Vernacular Belief Research Articles

A Beaked and Feathered God

A Beaked and Feathered God

Vernacular Beliefs and Official Traditional Religion: The position and meaning of Mari worldview in the current context

Vernacular religion connected with the clan was expected to adapt in the context of globalisation and the vanishing ideals of traditional (tribal) societies. But at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries a revival of European ‘paganism’ has appeared. A return to vernacular beliefs is not only happening in the mass religious mind of some Eastern European and Asian people, but also in the romantic mythologemes which are being created by national elites. Lithuanians, who were Christianised in the fourteenth century – the last nation in the Baltic region to undergo this process – recall their heathen roots; Ukrainians revive their rodnoverie – indigenous beliefs – in an attempt to resist the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Apart from this there are other pre-Christian faith organisations in Latvia, Estonia, Germany and England. The traditions of the pre-Christian societies attract people through their apparent proximity to communal peasant culture. Followers of some of these beliefs are interested in popularising Viking mythology. The activities of druids and adherents of the Northern European Asatru religion revive ancient festivals and ceremonies. The popularisation of these movements can be seen as an attempt to resist an encroachment of the modern, globalised, urbane society.

El Rey Costales, personaje de la narrativa oral de Zumpahuacán

This paper studies the King of Sacks (Rey Costales), a mythical character in Zumpahuacan’s oral narrative. This so difficult to grasp character, and its protean condition, oriented the research into determining its identity. According the stories, King of Sacks is kind of a «spirit» or «Banshee », but its behavior is that of an «Air”, a Mesoamerican supernatural being. However, its high degree of individualization —as manifested in the consciousness of its pagan status as well as in the lack of links with the atmospheric phenomena affecting crops— required some clarifications. As expected, there is a conflict or symbolic-religious adjustment between Christian beliefs and vernacular beliefs, but above all, a larger cultural realignment revealing the process of looking for balance in collective imagination as a result of a community’s new circumstances, no longer mainly agrarian and indigenous. Beyond this adjustment, the narrative shows the creativity of Zumpahuacan’s inhabitants, projecting their ability to shape their experiences anchored in pre- Hispanic past, but in the light of present experiences and circumstances.