F EAST
BEYOND LANGUAGE The series under the auspices of: College for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Wrocław, Poland Kolegium Międzyobszarowych Studiów Indywidualnych, UWr In cooperation with: College for International Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland Międzyobszarowe Indywidualne Studia Humanistyczne i Społeczne UAM and Faculty of History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Wydział Historii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu Committee for Philology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Wrocław Branch Komisja Nauk Filologicznych Oddziału PAN we Wrocławiu Scientific Board Committee for Philology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Wrocław Branch Andrei Avram (Bucharest, Romania) | Jerzy Axer (Warsaw, Poland) | Katarzyna Buczek (Opole, Poland) | Piotr Cap (Łódź, Poland) | Lorenzo Calvelli (Venice, Italy) | Tadeusz Cegielski (Warsaw, Poland) | Piotr P. Chruszczewski (Wrocław, Poland) | Camelia M. Cmeciu (Bucharest, Romania) | Marta Degani (Verona, Italy) | Michel DeGraff (Boston, USA) | Robin Dunbar (Oxford, UK) | Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (Poznań, Poland) | Joanna Esquibel (San Diego, USA) | Ray Fabri (La Valetta, Malta) | Franck Floricic (Paris, France) | Stanisław Gajda (Opole, Poland) | Piotr Gąsiorowski (Poznań, Poland) | Yeshaya Gruber (Jerusalem, Israel) | Franciszek Grucza (Warsaw, Poland) | Kazimierz Ilski (Poznań, Poland) | Rafael Jiménez Cataño (Rome, Italy) | Ewa Kębłowska-Ławniczak (Wrocław, Poland) | Grzegorz A. Kleparski (Rzeszów, Poland) | Konrad Klimkowski (Lublin, Poland) | Aleksandra R. Knapik (Wrocław, Poland) | Tomasz P. Krzeszowski (Warszawa, Poland) | Marcin Kudła (Rzeszów, Poland) | Christopher Laferl (Salzburg, Austria) | Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (Łódź, Poland) | Marcin Majewski (Kraków, Poland) | Rafał Molencki (Sosnowiec, Poland) | Marek Paryż (Warsaw, Poland) | John Rickford (Stanford, USA) | Hans Sauer (Munich, Germany) | Waldemar Skrzypczak (Toruń, Poland) | Agnieszka Stępkowska (Warsaw, Poland) | Aleksander Szwedek (Poznań, Poland) | Elżbieta Tabakowska (Kraków, Poland) | Jerzy Wełna (Warsaw, Poland) | Donald Winford (Columbus, USA) | Anna Wojtyś (Warsaw, Poland) | Przemysław Żywiczyński (Toruń, Poland)
BOŻENA G I EREK AND WOJC I ECH KOS I OR (EDS . ) F EAST AS A MI RROR of Social and Cultural Changes , 2020
FEAST As a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes Title of the Series: Beyond Language, Vol. 6 Text © 2020 Authors: Frédéric Armao, Ilze Kačāne, Bożena Gierek, Tatiana Minniyakhmetova, László Mód, Marek Moroń, Ewa Nowicka, Alīna Romanovska, Monika Salzbrunn, Tigran Simyan, Kiyoshi Umeya Copyright for this edition © 2020 Æ Academic Publishing All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The Series Editorial Team: Editors-in-Chief: Prof. Piotr P. Chruszczewski (Wrocław) Dr. Aleksandra R. Knapik (Wrocław) Editors for the Series: Dr. Katarzyna Buczek (Opole) Dr. Tomasz P. Górski (Wrocław) MISHiS Co-Editors: Prof. Aleksander W. Mikołajczak (Poznań) Prof. Konrad Dominas (Poznań) Prof. Rafał Dymczyk (Poznań) Honorary Editors Prof. Michel DeGraff (Boston, MA) for the Series: Prof. Isaiah Gruber (Jerusalem) Prof. Christopher F. Laferl (Salzburg) Review of this volume: Prof. Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN) Prof. Halina Mielicka-Pawłowska, Jan Kochanowski University (Kielce, Poland) Publication subsidized by: Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and Daugavpils University, Latvia. Æ Academic Publishing 501 W. Broadway Ste A186 San Diego, CA 92101, USA www.aeAcademicPublishing.com contact@aeAcademicPublishing.com 1st international edition: Æ Academic Publishing, 2020 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020925225 ISSN: 2642-6951 (print) ISSN: 2642-696X (online) ISBNs: 978-1-68346-196-8 (pbk) 978-1-68346-197-5 (mobi) 978-1-68346-198-2 (ePub) 978-1-68346-199-9 (pdf) 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes Bożena Gierek ...................................................................................... 1 PART 1. Culture and Identity Chapter 1. Performing Ethnicity: Buryat Ethnofestivals and a Rediscovered Tradition Ewa Nowicka .......................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2. The Swiss Carnivals of Payerne and Lausanne: Place-making between the mise en scène of Self and the Other(s) Monika Salzbrunn ................................................................................... 35 Chapter 3. Grape Harvest Feast as an Attempt to Develop Local Identity and Cultural Heritage. The Hungarian Case László Mód .............................................................................................. 51 Chapter 4. Diaspora Festivals as a Way for Development of Cultural Identity in the Regional City: the Case of Daugavpils (Latvia) Alīna Romanovska . ................................................................................. 61 PART 2. Ritual and Cultural Values Chapter 5. Feasts to Send-off the Dead: with Special Reference to the Jopadhola of Eastern Uganda Kiyoshi Umeya ........................................................................................ 79 Chapter 6. Manifestation of Various Values in Traditional Udmurt Feasts Tatiana Minniyakhmetova ....................................................................... 99 Chapter 7. Lajkonik (Hobby Horse) as Theatrum of the Period of Corpus Christi in Kraków (Poland) Bożena Gierek ......................................................................................... 116 Chapter 8. Uisneach: from the Ancient Assembly to the Fire Festival 2017 Frédéric Armao ........................................................................................ 137 S
PART 3. Culture and Policy Chapter 9. The Use of Sacrifice Feast of Eid ul-Adha in Bengal as an Instrument of Promoting Communal Violence for Political Purposes: The Situation in the 1920s, 1930s, and 201 Marek Moroń .......................................................................................... 163 Chapter 10. Transformations of New Year Celebration in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Era: the Cases of Armenia and Latvia Tigran Simyan and Ilze Kačāne . .............................................................. 178 Notes on Contributors. ............................................................................... 200 Subject Index............................................................................................... 204 Name Index. ................................................................................................ 205
List of Illustrations Culture and Identity Chapter 1. Performing Ethnicity: Buryat Ethnofestivals and a Rediscovered Tradition Fig. 1. The Night of Yokhor, Ulan Ude, Buryatia, Russia, 2012 (Photo: Ayur Zhanaev) Fig. 2. The Night of Yokhor, Ulan Ude, Buryatia, Russia, 2013 (Photo: Ayur Zhanaev) Fig. 3. The Altargana, Dadal, Mongolia, 2014 (Photo: Ayur Zhanaev) Fig. 4. The Altargana, Aginskoe, Russia, 2012 (Photo: Ayur Zhanaev) Chapter 2. The Swiss Carnivals of Payerne and Lausanne: Place-making between the mise en scène of Self and the Other(s) Fig. 1. The representation of the Roma during the Brandons de Payerne, 2013 (Photo: Monika Salzbrunn) Fig. 2. Wordplay against the Roma “I gave my hand and he took my arm” during the Brandons de Payerne, 2013 (Photo: Monika Salzbrunn) Fig. 3. Wordplay against refugees “When they leave they touch wood, when they arrive they touch asses.” The Brandons de Payerne, 2016 (Photo: Barbara Dellwo) Chapter 3. Grape Harvest Feast as an Attempt to Develop Local Identity and Cultural Heritage: The Hungarian Case Fig. 1. The participants of the grape harvest feast in Hungarian costumes, 2014 (Photo: László Mód) Fig. 2. The wreath made from grapes, 2014 (Photo: László Mód) Fig. 3. The “specialists” cooking dinner, 2014 (Photo: László Mód) Fig. 4. The thief caught by the field guard, 2014 (Photo: László Mód) Ritual and Cultural Values Chapter 5. Feasts to Send-off the Dead: with Special Reference to the Jopadhola of Eastern Uganda Map. 1. Research area: Kisoko sub-county, Tororo District, Uganda (based on Twinomujuni & Sempagala-Mpagi 2011, modified by Kiyoshi Umeya) Fig. 1. People beating buli to inform about a death (Photo: Kiyoshi Umeya) Fig. 2. Jondijo (a quartet band) playing ajore (the mourning song) (Photo: Kiyoshi Umeya) Fig. 3. Women dancing ajore (Photo: Kiyoshi Umeya) Fig. 4. People drinking kongo from a special pot at lumbe (last funeral rite) (Photo: Kiyoshi Umeya)
viii List of Illustrations Chapter 6. Manifestation of Various Values in Traditional Udmurt Feasts Fig. 1. Pancakes and beestings, Vukogurt, Bashkortostan, 2016 (Photo: Nikolay Anisimov) Fig. 2. A pancake with zyret, Bayshady, Bashkortostan, 2018 (Photo: Tatiana Minniyakhmetova) Fig. 3. Baking pancakes in the oven, Bayshady, Bashkortostan, 2018 (Photo: Tatiana Minniyakhmetova) Fig. 4. The women go to the river to rinse the geese carcasses, Kissa, Bashkortostan, 1970 (Photo: Ranus Sadikov) Chapter 7. Lajkonik (Hobby Horse) as Theatrum of the Period of Corpus Christi in Kraków (Poland) Fig. 1. A lit-up effigy of Lajkonik near the Barbican during the Christmas time in 2018/2019 (Photo: Bożena Gierek) Fig. 2. Lajkonik dancing in the courtyard of the Convent of the Norbertine Sisters, trying to hit the white eagle in the standard with his mace, 2017 (Photo: Bożena Gierek) Fig. 3. Lajkonik marching along Zwierzyniecka Street and visiting shops, 2017 (Photo: Bożena Gierek) Fig. 4. Lajkonik tapping people with his mace in the courtyard of the Convent of the Norbertine Sisters, 2017 (Photo: Bożena Gierek) Chapter 8. Uisneach: from the Ancient Assembly to the Fire Festival 2017 Fig. 1. A view of the top of the hill of Uisneach and Lough Lugh, May 2017 (Photo: Frédéric Armao) Fig. 2. Uisneach, near Lough Lugh, May 6, 2017 (Photo: Frédéric Armao) Fig. 3. Women gathering at the Catstone, May 6, 2017 (Photo: Frédéric Armao) Fig. 4. Bealtaine fire ceremony site, May 6, 2017 (Photo: Frédéric Armao) Culture and Policy Chapter 10. Transformations of New Year Celebration in the Soviet and PostSoviet Era: the Cases of Armenia and Latvia Fig. 1. Students of the Latvian Agricultural Academy in Jelgava on New Year’s Eve, Latvian SSR, 1964 (the author of the photo is unknown; the photo comes from Anna Ruža’s personal archive) Fig. 2. Blessing Pomegranates at midnight on New Year’s Eve in St. Echmiadzin, Armenia, 2017 (a screenshot from a video by Armenian Church 2018)
ix List of Illustrations Fig. 3. Monumental Ded Moroz in Moscow, 1965 (the author of the photo is unknown; the photo comes from Marina Martirosyan’s, Tigran Simyan’s mother’s, personal archive) Fig. 4. New Year celebration for children in Viški, Daugavpils district, Latvian SSR, 1971 (the author of the photo is unknown; the photo comes from Broņislava Dombrovska’s, Ilze Kačāne’s mother, personal archive)
Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes Bożena Gierek Feasting seems to be an inseparable element of peoples’—especially their collective—lives. Moreover, it is “a primary, indestructible ingredient of human civilization; it may become sterile and even degenerate, but it cannot vanish” (Bakhtin [1965] 1984: 276). According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (Procter 1995: 508), feast, understood as a celebration, is “a day on which a religious event or person is remembered and celebrated,” and festival or festivity is “a special day or period, usually in memory of a religious event, with its own social activities, food or ceremonies, or an organized set of special events.” The social activities and special events, performed on days free from ordinary duties, “as an intermezzo, an interlude in our daily lives” (Huizinga [1938] 1980: 9; cf. Heers [1983] 1995: 6–7), comprise, among others, public gatherings, parades, manifestations, music and dance, games and entertainment, even debauchery (Caillois [1939] 1972: 145–147; Caillois [1958] 2001: 89), where “special types of attire” are also required (Turner 1982a: 12). Wearing special attire and symbols as well as home decoration are themselves a manifestation, such as for instance shamrock and green color on St. Patrick’s Day. According to Polish ethnologists Tadeusz Maciej Ciołek, Jacek Olędzki, and Anna Zadrożyńska (1976: 12), considering the form, feasts are spectacles that are “the most communicative way of transmitting information.”1 They involve all senses, draw in spectators, and make it possible for them to realize their own feelings. The authors propose to call the feast “an unordinary situation establishing a festive synthesis of ordinariness” (Ciołek, Olędzki, & Zadrożyńska 1976: 284). The Cambridge International Dictionary of English gives also another meaning of a feast, here understood as food: “a special meal with very good food or a large meal for many people” (Procter 1995: 508). Although this is the primary definition of “feast,” nowadays, it has a secondary meaning and points 1 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.
2 Bożena Gierek to one of the aspects of the feast, namely, to the abundance that distinguishes the feast from ordinary days (cf., e.g., Caillois [1939] 1972: Ch. 4; Canetti [1960] 2001; Duvignaud [1977] 2011). This aspect is disconnected from its old function and is not necessarily used in its original context. It is also used as a metaphor; e.g., any kind of art can be a feast for the eye. Because the term “feast” and its equivalents in other languages (e.g., Ger. Fest, Fr. fête, Span. fiesta from Lat. festum, festa) are commonly used to signify celebration, and there is a semantic difference between “feast” and “festival” in many languages, hence particular events are called “feasts,” not “festivals,” and vice versa; we, therefore, decided to leave the Authors of the chapters the choice to use either of them. Carnival, in turn, is treated as a special form of feast or festival. Feast is connected not only with free time, relaxation, and entertainment, but also with determined rituals, religious cult, dates important for a nation or a state, labor law, organization of production, traditions of social movements and their ideologies, and demonstrations that take place on special days. The feast—serious and elevating, or crazy and derisive—allows its participants to confirm their cultural identity and distinction from other groups (cf. Ciołek, Olędzki & Zadrożyńska 1976: 298–299). It concerns both natural and artificially created communities (cf. Heers [1983] 1995: 136–137). The feast plays an important role in the process of socialization and enculturation of an individual. It is always infused with strong emotions (of horror, fear, guilt, joy, liberation, triumph)—both individual and collective—much stronger than any other event. Emotions are present not only during the celebration, but also during the preparations for the feast (cf. Mielicka 2006: 43). These emotions, especially joy, felt collectively, have a purifying power (cf. Żygulski 1981). “The emotional response” of an individual, regarded by the American anthropologist Ralph Linton ([1945] 1975) as the distinctive psychological desire, or even the most distinctive desire, can be satisfied in a group. Feasting with others, especially with those with whom an individual shares cultural patterns, is a situation in which the emotional response can be multiplied. There are plenty of different definitions of feast that highlight its various aspects, functions, and characteristics not specified above.2 However, all of 2 There are numerous publications on feasts, festivals, and feasting, but most of them concentrate on a particular feast. Another problem is that a vast number of these publications is in languages that are not widely known. An example is a book written in Polish called Antropologia świąt i świętowania [= The Anthropology of Feasts and Feasting] by the Polish
3 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes them stress one of the most important functions of the feast, which is the strengthening and manifestation of bonds, solidarity, relations between people, very often in collective effervescence, regardless of the place, culture, or time (cf. Durkheim [1912] 2010; Caillois [1939] 1972, [1958] 2001; Turner [1969] 2017: Chs. 3–4; [1974] 1975: Ch. 1; 1982a; Żygulski 1981). In the French sociologist Jean Duvignaud’s ([1977] 2011) terms, the time of feasting is le don du rien (the gift of nothing). It is a time when joy overcomes the people feasting together, who forget about their ranks, statuses, identities; when “astructural” symptoms of social life, which tend to escape every form of institutionalization (Duvignaud [1977] 2011: 33), occur. The structure of the society is suspended (Turner [1969] 2017), everybody is equal, the same; the oneness can be felt, experienced. On the other hand, during the feast, special social roles played on ordinary days are highlighted, manifested, and confirmed (cf. Heers [1983] 1995: 12–14, 184–188) by assigning distinguished places to their actors. Sometimes some roles in the social structure can be changed temporarily (van der Leeuw [1933] 1997: 345). It has to be mentioned that an important role in the festival is assigned to masks, which, according to the French sociologist Roger Caillois ([1958] 2001: 89), are “the true social bond.” Duvignaud ([1977] 2011: 208–210) believed that “we are born and die in the world in which there is no feast,” because the feast means that everything can happen, and in the world we live in, feasts are organized and controlled by ideologies that ensure “compactness of the structures in the capitalist and socialist systems.” However, as noted by Caillois ([1939] 1972: 123–124), we can still discern vestiges of the old festivals in our present reality. A feast is always organized around a special value that is important or even venerated by a group or groups of people, often manifested symbolically (cf. Turner 1982b). Thus, the institution of the feast protects and renews that cultural value, and feasting on a certain day becomes a tradition in which ethnologist Halina Mielicka (2006), in which the author presents the multi-dimensionality and multi-functionalism of the multi-layered feast and feasting, reaching out to well known international scholars, but also to Polish scholars whose works might not be popularized internationally. Another example of a book in Polish is Rytuały, obrzędy, święta [= Rituals, Ceremonies, Feasts] by the Polish ethnologist Leonard Pełka (1989), which is devoted to Polish feast and ceremonies—their origins and transformations influenced by political systems. The main part is preceded by the presentation of the general classification of the ceremonies and feasts, as well as their social functions. Examples of publications in other native languages are given in this book by the Authors of the chapters.
4 Bożena Gierek the feast finds its justification and motivation. This tradition shapes societies and preserves specific forms of rituals and customs suitable for the contemporary way of social life for which special institutions representing the ruling classes are responsible. They tend to preserve the old3 by bestowing on it “special emotional value” (Czarnowski [1936] 1956: 121). As long as the value embodied in the tradition is important for a group, the need to sustain and celebrate the feast lasts. Decay of the ideology, weakening of the faith, as well as the belief in the traditional values presage decay of the feast. The old feast can be replaced by another or it can be transformed; for instance its religious, mythical, metaphysical meaning can be substituted for purely secular cultural national, regional, or ethnic values. The reformed feast can become one more form of spending free time. Reasons for changing feasts and changes in feasts are economic, technological, and cultural. Cultural changes are affected by the changes in: living conditions of people, socio-economic and occupational structures, political systems, and social awareness. Changes in the occupational structure are reflected not only in the dedication of the feast to a guild (e.g., in the Middle Ages) or a working class4 (e.g., in a communist or socialist state), but also in the place the representatives of the occupation take. Changes in social awareness are expressed in the changes in the value system of the group. Ideological changes and changes in social structures influence changes in the feasts. Very often a feast retains old elements, but a new meaning is given to them (cf. Żygulski 1981). A very good example of this is the harvest festival (dożynki) in Poland, especially its celebration during the communist period when the festival was infused with communist ideology and it included the ritualization of political behavior. The feast was an arena for rivalry—the achievements of the leaders at work were announced and they were awarded by the state leaders (cf. Gierek 2014). The harvest festival is an example of the feast transformed into “a lesson of patriotism and subordination” (Heers [1983] 1995: 213). As the Polish sociologist Stefan Czarnowski put it: We unceasingly change our attitude towards the old by still working on its transformation, […] so that it becomes the present. For the old lasts 3 The Polish sociologist Stefan Czarnowski used the Polish noun dawność, referring to something old, therefore I translate it as “the old,” not “the past”; the latter would be przeszłość in Polish. 4 In Poland, over 30 occupational groups celebrated their own feasts, which was an effect of specialization of work that led to specialization of feasting (Ciołek, Olędzki, & Zadrożyńska 1976: 266).
5 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes exclusively as the present, while the present is the transformed, the updated old, and the emerging future. ([1936] 1956: 121) These changes pertain to names and outward forms, but the core—the soul—stays the same, because without it there is no civilization (Le Bon [1895] 1905: 52). The Canadian-Israeli anthropologist Don Handelman prefers to concentrate on “a technology of events,” “logics of their meta-design,” which he finds “constituted and empowered culturally and historically,” than on enactment (1990: 7). Events have formalized space, time, and behavior of actors participating in them. They are organized and structured “in accordance with some guidelines” (1990: 11), although in the course of time they may be modified. On the one hand, public events reflect social orders, on the other, they may both affect and effect social orders; therefore their design is of a great importance and very informative. Feasts are perceived as an ideological regulation of the life of a nation, a society, a group, or a class, because depending on the changes in the system on which functioning of a society is based, traditional feasts undergo re-evaluation. They might be adjusted to the new circumstances or even disappear and be replaced by completely new ones. Hence, an event commemorated by a feast does not have to be religious (cf. Caillois [1939] 1972; Eliade [1957] 1959, 1963) or even legendary, it can be purely secular—just historical. Both religious or secular feasts might be celebrated with joy (cf. Huizinga [1938] 1980; Bakhtin [1965] 1984) and playfulness, which very often does not have any other aim—in accordance with the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s words that “[t]rue play knows no propaganda” ([1938] 1980: 211)—but playfulness (cf. Heers [1983] 1995: 6). Feasts can be devoid of these elements and instead take the form of a solemn ceremony infused with immersion in deep thoughts (meditation) and grief. However, it has to be noted that in some cultures grief is expressed loudly (cf., e.g., Canetti [1960] 2001); the feast takes the form of a lively and boisterous concourse that favors collective effervescence (cf. Caillois [1939] 1972: 123). Uncontrolled collective effervescence, intensified by alcohol, can lead to numerous threats (cf. Heers [1983] 1995: 16–17). Ideological regulations mean that the feast is used, even might be misused, to restrain and to control smaller or bigger groups of people. It might be used for carrying a social or political action that is needed to maintain the status quo. The feast is a scene for the presentation of the social life of the feasting community, its political and social problems, and unresolved issues. It is expressed in various artistic and non-artistic ways—civilized,
6 Bożena Gierek nonetheless, often mocking or insulting, and aggressive—depending on the society and a complex of factors that have shaped it. The feast might be also a measure of popularity of the real power of its organizers who not only want to consolidate their prestige, but also strive to control the moods of street crowds, and to use them in their own political or social actions against an opposite party or fraction (cf. Heers [1983] 1995). The feast is a kind of a social obligation, often an order and a sanctioned coercion. The obligation to celebrate ensues from the affiliation to the group and from sharing common values, including celebrating feasts, which is an index of internalization of common cultural values by an individual (cf. Żygulski 1981). On the one hand, the obligation can be accepted and internalized, which in this case is not felt as an imposition, on the other, it can be exacted and those who do not want to subordinate are punished. When the sanctions weaken, those who do not share belief in the feast’s value abandon feasting. Mostly, it is the result of changes in a person’s ideology and philosophy of life. According to a Polish sociologist and theoretician of culture, Kazimierz Żygulski (1981), generally the same factors that determine the place of an individual in the social structure influence the individual’s attitude to the feast. In his opinion, celebrating is a cultural need, therefore “the need of the feast […] must be […] awakened in each new generation” (1981: 156). If no new feast is born in the place of the feast that disappeared, the vacuum is filled with various substitutes. The phenomenon of the feast and its analysis provides exceptionally precious material for researching social and cultural changes, including the influence of urbanization on rural feasts. Therefore, it can be perceived as a mirror that reflects those changes. The French historian Jacques Heers calls it “a mirror of civilization” ([1983] 1995: 7), because it is always placed in the social context in which it “springs up and determines its vital shapes and colors” ([1983] 1995: 21). In order to attract people to the feast, it is necessary to adapt to “the taste and the interest of the epoch” ([1983] 1995: 39) that constantly evolves ([1983] 1995: 158). The feast allows us to look, at the same time, at traditional and new elements of a particular culture that coexist next to each other or with each other. The changes in the feasts are “sensitive indexes” of the changes of values, ideas and ideologies, social and political structures, their functioning, and cultural creativity (cf. Żygulski 1981; Heers [1983] 1995: 6–7, 208–213). The proposed volume consists of original, previously unpublished texts in which their Authors search for the answers to the following questions:
7 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes How far have we gone astray from the primeval idea of celebrating the feast, from understanding tradition in terms of the Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade or the French sociologist Émile Durkheim? Are there still any traditional—in the very meaning of the term—feasts? And if not—if they are invented (Hobsbawm & Ranger [1983] 1992)—why are they called “traditional”? What elements have changed and why? What has had the greatest impact on celebrating feasts? What are the new factors influencing the course of a feast’s celebration? The term “traditional” indicates the sustained and transmitted old lore of a certain social group, which, among others, is manifested in rituals, ceremonies, and feasts that very often take the form of spectacles—spectacle et mise en scène (cf. Duvignaud [1977] 2011: 204). That old lore is usually called folklore. It is this form of culture that best “resists the destructive power of time and the impression of leaders’ personalities” (Heers [1983] 1995: 19). Numerous discussions regarding the scope of such terms as “folklore,” “folkloristics,” “ethnology,” “ethnography,” “anthropology,” and “folklorism,”5 which have changed in the course of time (cf. Emrich 1946; Krzyżanowski 1965a, 1965b, 1965c; Klimaszewska 1966; Burszta 1966, 1974, 1978, 1987a, 1987b; Dorson 1963, 1972; Dundes 1980; Gusiew [1967] 1974), must be left aside. It has to be underlined that very often “folk” is understood as country people, while the term also includes town and city people (cf. Gusiew [1967] 1974: 36–61), and in terms of quality, the urban folklore is richer than the rural, although it can be less durable (Krzyżanowski 1965b: 106). It is worth mentioning that one country can accommodate a range of local cultures that are specific to their regions, regions which were shaped by particular historical and geographical environments (cf. Burszta 1974: 134). In the 1970s, the most often listed factors influencing the transformation of society and its culture were: industrialization, urbanization, the progress of techno-civilization, the development of education, and the dissemination of “prying” and “ubiquitous” mass culture (cf. Burszta 1974: 132, 340, 346). In the context of creating national cultures from local cultures, the Polish ethnographer Józef Burszta indicated two opposite processes that dominated the world scene (1974: 346–347; cf. Misztal 2000, 151–157): one was the “cosmopolitization of the world’s culture” (1974: 314) and the other—“extracting fromwithin national and state organisms the best cultural 5 The American folklorist Richard M. Dorson (1963: 101) called it “fakelore,” and the Polish ethnographer Józef Burszta (1974: 338, 1978: 263)—“applied folklore.”
8 Bożena Gierek features found both in national history and, above all, in folk culture” (1974: 314). The first trend favors cultural integration and unification of the world, spreading out even to primitive communities. The other one prevents national and local cultures from uniformization and globalization (cf. Giddens [1990] 1991: 65). It is supported by the old tradition, understood as material and nonmaterial heritage from the past transmitted from generation to generation and evaluated by transmitters (cf. Szacki [1971] 2001, Burszta 1974, Shils 1981), as well as by new—invented or re-invented—tradition (cf. Hobsbawm & Ranger [1983] 1992). Evaluation conveys reflexivity on the heritage placed in the time-space context, retaining the link between the past, the present, and the future. Because of the acceleration of modernity, which brought “disembedding mechanisms” into societies, time and space have been separated and stretched. That stretching process is linked with globalization, which influences worldwide social relations in such a way that events in one locale are shaped by those occurring in the great distance, and vice versa. Modernity, as a contrast to tradition, is also a threat to it. Many social changes, pertaining to “pace of change,” “scope of change,” and “nature of modern institutions,” have occurred in the previous centuries. However, it is impossible to cut off completely “the continuities between the traditional and the modern,” and therefore even in the most modernized societies tradition has its place and role to play (Giddens [1990] 1991, [1991] 1992). First of all, tradition brings people together—it gives them the feeling of communitas (cf. Durkheim [1912] 2010; Turner [1969] 2017: Chs. 3–4; [1974] 1975: Ch. 1; 1982a). It makes them proud of it (cf. Mielicka 2009: 11) and makes them want to share it with others. The feast used to be considered “the highlight of the social life, not only from the religious but also from the economic point of view” (Caillois [1939] 1972: 160), because it was linked with the circulation of accumulated goods, and with fairs that were a platform for their distribution. The community rejoiced at everything that represented its prosperity, which was to ensure the future of its members. With time, the distribution of goods was replaced by their exchange and later on by their selling. Nowadays, especially in so-called developed countries, we encounter numerous fairs organized on various occasions, but at such fairs goods are exclusively sold. Distribution or exchange no longer takes place there, even in the villages, and those who buy them are mostly outsiders. Fairs can be perceived as an economic, but also cultural, phenomenon, and can be an inseparable element of a feast (cf. Grad 2004: 25–34).
9 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes There are groups of people, whose incentives are purely commercial, that want to attract outsiders; these people are often local decision-makers. The outsiders are tourists for whom feasts and festivals, being parts of different cultures, are exotic and they very often influence their choices in holiday destinations (cf. Mielicka 2009: 11–21). Since ancient times, tourism6 has been one of the bigger contributors to the local and national economy, therefore endeavors were undertaken in order to attract tourists and their money at any possible occasion. The economic aspect is very significant here, but we must not forget that it lies also at the roots of the feasts, especially those linked with turning points in nature. Prosperity in every area of the life of an individual and a group has always been desired. Thus, in order to ensure it, rituals were conducted on various occasions. Feasts and festivals were rituals sensu stricto. However, nowadays, economic incentives seem to influence every area of life. People have become their slaves, as well as slaves of time perceived as money and calculated by money, especially in industrial and secular countries, in which every feast day, every day off, means a loss of millions. Therefore, if some feasts and festivals could not be eliminated, they had to be included in the business plan and turned into profitable events in commerce and the market. Every feast recalls and communicates something (Pełka 1989: 55). It allows people “to reflect on their own existence and to pay attention to what is the most important and meaningful in life” (Mielicka 2006: 243). The question is, how many people take this opportunity, find time for reflection, or would even consider it in a world where everybody is rushing and there are so many distractions—even in the feast itself, to mention its performative aspect. Feasts are great occasions for mass consumption supported by mass media. In the whirl of shopping and the thrill of chasing meaningless pleasures, with which we are bombarded by mass media, we lose the true meaning of the feast. Mass media are taking the place of the traditional celebration, in the sense that they offer its new forms to those who choose to stay at home in isolation from communitas. Because mass media are a common means of globalization, a feast is therefore a performance not only for spectators participating in it in situ, but also for those millions watching it on the screen. Most contemporary feasts and festivals gather random people who are not permanently bound with each other in their daily lives. The temporary 6 On the links between tourism and festivals, cf. Picard and Robinson (2006). On food and wine festivals as part of regional and national tourism strategies, cf. Hall and Sharples (2008).
10 Bożena Gierek bonds between the celebrating people are formed because they have a common aim—to enjoy themselves here and now. “The emotional attraction of feast days” has been weakened by the modern style of life and “the modern conception of freedom of an individual” (Żygulski 1981: 243), which means that now in the center is the individual, not the collective. Holidays, vacations—as a family-recreational time—take the place of feasts and festivals, and diminish their meaning as a time of relaxation. Both bring a break in ordinary, everyday obligatory work. However, there are essential differences between them. The old religious festival represented the reactualization of a sacred event that took place in the mythical past, in illo tempore, at a certain time in the year. Its celebration was necessary to guarantee harmony in the universe, even its existence (cf. Caillois [1939] 1972; Eliade [1957] 1959, 1963). At present, especially in Western cultures, the festival is stripped of that deep sacred meaning due to processes of secularization. Although many festivals have a long tradition, it is not correlated with the sacred. It is perceived merely as a commemoration of an old tradition, a nice event transmitted from generation to generation, a part of local or national culture. The feast, the sense of which was inherent in the collective action of the members of a particular group, now devoid of that action, has been turned into one more performance, no matter how artistic, magnificent, and impressive in its external form. Such an attitude leads to indifference to the past and diminution of historical awareness (cf. Żygulski 1981: 244). The dates of vacations are individual and quite fluid, and may change from year to year. They are awaited, but this awaiting is different from the awaiting of the whole community for the old periodical festival at a more or less fixed day. There was a special time for preparations, which were set and had to be followed carefully. It was “a durable, violent phenomenon with such a magnitude” that it is difficult to compare it with “the evanescent days of carefully measured out pleasures that present civilizations can indulge” (Caillois [1939] 1972: 215). The festival and vacations both require a break in the work, but in the case of the vacations it is “a phase of relaxation and not of paroxysm” ([1939] 1972: 161). Caillois regards vacations as a contradiction to the ancient festivals because they concentrate on the individual, not on the community ([1939] 1972: 215–216). It is not a time of the gathering of crowds; on the contrary, it is a time of their dispersion far away from urban centers. This form of escapism and lack of willingness, or even indisposition, to celebrate feasts is a result of the diminution of social bonds. It seems that the evolved society became more complicated, there are no interludes
11 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes in the normal course of life; “[e]verything must continue today the same as yesterday, and tomorrow as today”7 ([1939] 1972: 161). The proposed volume meets the growing interest in intercultural comparison of social changes, especially in festivities. It enriches the empirical basis of accounts on festivities in general because it contains detailed case studies—mostly based on the Authors’ own field research—from European, Asian, and African countries. It was difficult to categorize the texts contained in this book because the subjects discussed in them very often overlap. Still, it was possible to recognize several accentuated aspects that served as the basis for the division of the book into three sections, i.e. (1) Culture and Identity, (2) Ritual and Cultural Values, and (3) Culture and Policy. The first section contains four chapters. In the first one, as a mirror of social and cultural changes, Ewa Nowicka presents three Buryat ethnofestivals that are used by the Buryat elite “to build a modern, culturally unified Buryat nation” in order to oppose Russian infiltration and Western globalization. It is a process of reconstruction of Buryat ethnicity in which rediscovered fragments of old tradition are adopted to the Buryat’s “contemporary living conditions” taking a new form. The role of rediscovered tradition in strengthening identity is also the subject of the third chapter, in which László Mód traces the process of constructing local identities in agricultural communities in Hungary. Here, the social and political changes are mirrored in grape harvest feasts. In the second chapter, on the examples of the Swiss carnivals of Payerne and Lausanne, Monika Salzbrunn demonstrates how social structure and political issues, in these cases related to foreign residents, are mirrored in the feasts. She builds her analysis around performing self or the other(s). In the last chapter, Alīna Romanovska tackles the problem of cultural identity of young people in the multicultural cross-border environment of the city of Daugavpils (Latvia) in the context of diaspora festivals. Despite the endeavors of diasporas to preserve their own cultural traditions, the influence of globalization and the interests of consumer society have led to the creolization and hybridization of cultures. Young people prefer to participate in public rather than in diaspora events. Cultural purity is not important for them. As members of the future society, they welcome elements of other traditions in their lives. It is not hard to detect in such an attitude the influence of Latvia’s political past. 7 English translation after Roger Caillois (2001) Man and the Sacred. Trans. Meyer Barash. United States: University of Illinois Press.
12 Bożena Gierek The second section of the book, in which ritual and cultural values are highlighted, contains four chapters. In the first one Kiyoshi Umeya shows the impact of modernization and globalization on the society of Jopadhola in Eastern Uganda, which is reflected in their feast of sending off the dead. As the Author notices, for financial reasons the feast has been shortened, condensed, and simplified. On the other hand, the funeral business has developed. The simplification of funeral rituals impinges on the relationship between the dead and the living, which has become a cosmological issue. All these changes have led to the undermining of the indigenous value system. Changes in the value system are also traced by Tatiana Minniyakhmetova, whose subject of research are two traditional Udmurt feasts that involve sacrificing domestic animals. As in the case of the African feast, also here the changes in the feasts reflect social and cultural changes, to which belong: a decrease in the number of family members followed by a smaller number of guests participating in the feasts; shifting the days of the celebration to the weekends, as well as shortening the duration of the feasts due to dispersed places of living of the family members and guests; alteration in the domestic food economy, e.g., in breeding animals and dishes served during the feasts. The latter influences rituals conducted during the ceremonies. Bożena Gierek, the Author of the third chapter in this section, indicates a range of changes in the celebration of the local feast of Lajkonik (Hobby Horse) in Kraków (Poland), which are the result of social and cultural changes. She analyzes and compares the performances at different times, paying attention to such elements as: general display, the day of the feast, the attire of the performers, the props used during the celebration, the place of the feast (the route and the place of banqueting), the activities accompanying the feast, and the number of spectators and their behavior. In fact, none of them have withstood the test of the time. The Author of the last chapter, Frédéric Armao, elaborates on the Irish feast of Bealtaine, in ancient times marking the beginning of summer, at the hill of Uisneach. One of the major events was a great assembly, hence it is the pivot of the chapter. A very thorough description and then comparison of the ancient and contemporary festivals enable us to see the differences in the celebrations and changes that Irish society has undergone. The last section of the book, on policy interfering in culture, contains two chapters. In the first one, Marek Moroń presents the Muslim feast of Eid ulAdha, which involves animal (cow) sacrifice as a political instrument of manipulation and the promotion of hate and violence between the communities of Hindus and Muslims in Bengal. The Author shows how political priorities
13 Introduction: Feast as a Mirror of Social and Cultural Changes that target religious feelings lead to the destruction of the peaceful cohabitation of different ethnic groups. The feast also mirrors changes in the issues that ignite conflict. Next to emotional and religious, economic issues have also emerged as triggers. In the second chapter of this section, Tigran Simyan and Ilze Kačāne present transformations of the New Year celebration in Armenia and Latvia. Celebration of New Year in Armenia and Latvia in the Soviet and then post-Soviet (after 1990) periods shows great influence of geo-political factors in two layers: Soviet inheritance—still quite strong in Armenia; and the re-establishment of national culture infused with Christian and old pagan elements. As a result, the feasting in Latvia has a hybrid character, whereas in Armenia it exhibits similarities with the modern Russian pattern. However, in both countries the celebration of the New Year has a family-social character; it is linked with the Christmas tree, parties, and presents, which was the groundwork of political and ideological feasts and festivals in the Soviet period. The contributors are scholars who represent various international institutions and fields of research, and use different approaches and methodologies to study the subject of the feast. This publication is an opportunity to bring the results of their research together in one book. The volume contains chapters in which various aspects of feasts, festivals, and festivities perceived as a mirror of social and cultural changes in the 20th and 21st centuries are presented. It provides a unique and rich resource in the fields of culture, folklore, religion, anthropology, sociology, as well as politics and other cultural and social sciences. In the future, we hope to broaden the scope of our research and include more ethnic groups and their cultures in order to see the changes they have undergone and factors that caused them. References Bakhtin, Mikhail ([1965] 1984) Rabelais and His World [orig. Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaja kulʹtura srednevekovʹja i Renessansa]. Translated from Russian by Hélenè Iswolsky. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Burszta, Józef (1966) “Folklor, folklorystyka, folkloryzacja [= Folklore, Folkloristics, Folklorization].” [In:] Teatr Ludowy 1–2; 39–40. Burszta, Józef (1974) Kultura ludowa – kultura narodowa: szkice i rozprawy [= Folk Culture – National Culture: Sketches and Treatises]. Warszawa, Poland: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza. Burszta, Józef (1978) “Folkloryzm, tradycja, cywilizacja współczesna [= Folklorism, Tradition, Contemporary Civilization].” [In:] Michał Waliński (ed.) Teoria
14 Bożena Gierek kultury: folklor a kultura [= Theory of Culture: Folklore vs Culture]. Katowice, Poland: Uniwersytet Śląski; 260–266. Burszta, Józef (1987a) “Folklor [= Folklore].” [In:] Zofia Staszczak (ed.) Słownik etnologiczny: terminy ogólne [= Ethnological Dictionary: General Terms]. Warszawa|Poznań, Poland: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; 124–128. Burszta, Józef (1987b) “Folkloryzm [= Folklorism].” [In:] Zofia Staszczak (ed.) Słownik etnologiczny: terminy ogólne [= Ethnological Dictionary: General Terms]. Warszawa | Poznań, Poland: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; 131–132. Caillois, Roger ([1939] 1972) L’homme et le sacré. Paris, France: Gallimard. Caillois, Roger ([1958] 2001) Man, Play and Games [orig. Les jeux et les hommes]. Translated from French by Meyer Barash. Urbana | Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press. Canetti, Elias ([1960] 2001) Masse und Macht [Crowds and Power]. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Fischer Taschenbuch. Ciołek, Tadeusz Maciej, Jacek Olędzki, and Anna Zadrożyńska (1976) Wyrzeczysko: o świętowaniu w Polsce [= Renounced Feast: About Celebrating in Poland]. [Warszawa, Poland]: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza. Czarnowski, Stefan ([1936] 1956) “Dawność a teraźniejszość w kulturze [= The Old and the Present in Culture].” [In:] Stefan Czarnowski, Dzieła [= Works]. Vol. 1. Warszawa, Poland: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; 108–121. Dorson, Richard M. (1963) “Current Folklore Theories.” [In:] Current Anthropology 4(1); 93–112. Dorson, Richard M. (ed.) (1972) Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Dundes, Alan (1980) Interpreting Folklore. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Durkheim, Émile ([1912] 2010) Elementarne formy życia religijnego: system totemiczny w Australii [The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: The Totemic System in Australia; orig. Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse: le système totémique en Australie]. Translated from French by Anna Zadrożyńska. Warszawa, Poland: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. Duvignaud, Jean ([1977] 2011) Dar z niczego: o antropologii święta [= The Gift of Nothing: On Anthropology of the Festival; orig. Le Don du rien, essai d’anthropologie de la fête]. Translated from French by Łada Jurasz-Dudzik. Warszawa, Poland: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Eliade, Mircea ([1957] 1959) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion [orig. Le Sacré et le Profane]. Translated from French by Willard R. Trask. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. Eliade, Mircea (1963) Myth and Reality [orig. Aspects du Mythe]. Translated from French by Willard R. Trask. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Emrich, Duncan (1946) “‘Folk-Lore’: William John Thoms.” California Folklore Quarterly 5(4); 355–374. DOI: 10.2307/1495929
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