Feasts in Lesbos 1 : Highlighting the Social and Cultural Changes

Academica Turistica

This article is derived from the project Turizmo Ištriano (Programme las Istre), the main aim of which was to observe the intangible heritage of North Istria from an ethnological point of view, within which our focus was on traditional festivities. Instead of a tourist valorisation 'from above, ' the focus of this ethnologic research was directed towards the perceptions 'from below, ' on how people perceive the local intangible heritage. Questions were raised about the so-called 'authenticity, ' continuity, or discontinuity of the traditions and their relation to tourism. The research has shown that a significate element of the break of tradition of šagre can be found in the massive migrations after wwii in the rural part of Istria, which is related to the consequences of the so-called 'Istrian exodus. ' It has also been shown how vital it is for the tradition to survive is its adaptation to the needs of the present. It was shown that people do differentiate between šagra (local character, no tourist promotion), and the 'massive' events that are attempting to attract tourists by selling products, presentation of 'old days' customs, traditional dresses, etc. that represent a 'staged authenticity. '

In our ever-changing times, the interactions of the various ecclesiastical and social facts and events are daily and frequent. In the urban parishes of our times a series of modernist religious customs see the light, which also define contemporary urban religiosity. This study examines some of the most characteristic forms of the newly-established customs, which relate to urban parishes' religious festivals and excursions. Over and above their cultural aspects, the identification and study of these customs presents pastoral dimensions, as they constitute characteristic cases of observances and rituals that priests are confronted with on a daily basis and to which, on occasion, they contribute decisively in terms of their formation and establishment. Because of this, their study presents a broader social and cultural interest, as they constitute contemporary expressions of existing human feelings and aspirations, but enriched with forms of modernist daily life.

Vladimir Rukavina is one of the most important and stead- fast figures of the post-socialist transition in Maribor. The Festival Lent, which he and his team have been organizing annually for more than twenty years, is the biggest open-air festival in Slovenia and among fifty most distinguished events in Europe. The festival is an excellent case to analyse social dynamics in post-socialist transition of the city of Maribor. Author discusses how far society and history have influenced individual choices and attitude of Vladimir Rukavina, and how far has he been able to change the paradigm of social imagination.

L.A. Hitchcock, R.Laffineur and J. Crowley (eds), DAIS - The Aegean Feast. Proceedings of the 12th International Aegean Conference/University of Melbourne, Centre for Classics and Archaeology, 25-29 March 2008. , 2008

FOLK LIFE, JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES , 2019

The music of the North Aegean Sea Islands between Europe and Asia have undoubtedly been influenced by neighboring cultures. However, such syncretic melding of disparate strands has also formed an indigenous, cosmopolitan cultural identity in the North Aegean Sea islands, comprising Lesbos, Limnos, Ai Stratis, Chios, Oinousses, Psara, Samos, Ikaria and Fourni. Identity has been formed from mythical and historical events, including indigenous Greek, Oriental and Western ethnic materials of continental and island origins. Adopting an interdisciplinary methodology, this paper presents some results of ethnographic research into music and dance in the archipelago. It explores identity formation from the late 19th century to the present. It focuses especially on changes in musical practices, performance, education, repertoire and lifestyle. Centralizing policies emanating from Athens combined with social and technological changes mark transitions from local to European, from eastern into western style, providing a context for urbanization and westernization.

Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 2011

The traditional ritual year which was characterized by Christian feasts for centuries on one hand, and the cosmological, agrarian (economic), individual, family, and local communal holidays on the other, has been rapidly changing between 1945 and 1956 during the first Socialist/Communist years. A new system of the ritual year was established according to the new ideology and power situation: the so-called Socialist ritual year. It was characterized by international, Soviet and national-communist feasts, refusing the religious holidays. Some softening were introduced only after the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The main Christian feasts were again accepted (Christmas, Easter). This Socialist period with its Socialist feasts lasted for 45 years when in 1989/1990 the legal power system was changed. After the elction in 1990 the totalitarian Socialist ideology with its symbolic holidays has mostly disappeared. New national feasts were created e.g. the memorial day of the 1956 revolution which was a prohibited alternative feast during the Socialist period. Patriotic holidays have regained their importance. The symbols of the feasts have been totally changed. The traditional Christian ritual year has been partly restored, but in a rather secularized society. Christmas, Easter have been commercionalized. Local feasts have emerged which serve first of all the restoration of the civil society and express the local identity. The paper deals with the process of changes in Hungary showing the role of the holidays and the ritual year in society.

Journal of Festive Studies, 2020

In this article, I attempt to shed light on the complex relationship between class stratification and carnival performances in Agiasos, a mountainous village located on the Greek island of Lesbos. Rooted in fertility rites, early twentieth-century carnival there featured a collision of worldviews and attitudes between the "haves" of the village-landowners with strong links to the Church of Holy Mary, that is, one of the most important pilgrimage sites of the Aegean Sea-and the "have-nots," the working class of the village. Following a turbulent period marked by World War ΙΙ (1939-45), the Greek Civil War (1943-49), and military rule (1969-74), the return to democracy was marked by the emergence of a new white-collar class, consisting of people with academic titles who set about to create and manage popular culture. As a result, the carnival community became informally divided between manual laborers and "the creative class," the latter of whom appointed themselves the "guardians" of carnival tradition, dictating the terms under which the ritual should be performed. Based on fieldwork carried out in the village of Agiasos, this essay highlights the way the economic elite of Agiasos has been using carnival performances to exclude undesirable, unruly individuals from the village. KEYWORDS carnival social class wage-earners performance exclusion culture-bearers guardians of tradition

Slovenský Národopis, 2023

GREEK TRADITIONAL DANCE

It is not easy to describe the significance of this book while doing justice to its unique qualities. It is not just "a study of Greek dance". Although Dr Raftis' training as a sociologist is apparent in his scholarly approach, this book is also a personal statement, as well as an inquiry into some of the processes of social and cultural reproduction. The author has also lived and danced his subject matter. His work, therefore, is a particularly valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about the place of the author/observer in the analysis of cultural forms. At the same time, the author's practical interest in dance has enabled him to produce an informative and useful text. The theory is immanent rather than explicit and the book is accessible to a wide range of readers. From another, related perspective, this book is a timely examination of the politics of cultural representation. Or Raftis offers a lively critique of dance studies and the transformation of dance into performances for tourists or "patriotic rhythmic gymnastics". These processes are especially apparent in Greece, where dance remains integral to the lives of many people but also provides entertainment to a vast tourist population. Within this debate, the present study reveals the significance of dance in the re-constitution of "imagined communities". For example, dance is closely linked to the identification of people with particular regions of origin and with the Greek nation. For this reason, dance can be incorporated in ideological practices, as it was for example during the period of the junta and as it often is in Greek populations of the diaspora. Dr Raftis also criticises the sense of urban superiority that led to the official view of demotic music and dance as "the naive expression of simple peasants" and as being tainted by non-european elements. This reflexive approach to the study of Greek dance and music pervades the work. Discussing studies of dance in ancient Greece, Dr Raftis notes a tendency to project interpretations from our own historical era, as well as a common idealisation of the ancients, archaeolatry. He argues that historical studies must be specific to time and place and provides examples of how specific analyses might be made, both in this section and in the next, on the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. His analyses offer the reader a fresh view of travellers' accounts of these periods, which often "classicised" Greek dances and represented them as performances with some conscious attempt at forming patterns (for example). These historical chapters provide an extremely valuable background to the study of Greek dance, which too often leaps from the ancient to the present without due attention to the intervening centuries. Later chapters offer specific analyses of dance in more contemporary settings, again with the emphasis on the relation of dance to other social phenomena. These include material about paniyiria (village feast days) and public festivals, weddings, family celebrations, Carnival and Easter celebrations and the place of coffeehouses. Public dances are shown as generally reinforcing the social order of values, providing participants with a sense of permanency and a social location. Marriage is the most important event of the life cycle, marking movement into maturity, the transfer of property, the establishment of kinship alliances and the culmination of years of preparation. The ritual of marriage is, therefore, highly elaborated, with its own choruses and accompaniments. These are examined here through analysis of the dances found throughout the marriage ritual. Carnival, on the other hand, is a ritual denial of social mores, with formally acknowledged leaders and dance order, accompanied by loud and frightening noises and, in the literal sense of the word, ecstatic performances, such as leaping over fires. The institution of the coffeehouse is of considerable sociological importance in Greece. It is a place for older men who may not be welcome at home for too long. During the long hours together, they share their constructions of personal histories and recognise common destinies and common problems. They dance solo or holding each other's shoulders, practices which were transformed to a new context with the music of rembetika. The next chapters elaborate on dance costumes and music, including instruments and musicians. The themes of earlier chapters re-emerge here as Dr Raftis describes the influence of European music and the domination of country by city. He demonstrates how village music has been considered as inferior, reminding listeners of "the miserable past" of Greek rural life. Nevertheless, it has been used for patriotic purposes, as it was in 1967 when the colonels' coup was announced to the strains of traditional music. One of the characteristics of Greek music is that its rhythm can vary to suit the dance and the singer. Musicians are evaluated according to the results they bring to the listeners, such as making the celebrations known to other villages or "giving wings to the feet of the dancers".

New Perspectives on Turkey , 2019