Popular Customs Research Articles

Time And Space in Dream Telling: The Udmurt Example

Dreams and the telling and retelling of dreams are popular customs in people’s daily lives. This study focuses on the process of dream telling, which implies time and space, and how the situation of telling a dream becomes ritualistic. The content of a dream is very important (it can be good or evil) and therefore it is believed and perceived that dreams are signs that both dreamers and listeners will follow. The article will consider these ideas according to the traditional worldview of the Udmurts.

“To Sing on Shabbat, Night and Day, Each Person at Their Table”: On the Formation of the Custom of Singing Shabbat Zemirot in Medieval Europe

Abstract: This essay traces the development of the custom of singing table songs known as Shabbat zemirot during Shabbat meals in medieval Europe. Though a popular custom, its medieval formation has yet to receive scholarly attention. Informal Shabbat table singing was likely common for centuries, yet the earliest extant instructions to sing specific songs were written in thirteenth-century northern France and appeared shortly thereafter in Ashkenaz and Italy. The many manuscripts containing Shabbat zemirot reveal the custom's spread, growth, and popularity in these regions. Though preserved in writing, Shabbat zemirot and their tunes were primarily disseminated orally by families singing within their homes. Such orality encouraged flexibility and diversity in how the custom was performed. Once the songs were printed in the sixteenth century, a more rigid construction of the practice and its repertoire took shape. Included as appendices are lists of manuscripts containing Shabbat zemirot and tables of the most common songs.

Manifestări etno-folclorice ale grupurilor etnice din Bucovina între dinamism și conservare

In the present work, we aim to create an overview of the specifics of the existing ethnic groups in Bukovina, considering, in particular, manifestations of their folklore in the context of the present. Likewise, another objective of the research is represented by the monitoring of these folklore facts, in order to observe both the dynamism and the preservation of the identity. Thus, the existence of a favourable climate within the Bukovina community favoured the formation of a multi-ethnic space in which each ethnic group had a well-established place, forming, as specialists claim, the so-called homo bucovinensis, as a model of a tolerant and lenient. In this way, we will observe the directions of the ethno-folkloric dynamism specific to the ethnic groups in Bukovina (Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Hutsuls, Roma, Lipovans, etc.), analysing the way of updating the myth in these minorities and the role of the myth in contemporary society. Among the most important folklore manifestations, we will focus on three important elements: currently existing rites of passage (funeral, wedding), the image of the demonic in the collective mind and functions of pilgrimages, on the border between ritual and tourism. Due to the dynamism existing within contemporary society, some of these ethno-folkloric manifestations have undergone numerous changes, both in form and content, and thus we can talk about the so-called kitsch, as a contemporary element that is a component of the specific folklore within the ethnic groups in sight. The attempt to trivialize the ethnic specifics of minorities must be considered a negative effect of contemporary society, where preserving popular customs, traditions or gastronomic specifics no longer represents a special interest for current consumerism. The conclusion we have to reach illustrates the fact that ethnic groups become part of a collective identity where customs related to holidays, rites of passage, ceremonial events in human life require treaties with a necessary responsibility. Within the existing minorities in Bukovina, cultural tolerance is a value of the society, thus there is an awareness of the ethnic peculiarities of each area and a respect for them, at the

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN HANDLING BEACH CLEANLINESS IN BITUNG BARAT SATU VILLAGE

This study aims to know the participation of communities in the cleanliness of West Bitung Kelity One, The Maesa District of Bitung City. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with techniques of observation data collections, interviews, and documents. Studies have shown that the problem with the popular custom of disposing of trash in canals that a current flow of water has led to a buildup of garbage on the coast, resulting in a gross indifference to the garbage not produced by them, and thus, it could be said that the initiatives and responsibilities of the people around the coast are less likely to produce than they do, and thus, it could be said that the attitudes and responsibilities of the people around the coast toward cleanliness are less likely to contribute to low societal participation. As well as a lack of community involvement in the meeting to discuss cleanliness, people are less responsive to environmental cleanliness themselves. As a matter of consideration, then it is advisable: 1) government promote a ban on littering trash on aqueducts, for all society 2) communities should be directly involved in socializing about cleanliness.

Free Trade without Words: Popular Public Rituals and Corn Law Repeal in the Early 1840s

AbstractThis article examines the folkloric protest and popular political culture during the anti‐Corn Law agitation. It offers a new analysis of the role of customary demonstration based on moral economy in supporting free importation of foreign corn. It examines previously unstudied bread processions during the 1841 general election and effigy burnings of Sir Robert Peel that occurred simultaneously against his minor revision of the Corn Laws in 1842. It argues that the practice of these traditional protests offered a basis on which plebeians understood the emerging idea of Free Trade. While the protesters and more moderate reformers represented by the Anti‐Corn Law League shared a common cause of Corn Law repeal, there was a potential conflict over respectability. Moreover, Chartists could appropriate this popular custom for promoting the People's Charter rather than Free Trade. This article contributes to understanding the relationship between popular custom and radical politics in the wider context of the emergence of Free Trade Britain in the early Victorian period.

ERADICATION OF DEVADASI SYSTEM IN SOUTH INDIA

The devadasi system became popular custom in South India. It means a woman who performed the service to the Gods in the temple. In sangam literature, the dancing woman and prostitutes are frequently mentioned. Sethu Lekshmi Bai, the Queen Regent of Travancore abolished the system in1930.

Orchha kingdom’s customary law protection under the constitution of India

This research-based article talks about the customary practices of Orchha Kingdom which were recognized by the Union of India at the time of accession of this kingdom. Orchha is a historically famous place of Bundelkhand region in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh. It has the wide collection of historical, natural and living heritage. The territory was founded by Rudra Pratap Singh, the Bundela chief in the year 1501 AD. During the rule of the British Empire in India, Orchha was appointed as one of the princely states of India. After the country gained independence from the British administration in the year 1947, the princely state was acceded to the newly formed Union of India, also called the Dominion of India, in the year 1950. The most important architectural site of this kingdom is The Ram Raja Temple under which lies the popular custom of worshipping Lord Rama both as a God and as a King, inside a palace. This temple was built only for Lord Rama to be worshipped with all the royal furnishings. Even today, a Guard of Honour is held every day, police personnel have been designated as Guards at the temple, much in the manner of a king. The royal feast is also provided to the deity at the temple as a royal repast. This temple has a huge grandeur attached to it.

Our ancestors were not Celts: history, folklore and the Celtic past in Napoleonic France

ABSTRACT This article offers a new interpretation of the Académie celtique. Active between 1804 and 1813, the Académie sought out megaliths and collected popular customs, songs and stories, which they understood as the vestiges of the ancient Celtic inhabitants of Gaul. The Académie has often been associated with nation-building projects, either as a manifestation of concern with the cultural diversity of the French population, or as a search for the nation’s glorious ancestors. Based on close reading of the Académie’s publications, manuscript correspondence and minute books, this article argues that the Académie was also a vehicle for the enthusiasm of its members for a vision of the Druids as Deist Philosophes, an aspect hitherto overlooked in the literature. In doing so it demonstrates the complexities of French nation-building projects, revealing both the crucial role of religion in debates over popular culture in France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, and the contested place of the Gauls in the memory culture of the period.

Prikaz vjerskih običaja Bošnjaka iz životnog ciklusa / A Review of Bosniak religious customs related to the lifecycle

The series of events in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the early 1990s had an undeniable impact on society and contributed significantly to rupturing the continuity of popular and religious customs. In the meantime, social openness means that Bosniaks are increasingly exposed to religious and cultural influences from both the East and West. This situation has made it exceptionally difficult to preserve the continuity of Bosniak religious customs. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the refraction of intercultural and inter-muslim influences in Bosnia and Herzegovina is reflected in Bosniak religious customs. The author therefore examines a selection of Bosniak religious customs related to the lifecycle: the birth of a child, marriage, and death, all of which show Bosniaks cleaving strongly to the regulations of Islam, with a gradual adoption of Western attainments and cultural values.

Digital and Printed Teaching Aids of Kyustendil Regional History Museum Programmes for Children

It is presented teaching aids in digital and printed form used in non-formal educational programmes of the Regional History Museum, the town of Kyustendil, developed during the implementation of two projects in 2019 and 2020 with the financial support of Ministry of Culture in Bulgaria. They enrich the Museum's workshops for children, monthly conducted since February 2015, informatively. These are twelve five-minute video presentations and thirteen interactive notebooks of four pages each, A4 paper format, illustrating and bearing information about the thematic fields of the workshops. The training aids aim at presenting to children cultural and historical heritage exhibited in museums in general and in the Kyustendil Museum in particular in a more accessible way - artifacts as a part of culture and art in the past, moments of national history crucial for the historical development of Bulgaria and popular customs preserved in traditional crafts. The topics they present introduce participants with the way of living of people in the past, pass through significant historical events and provide some knowledge about three crafts, which originate from the Stone Age. They are grouped in two programmes - Culture and Art in the Past and History and Traditions. Photoes of about 50 findings from Kyustendil and its region dating from Neolithic till Middle Ages are included in the training aids along with the messages they bear interpreted through the respective story. Photoes visually expressing the historical events and traditional crafts - an object of learning in the programme, are also included.

Microbial community structure in PM2.5 affected by burning fireworks during the 2019 Spring Festival in Guilin, a touristic city in South China

Setting off fireworks during the Spring Festival are a popular traditional custom and recreational activity in China. Intensity of firecracker burning can quickly deteriorate air quality. Airborne bacteria are also important constituents of atmospheric particulate matter and contain many pathogens. However, few studies have reported variations in the bacterial community structure in PM2.5 during firecracker burning. In this study, PM2.5 samples were collected at four different sites in the city of Guilin during Spring Festival from February 4 to 8, 2019 and a high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the variations of bacterial diversity and community structure in PM2.5. The results revealed that Proteobacteria was the predominant bacterial phylum comprising 94.3% of the total sequences, followed by Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Deinococcus-Thermus. At the genus level, the top five abundant genera accounted for 81.8% of the total sequences. The proportions of major genera (Cupriavidus, Sphingobium, Brevundimonas, Sphingomonas, and Pseudomonas) were apparently affected by firecracker burning. In particular, the relative abundance of Brevundimonas genus increased dramatically from 3.2 to 60.1% at the Huaqiaonongchang (HQ) sampling site during intense firework burning, while those of other major genera and potential pathogens detected including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Serratia decreased. In addition, compared with the normal condition, the number of operational taxonomic units and the diversity and richness of microorganisms in PM2.5 samples decreased apparently. Pearson correlation results also revealed that they were negatively correlated with the NO2, SO2, and PM2.5 concentrations.

“A Lanterne of Lyght to the People”: English Narrative Alabaster Images of John the Baptist in Their Visual, Religious, and Social Contexts

English narrative alabaster reliefs depicting the public life and martyrdom of John the Baptist are a fascinating yet understudied corpus. The starting point of this essay and its place of return is a series of three fifteenth-century panels depicting Saint John the Baptist Before Herod Antipas, The Burial of Saint John the Baptist, and The Burning of Saint John the Baptist’s Bones and the Scattering of his Ashes. Once possibly part of an altarpiece made for export, the reliefs are now in The Victoria and Albert Museum. Drawing on a broad range of literary, liturgical, homiletic, folkloric, and artistic sources, the essay examines the multifaceted nature of late medieval devotion to John the Baptist, focusing in particular on the saint’s connection to women, fertility, and healing, and on the festal, celebratory dimensions of his cult. The essay concludes by offering a reading of the V&A reliefs in light of the popular beliefs and customs that would have informed the English alabaster carvers’ lived experience and speculates on the roles of lived experience and memory in the creation and reception of images.

The Lithuanian Folk Couplets: On This Side of the Permissible Laughter and Beyond

The Lithuanian Folk Couplets: On This Side of the Permissible Laughter and Beyond

Costumbrismo literario y etnografía: el caso de las marzas

En el trabajo se presenta un análisis de un caso particular de interferencia entre elementos etnográficos y textos literarios costumbristas, el de las marzas del valle de Campoo en el sur de Cantabria. Se analizan los diferentes textos de los escritores costumbristas que recogieron esta costumbre popular de pedir dádivas por las casas acompañándose de un canto particular, el de marzas, y cómo estos textos incluyeron elementos etnográficos que los escritores mezclaron con otros literarios.

From the Belief of the Immortality of the Soul, the Blessing or the Harassing of the Soul Towards People to the Worship of the Souls of Vietnamese People

Does the soul exist? If there exists where it is, what it is doing and if the soul does not exist why is it still appear in the daily lives of so many people, so many generations and many places in the world. Why is it so important for so many countries in the world to believe in the immortality of the soul and death? Faith in the dead and the next generation depends largely on a person’s religion and culture, on a community of people. For many Vietnamese, this belief goes from the belief that the soul only reaches its ultimate goal after many reincarnations, to the idea that life will now determine its final destiny. Consequently, one person can feel confident that he will eventually merge with the ultimate reality after death, others will surely reach Nirvana, and others will believe that he will be rewarded in heaven. So what is the truth? Because our beliefs affect our attitude, actions, and decisions, are we not interested in finding answers to that question? The dead are not finished but their souls still exist. Depending on the behavior of those who live with those who have died, they (those who are still alive) may be blessed by the soul or punished by the soul, encountering unfortunate things in life. This study provides a discussion of whether or not the existence of the immortal soul and the blessing or harassing of the soul for human life. How can humans limit the harassing and many blessings from the soul? Why does belief in the blessing and harassing of the soul become such a popular custom of worship among Vietnamese people?

Voting, Votive, Devotion: “I Voted” Stickers and Ritualization at Susan B. Anthony's Grave

This article considers the popular custom of depositing "I Voted" stickers at the grave of Susan B. Anthony. Focusing mainly on the 2016 election, this article treats Anthony's grave as the locus of a ritualized social process, and suggests that the stickers can and ought to be understood as ritual votive objects, or "ex-votos," from the Latin ex voto—meaning "from a vow." Drawing on the connections among votives, voting, and devotion, Conley demonstrates how the stickers are elucidated by theories of materiality (particularly the contributions of so-called new materialisms scholars)—scholarship that is shaped by feminist approaches. Relatedly, in raising questions regarding what constitutes a votive, and about the gendered dimensions of devotional practices more broadly, the article explores the agentive role of the stickers, with their social and material entanglements, in the construction and destabilization of cultural memory related to the women's suffrage movement.

Interpreting Graffiti in the Saqqara New Kingdom Necropolis as Expressions of Popular Customs and Beliefs

Previous examinations of ancient Egyptian graffiti have focused on textual graffiti and developed interpretations specific to this class of evidence. In contrast, relatively few studies have considered the communicative power and meaning of figural graffiti, presumably because of the inherent challenges that this data set presents to academic research. To counterbalance the current emphasis on textual graffiti, this contribution examines graffiti making in the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara using an integrated approach taking in both textual and figural material. In accordance with the imagistic principle of Egyptian magic, the authors propose that certain types of figural graffiti may be regarded as pictorial prayers in their own right, intended to ensure the permanent presence of the graffitist in the tomb, or to protect and beatify the deceased in the afterlife. Since literacy is not a prerequisite for drawing a picture, the important question is raised of whether the production of figural graffiti expanded throughout the social scale or, like textual graffiti, was restricted to the elite and sub-elite. ملخص البحث الدراسات السابقة التي تم إجراؤها على الكتابة و النقوش الجدارية المصرية القديمة ركّزت إهتمامها على تفسيرات معينة لهذا النوع من الأدلة. في المقابل تناولت بعض الدراسات القوة التعبيرية والمعنى من وراء النقوش التصويرية، على الأرجح بسبب التحديات التي توفرها مجموعة البيانات هذه إلى البحث الأكاديمي. لإمكانية موازنة الجهود الحالية المبذولة في الكتابات و الرسومات الجدارية، تدرس هذه المقالة صناعة الرسومات الجدارية في مقبرة تعود إلى الدولة الحديثة في سقارة بإستخدام نهج متكامل يتناول كل من المواد النصية والتصويرية. وفقاً للمبدأ التصويري للسحر المصري، يقترح المؤلفون وجود بعض أنواع من النقوش الجدارية يمكن إعتبارها على أنها صلوات مصوّرة في حد ذاتها وهي تهدف إلى ضمان التواجد الدائم للنقوش في المقبرة، أو لحماية المتوفى أو منحه السعادة الأبدية في الحياة الآخرة. بما أن معرفة القراءة والكتابة ليست شرطاً أساسياً لرسم صورة ما، فإن السؤال المهم الذي يطرح نفسه الآن هو ما إذا كان إنتاج الرسومات الجدارية يمتد عبر النطاق الإجتماعي أم أنه يقتصر على النبلاء ومن يحيط بهم فقط على غرار النقوش النصية.

Reforming Social Customs through Law: Dynamics and Discrepancies in the Nationalist Reform of the Adoptive Daughter-in-Law

Abstract Tongyang, rearing daughters-in-law from childhood, was widely practiced as a form of bride price marriage and transactional family building in late imperial and Republican China. Denounced as feudal and backward in twentieth-century public discourse, this time-honored and once legally-protected form of marriage went through significant law reforms in the Republican era. This article examines how the Nationalist Guomindang (GMD) party-state (1928-1949) re-conceptualized tongyang by introducing foreign-inspired notions of parenthood as duty-bound guardianship, and marriage as a union of free choice between spouses. The reformed law annulled the legal relationship between “parents-in-law” and their adoptive daughters-in-law, which enabled adoptive daughters-in-law and their natal parents to dissolve previously established tongyang arrangements through litigation. But outside the courtroom, the Nationalist state adopted a non-interventionist approach toward the practice of tongyang, and took no actions to identify people who violated the law. This particular way of reforming social customs through reforming the law limited the effect of the GMD anti-tongyang legislation on a deeply-rooted social practice. The Nationalist reform of the adoptive daughter-in-law provides historians with a useful lens to discuss the dilemma Nationalist lawmakers faced as they treaded between the lines of offending popular customs and enforcing a rigid new social order through law, the balance of which was intimately connected with the regime’s legitimacy.

From Popular Culture to Popular Custom, and Back Again: A Love-Lock’s Tale.

Walk over a major bridge in a Western city and chances are you will come across at least one or two love-locks. These are padlocks inscribed with names or initials and attached to a public structure, typically by a couple in declaration of romantic commitment, who then proceed to throw the key into the river below. Some assemblages of these love tokens are modest; others number the thousands. This has become a truly global phenomenon, with over 400 love-lock assemblages catalogued across 62 countries in all continents bar Antarctica: popular custom in the true sense of the term. Although this custom was practised prior to the 21st century, with evidence of it in Serbia and Hungary in the 1900s, it did not gain widespread popularity until the mid-2000s — sparked, this paper contends, by an Italian teenage romance novel. This paper explores the transition from popular culture, defined here as mass-produced cultural products — including but not limited to television, film, literature and music — accessible to and consumed by the majority of a given society, to popular (or folk) custom. It also explores the reverse. As the love-lock custom gained popularity and familiarity, it became an established folk motif in films, television, and novels — from popular custom to popular culture — and this paper considers what these transitions demonstrate about the relationship, or interrelationship, between popular custom and popular culture.

Auramine O, an incense smoke ingredient, promotes lung cancer malignancy.

Burning incense to worship deities is a popular religious ritual in large parts of Asia, and is a popular custom affecting more than 1.5 billion adherents. Due to incomplete combustion, burning incense has been well recognized to generate airborne hazards to human health. However, the correlation between burning incense and lung cancer in epidemiological studies remains controversy. Therefore, we speculated that some unknown materials in incense smoke are involved in the initiation or progression of lung cancer. Based on this hypothesis, we identified a major compound auramine O (AuO) from the water‐soluble fraction of incense burned condensate using mass spectrometry. AuO is commonly used in incense manufacture as a colorant. Due to thermostable, AuO released from burned incenses becomes an unexpected air pollutant. AuO is classified as a Group 2B chemical by the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC), however, the damage of AuO to the respiratory system remains elusive. Our study revealed that AuO has no apparent effect on malignant transformation; but, it dramatically promotes lung cancer malignancy. AuO accumulates in the nucleus and induces the autophagy activity in lung tumor cells. AuO significantly enhances migration and invasive abilities and the in vitro and in vivo stemness features of lung tumor cells through activating the expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase family 1 member A1 (ALDH1A1), and ALDH1A1 knockdown attenuates AuO‐induced autophagy activity and blocks AuO‐induced lung tumor malignancy. In conclusion, we found that AuO, an ingredient of incense smoke, significantly increases the metastatic abilities and stemness characters of lung tumor cells through the activation of ALDH1A1, which is known to be associated with poor outcome and progression of lung cancer. For public health, reducing or avoiding the use of AuO in incense is recommended.