in the world tree and established contact with the spirit world through a ritual performance, in a drum-induced ecstasy.
Keywords: táltos, weather wizard, dragon man, folk beliefs, pre-Christian religion, shamanism, heroic epic, Balkans, Turkic shamanism

- by Éva Pócs
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- Vernacular Religion, Magic, Shamanism, Cult of the dead

This important volume adds significantly to theoretical and methodological debates in the sociology of religion and takes, as its point of departure, the notion that enquiry into religions should focus on ‘how religion and spirituality are practiced, experienced and expressed by ordinary people (rather than official spokespersons) in the context of their everyday lives’ (p. 12).

Later published as Goldberg, D.Martin., 2009, ‘The dichotomy in Romano-Celtic syncretism: Some preliminary thoughts on vernacular religion’, in Mark Driessen, Stijn Heeren, Joep Hendriks, Fleur Kemmers and Ronald Visser (eds.) TRAC 2008 Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference which took place at The University of Amsterdam
4–6 March 2008, (Oxford:Oxbow) pp.187-202

- by martin goldberg
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- Vernacular Religion, Roman Religion, Religious Syncretism

Editorial Hello and Namaste! CNSUK publishes occasional newsletters and we are pleased to publish this special edition to present findings of the study: Vernacular Religion: Varieties of Religiosity in Nepali Diaspora, known as the VR project. Being a research organization, CNSUK strives to generate knowledge on the Nepali community and share it with Nepalis and others for informed decisions at policy and practice levels. The VR project had a major survey component which was carried out in the UK by CNSUK as an institutional partner. This newsletter briefly presents some findings of this survey. Apart from this, updates on selected major activities of CNSUK are also included here. We hope you will find this information useful. Please send your feedback to: cnsuk07@gmail.com

- by Krishna Adhikari and +2
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- Vernacular Religion, Nepal, South Asian Religions, Nepali Diaspora

This paper describes and analyses one element from the system of posthumous customs which form part of the traditional culture of Serb colonists in Omoljica. In the perception of the informants, this ritual is key in defining the difference of one’s own culture in relation to that of others (mainly native Serbs, followed by Romanians, Roma, Bulgarians and Muslims). More attention, therefore,was devoted to analysing the interviews from the anthropological aspect: how the local micro-identity of an ethno-cultural community is formed.

- by Smiljana Djordjevic Belic
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- Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, Folklore, Vernacular Religion
- by Dmitriy Doronin
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- Semiotics, Religion, New Religious Movements, Mythology And Folklore

Ediție îngrijită de Ileana Benga și Bogdan Neagota. Studiu introductiv (Motive mitico-religioase mariane) de Bogdan Neagota. Postfață: Cele două mame din „Peregrinatio Virginis” românească, cunoscută sub numele de „Căutarea Maicii... more

Ediție îngrijită de Ileana Benga și Bogdan Neagota.
Studiu introductiv (Motive mitico-religioase mariane) de Bogdan Neagota.
Postfață: Cele două mame din „Peregrinatio Virginis” românească, cunoscută sub numele de „Căutarea Maicii Domnului”, de Rosa del Conte (traducere de Vasile Rus)

- by Ileana Benga
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- Mythology And Folklore, Folklore, Vernacular Religion, Oral Traditions

The following ethnographic and folkloric analysis of American exorcism practices post-1998 centers on four Catholic priest-exorcists currently active in the United States. After a brief commentary regarding the place of Satanism within contemporary Catholic imagination, this article posits that the Catholic Church’s recent institutional support of its office of exorcist must not be viewed separately from its discursive fear of Satanic cults and larger narratives of religious declension. The current era of exorcism practice in America is chiefly characterized as a response to the media sensationalism surrounding not only prior cases of demonic possession but also of Satanic ritual abuse. Moreover, beyond these explicit issues of religious competition (e.g., Catholics versus Satanic conspirators), the current era of exorcism practice is also implicitly characterized by the changing belief systems of contemporary Catholics. Thus, this article ultimately concerns issues related to relig...

- by William Salazar Chavez
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- Vernacular Religion, Ritual, Modernization, Paranormal
- by Benjamin Gatling
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- Cultural Heritage, Vernacular Religion, Contemporary Sufism, Tajikistan

Belief as a term in folklore scholarship encompasses a range of competing concepts. This article posits a number of problems with belief ’s standard usage: beliefs are rei- fied and abstracted from social action; beliefs are systematized and explanatory of behavior; and beliefs are rendered as universal, cross-cultural features of social life. This article argues that reconceptualizing belief carries with it a decolonial justice imperative, and folklorists should jettison belief as a keyword of the discipline.

- by Benjamin Gatling
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- Folklore, Vernacular Religion

The paper discusses one of the most ancient sacred places in the
Philippines, situated in the town of Obando, not far from Manila. In pre-colonial times it was a centre for the veneration of the Tagalog fertility gods, where a striking feature of their cult was a group dance with singing. At present, it is a Catholic church that every May becomes the national centre of pilgrimage for the childless.
The Philippines is the only Christian country of Asia. Rapid Christianization at the very beginning of the Spanish colonial period (16th–19th c.) put an end to many religious practices and a number of ritual folklore genres. However, Philippine Catholicism has inherited the lexica that used to be a part of the traditional belief system; sacred places, dedicated to local gods and spirits, are still loki sacra, but nowadays as Christian centres; pre-Hispanic rituals were
partially incorporated into the church service and are still the basis of numerous vernacular Catholic practices. That inheritance is not studied enough. Two points are discussed: the question of the inheritance of ancient magic practices by present-day vernacular Catholic ones, and the question why that important connection is so poorly researched (the issue being a twofold break in tradition, caused by changes induced first by Spain, then by the USA). As the author shows, throughout the existence of the locus as a Catholic center, the pagan
principle influenced the choice, interpretation of the images of holy patrons and the means of accessing them.
Despite the occasional restrictions, the vernacular practices, rooted in
pagan beliefs invariably returned and are now legalized. The author’s field
materials are used.
Статья посвящена одному из древнейших сакральных локусов на Филиппинах, расположенному в городе Обандо неподалеку от столицы. В доколониальные времена здесь был центр почитания тагальских божеств плодородия, яркой чертой культа которых был групповой танец с пением. Сейчас это католическая церковь, которая ежегодно в мае становится общенациональным центром паломничества для бездетных пар. Филиппины-единственная католическая страна Азии. Быстрая христианизация архипелага в самом начале испанского колониального пе-риода (XVI-XIX вв.) уничтожила многие религиозные практики и целые жанры ритуального фольклора. Однако филиппинский католицизм уна-следовал лексику, обозначавшую разные аспекты традиционных верова-ний; центры почитания местных богов и духов остались сакральными ло-кусами, но уже в виде христианских центров; доиспанские ритуалы были частично инкорпорированы в богослужения и нередко лежат в основе современных католических вернакулярных практик. Эта преемственность изучена недостаточно. В статье рассматриваются два вопроса: о связи меж-ду современными вернакулярными и древними магическими практиками и о том, почему эта связь ранее не изучалась (в связи с двойным разрывом традиции: при завоевании Испанией и США). Как показывает автор, на всем протяжении существования локуса как католического центра язы-ческое начало влияло на выбор, трактовку образов святых покровителей и на средства обращения к ним. Несмотря на запреты, вернакулярные практики, восходящие к языческим представлениям, неизменно возвра-щались и в настоящее время узаконены. В работе использованы полевые материалы автора.

The first cause that saves the Christian is to love God, having faith only in him. The second is to hope that benevolent Christ saves by his blood those who believe in him. The third is in charity held in a healthy heart, These three winning numbers together save you from Hell. -Alessandro Caravia, Il sogno dil Caravia (Caravia's Dream) 1 In the 1550s and 1560s, the Venetian Holy Office tried just under seven hundred people for a particular type of heresy. 2 Although for ease of recording, the inquisitors dubbed all those with heterodox beliefs "luterani," or Lutherans, these people were not really Protestants. The accused maintained that they were Catholics but expressed ideas not fully embraced by the institutional church. Anglophone scholars first called them "evangelicals" because of their focus on the gospels but abandoned that term in favor of the name the accused used themselves, spirituali. Their primary heresy was belief in justification by faith, demonstrated by Alessandro Caravia's exhortation to have faith in God and Christ in order to be saved. The papacy feared this theology would cause people to stop performing good works, even though the spirituali, as exemplified by the excerpt above, maintained that works (charity) were an important part of justification.

- by Celeste McNamara
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- Vernacular Religion, Catholic Reform, Venetian History, Early Modern Italy

The Mrtvalj spring is an integral part of a more complex sacred landscape, the center of which is the Shrine of St. John the Baptist located in Podmilačje near Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The shrine is a multi-confessional pilgrimage destination that is also very popular within the wider region. The Mrtvalj spring is one of the key stops in pilgrimage itineraries, but it is not only a sacred place within pilgrimage practices. In this paper the conceptualization of the Mrtvalj spring's sacredness is examined as a reflection of the relationship between the religious and the political. The author analyzes the relationship between the shrine's politics, which are based on the ideas of a "Bosnian Lourdes" and a shared shrine, and the spring as a focal point for the shared non-institutional practices of believers of various religious affiliations. She aims to show that a shared sacred site does not necessarily have to be controversial, and calls for a revalorization of non-institutional religiosity, which has proved to be a rich phenomenon for the study of interreligious relations.

- by Marijana Belaj
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- Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Vernacular Religion, Pilgrimage, Devotional Shrines

Consumers of manga (comics), anime (cartoons), and video games increasingly search for alternative ways to forge a connection with their favorite characters. In Japan, many of the actual places used in such media as models for background scenery have within recent years become popular as tourist destinations. In an effort to connect with the characters from the action-adventure game "Sengoku Basara", female gamers began to gather at a shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead. At the shrine they choose to express their adoration for the game characters by drawing comic illustrations on votive prayer tablets. Based on a field survey of the votive prayer tablets found on display at the shrine, I argue that through the production of folk art, that is religious icons, fans engage with the game characters in a personal and spiritual manner, while simultaneously creating bonds with other fans.

- by Dale K Andrews
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- Japanese Studies, Folklore, Iconography, Internet Studies

The Whitsun pilgrimage of Csíksomlyó has been attracting pilgrims for more than five centuries. Until the 1940s it was the most important pilgrimage place for the seklers 1 and functioned as the sacred centre of Transylvania, the easternmost bastion of Catholicism. after the political changes of 1989 it has gradually turned into the most important Hungarian pilgrimage place. this transformation alone would not be of particular interest in itself, however, the history of csíksomlyó contains several peculiar elements. the research concerning the history of the pilgrimage place reveal that the origin story of the pilgrimage site is an invented tradition which was meant to strengthen the arriving seklers' unity and harmony. 2 according to Mohay, this is one of the first invented and constructed legends of the Hungarian nationalism taking shape from the 1780s on. the emerging sense of belonging in this legend helped the hidden and secret continuation of the pilgrimage during the years of the communist-socialist era. During the revitalization process from 1990 this sense of belonging has attracted about 4-500,000 Hungarian pilgrims every year, even though the pilgrimage site is situated 600 kilometres away from the Hungarian border, in the middle of Romania. the aim of this paper is to introduce the ideological transformation and reinterpretation of the revitalized csíksomlyó pilgrimage of the past two decades connecting to elements beyond catholicism. i try to answer the question of how and why Csíksomlyó became a pilgrimage place for different neopagan religious groups and how they reinterpreted the site, what is the reason for their presence?

Аннотация. В сельских областях Армении повседневная религиозная жизнь протекает в сурбах-местных святилищах, домашних реликвариях, часовенках и молельнях. Сурб-в переводе с армянского «святой»-это комплексное понятие, которым верующие обозначают и святого, и пространство его почитания. Сурбами могут быть действующие или разрушенные церковные и монастырские постройки, книги, хачкары, родники, деревья, камни. Материальная форма сурба не ассоциированный со святым предмет, несущий на себе печать его святости, как принято в традиционном христианском культе святых, а сам святой. Именно это делает культ сурбов уникальным в ряду похожих культов народного христианства. Обустройство сурбов и паломничество к почитаемым локальным святыням-наиболее распространенные вернакулярные формы духовной жизни местных жителей. В статье исследуются изменения традиционных аспектов почитания сельских сурбов на основе доступных историко-этнографических источников и полевом материале, собранном автором в Армении в 2016-2021 гг.

- by Natalia Kryukova
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- Armenian Studies, Vernacular Religion, Anthropology of Religion

RESUMEN: Los estudios de religiosidad popular tienen por delante un brillante futuro, no obstante amenazado por intricadas dificultades tanto conceptuales como metodológicas. En este artículo abordamos tres tipos de restricciones (moralistas, materialistas e historicistas) responsables en buena medida de la mirada sesgada, paternalista y eurocéntrica que aun hoy caracteriza nuestra idea general de religiosidad popular, especialmente en Centroamérica
PALABRAS CLAVE: Religiosidad Popular, Religiosidad Vernácula, Historia de las Religiones, Subalternidad, Oralidad, Paradigma No-rupturista, San Simón de Mesoamérica.

In this introductory study, we place the articles collected in this special issue on 'spirituality' in a more general context. In so doing, we contest the idea that alternative spirituality is best studied within the conceptual framework of the 'vernacular.' We argue that such an approach tends to unintentionally overstate the empirical particularities and overlook the broader aspects of the subject in question, which results in unreflexively accepting alternative spirituality's own claim that it is 'doctrinefree' and 'non-institutional' by nature. Contrary to this claim, we show that alternative spirituality is (a) pregnant with a distinguishable doctrine despite being glocal and inventive; (b) profoundly social and effectively socialized; (c) about to be visibly socially organized and institutionalized; and (d) a way of addressing and redressing the key existential issues of human life, just as any other religion.

- by Jan Kapusta
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- Religion, New Religious Movements, Sociology of Religion, Vernacular Religion