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The paper deals with representations of traditional culture and their fissures in Nađe Tešić's novel Shadow Partisan. The tangle of cultural symbolism, socio-historical dynamics and psychological dimensions shown in the novel is considered in an interdisciplinary key, through literary, cultural and ethnological-anthological readings. The goal of the research is to shed light on the influence of traditional culture patterns on the development of characters and the constitution of the story, as well as to look at the narrative processes that manifest the heroine's rebellion against traditional norms. The first part of the paper provides a theoretical framework for the study of traditional culture patterns and their influence on the constitution of the world of literary works. By the aspects of traditional culture in the novel we mean religious and spiritual practices, ritual-ordinary complexes, everyday rituals (such as culinary ones), folk medicine and folklore, oral folklore, legends and traditions, but also power relations and gender roles. The work also explores the complex interweaving of elements of traditional culture with the intimate world of the protagonist's upbringing. With regard to the genre determination - bildungsroman, the work also examines the social dynamics within the novel, clarifying how traditional culture provides a cultural framework for understanding the identity of the community to which the main character originally belongs. We come to the conclusion that in the novel the fissures of traditional culture and through them identity, spirituality and all the value-normative creations of the world of the novel are revealed narratively.

Abstract Olfactory Reference Disorder (ORD) is a known clinical entity for several decades; however, it is only in ICD 11 that it has found its niche. Long considered a delusional disorder, it is currently classified as an obsessive–compulsive (OC) spectrum disorder. ORD is characterised by an erroneous conviction that the body is emitting an unpleasant smell. Patients harbour referential thinking, practise rituals to eliminate or mask the perceived odour, and avoid social interactions. While the conviction can be at a delusional level in some patients, the preoccupation has an obsessive quality in others. The level of insight can be varied. Patients present to mental health settings after traversing a long pathway of care comprising of various specialists. Medical and psychiatric conditions which can present with ORD-like symptoms need to be ruled out. Establishing a therapeutic alliance is the first step in management. There are no randomised controlled trials comparing treatment options in ORD. Antidepressants, antipsychotics, and their combinations have been used with varying degrees of success, in addition to psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Data on prognosis is limited.

If witchcraft in Lorraine (France) has been widely studied and commented on by medieval and modern historians thanks to the analysis of the context of the Inquisition, books on demonology, witchcraft trials and ordeals such as torture or the stake, this is because it has long been considered and described as a peasant superstition, even a naive belief, which disappeared decades ago. However, since the second half of the 20th century, ethnologists and social and cultural anthropologists have sought to show that witchcraft remains a living social and cultural phenomenon in many regions of France and Europe. In the same way, this article aims to affirm, with regard to the results of a long-term field survey of unwitchers-healers and their clientele, that 21st century witchcraft still constitutes an explanation of misfortune, the disease, which aims to be coherent and effective in the face of events or symptoms deemed unexplained or strange. The article also proposes implicitly to question the status, place and role of contemporary healers in a region of eastern France. It is therefore a question of enriching the reflection on the plurality of the offer of care which is deployed in French society and comes to question the monopoly of scientific medicine.

The transformation due to climate change of the high Alpine mountains is intensifying. A real disruption in the perception of this milieu and in the ways of interacting with it is ongoing, as evidenced by recent funeral ceremonies organised for disappearing glaciers. The investigation and documentation of the alternative interactions with mountain entities, such as glaciers, is challenging the very existence of the “Great Divide” that modernity has supposedly created between humans and non-humans. Through ethnographic observations and semi-directed interviews, the conducted study uncovers in the Valais Alps and in the Mont Blanc massif the hidden relationships developed with their environment by high-mountain people, such as glaciologists, mountain guides, or crystal hunters. It shows how they relate with specific glaciers or rock walls, listen to them, see them as living and dying, and build up new attention schemes and forms of attachments. It, therefore, allows a first characterisation of what may be akin to a form of animism in a Western context, reputedly naturalistic.

The article examines the calendar rituals of ethnic Romanians of Bessarabia, since it is folk festivals, customs and rituals, as components of traditional culture, that reflect the national characteristics of the Romanian community, characterizing it as an ethnically distinctive organization. The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the complex of calendar rituals of ethnic Romanians of southern Bessarabia, to identify its internal structure and content in the system of traditional culture, and to clarify its local specifics. To achieve this aim, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: to outline the place and role of calendar rituals in the traditional ethnic culture of the inhabitants of Bessarabia and to characterize folk holidays, customs, and rituals of the calendar cycle. The use of the field research method (survey, questionnaire, individual interview, direct observation) allowed us to determine the specifics of the traditional culture of ethnic Romanians of Bessarabia, to identify common features of Romanian calendar rituals in the context of the ethno-cultural landscape of the Bessarabian region. The study of the ritual poetry of the Romanian ethnic group of the Ukrainian Danube region has shown that the entire annual cycle of folk rituals and holidays is consistent with the seasons of the folk calendar. A detailed study of rituals, customs, and folk holidays as an important component of traditional Romanian culture made it possible to consider the calendar ritualism in a complex and to trace the connection between the Slavic and Romanic layers of folk ritualism of the calendar cycle in both historical and functional aspects.

Abstract Rituals of territorial belonging as established practices of inclusion improve dynamics of belonging and coexistence. They are particularly significant in the city where people need rituals to trust each other. But what happens when rituals disappear? The Covid-19 pandemic is an experiment on a societal level on the role of rituals. We will analyze three canceled or strongly modified traditional events in Geneva, Zurich, and Turin. We conclude that these cancellations of rituals in urban public spaces generated a lack of territorial belonging and produced mistrust and anger, but at the same time pushed people to develop new dynamics to fill this void. Frustration over the cancellation was transformed into agency. This sense of emptiness was filled through the multiplication of personal and social rituals, through the rediscovery of the city’s territory alone or with their groups of affiliation, and through new digital rituals linked to the urban ritual.

This study examines the Agĩkũyũ Kĩama kia athuri’s (council of elders) initiation rituals to establish whether they are religious acts of worship and therefore undermine Christianity, as has been claimed by Agĩkũyũ church leaders. To analyse the Kĩama (council) movement, this research applied four steps and used criteria advanced by Arnold van Gennep’s Rites of Passage and Victor Turner’s ‘Rituals’ to evaluate the Kĩama’s ceremonies. On the question of sacrifices and offerings, the research revealed that the shedding of animal blood was not unique to the Kĩama ceremonies but occurred without question in other events in the Agĩkũyũ lives, like in marriage. The study determined that the rituals were rites of passage for the Agĩkũyũ men into varying degrees of eldership. It established a yearning to return to the Agĩkũyũ customs disrupted by colonialism and the coming of Christianity. This study identified political rather than religious motifs in the resurgence of the Kĩama kia athuri, purporting to protect Agĩkũyũ’s political and economic interests. But this would undermine Christianity as well.

Every community has a distinct language, set of customs, set of beliefs, and other cultural elements that define its members. Beyond itself, language always has meanings and references: the cultural norms of a given social group are reflected in the meanings of a certain language. Interacting with a language entails interacting with its reference culture. Because of their close relationship, we could not comprehend a culture without having direct access to its language. This study aims to document the selected rituals and practices, identify the distinct language expressions used from birth to death, and to determine the implication of these language expressions. Descriptive qualitative research methodology was utilized in the study because understanding concepts, opinions, or experiences requires collection and analysis. Results shows that there are 35 distinct language expressions used in the selected rituals and practices of the Imangali from birth to death. Twelve (12) on birth, eleven (11) on marriage, and twelve (12) on death. The language expressions used are distinct, these cannot be translated in any language but used as it is since these are in the context of the Imangali culture, these rituals and practices serve as a means of preserving their identity and will always speak of their being an Imangali. The linguistic expressions may be integrated or incorporated into cultural studies courses as well as other social science courses to promote understanding and acceptance, and appreciation of Filipino culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a comprehensive reading of Martin lienhard's work on orality and writing as well as his textual analysis works that are related to anthropology. I.ienhard's unique cotitribution carl be highlighted based on three elements of relevance to anthropological works: the thematic developments referring to the relationship between orality and writing and the analysis of Quechua texts; his perspective in the use of anthropological concepts associated with culture, particularly in contexts of domination; and, finally, in contributions to the methodology associated with the analysis of rituals as texts and attention to the the legitimacy of the interlocutors. In I,ienhard's work, analytical considerations on texts go beyond literary content and converse with anthropological analyzes not only of orality and writing but also of ritual and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study will examine unique monuments of the Baltic religion consisting of 231 stones with impressions reminiscent of human and/or animal footprints recorded in Lithuania. Data are drawn from archaeology, linguistics, folklore, ethnology, and history related to these stones. Footprint stones are autonomous natural holy places that rarely belong to complexes of archaeological and mythological sites. After the introduction of Christianity, Baltic chthonic gods and goddesses who were believed to have left traces of their presence on stones were either proclaimed evil spirits or granted the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christ, or other Christian holy figures. Religious rites recorded at the footprint stones by historical sources and/or those which have survived to this day have left no clear archaeological traces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes Gil Calvo's (2006) model of masculine masks as a reference to make visible and explain, based on ethnographic data, the masculinities of the Madrid bacalao in all its versions, present and past. This means addressing, from this perspective that includes this gender variable, both the three youth cultures (Feixa 1998) that constituted this phenomenon in the 1980s and 1990s -- bacalas, bakalas and vakalas (Leste, 2020a) -- as well as the neobakala music scene (Straw, 1991) that they have created in the present as a cultural heritage (Jiménez-Esquinas, 2017). This article also analyzes the rituality of these masculinities based on the work of Turner (1982), something that allows one to see how these subjects deal with their perceived burdens and reaffirm their masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To teach about race is to recognize how there are communities whose worlds are shaped by violence, death, and resurrection, such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Emmett Till, George Floyd, and the many unnamed. Resurrection invokes the zombie figure. Zombies are iconic, and as implemented in an interdisciplinary course, a means to foster opportunities to engage with a social figure whose multiple meanings are cultural, historical, and political, and also notions of race and racial meaning-making. Through the figure of the zombie, this autoethnographic revisiting of a course takes up what Lugones calls playful "'world'-travelling." To unpack "'world'-travelling" we examine how it was facilitated through the "world café," a teaching modality. This article examine an educational environment where students engaged in the complexities of race relations in the US by hacking learning rituals that foster understanding racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the distinct marriage customs of two Hindu Bengali communities in West Bengal: the Brahmins and the Poundra-Kshatriyas. It delves into the rituals, actions, and symbols integral to the marriage processes of these groups in Kolkata. The Brahmins, at the top of the caste hierarchy, have specific marriage rituals that affirm their caste status. In contrast, the Poundra-Kshatriyas, who are at the lower end of the hierarchy, follow different practices. The study compares these rituals and the significance of various traditional actions and changes, drawing on memoir interviews, genealogies, and case histories. It interprets these actions within the context of traditional activities, local terminology, rituals, beliefs, and marriage symbols. The research indicates that the observed differences in marriage customs between the two communities are historically rooted and reflect their social interactions and the material and symbolic aspects of their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyse the Spirituality and Religious practice and its relation with tourism in the Indian society. Spiritual and religious tourism is not a new concept it has been existed in society since dawn of civilization. It is one of the earliest forms of common tourism. People had travelled for religious practice and different kind of other religious motivations. There are many examples in history that shows Saints (Sadhus) and sometimes kings also move from place to place in the search of spirituality. Since ancient times India has been the center for religious, cultural and spiritual activities because it has several beliefs, strong foundation of ancient culture, various religion and their own religious practice and spiritual beliefs. In Hindu religion there is over Three million Gods, Goddess and many religious places where every Hindu wants to visit once in their life. Religion is not only about religious beliefs but it also focused on rituals, ceremonies, philosophies, manner, ethics etc. It teaches every Indian the way of life. There is a famous concept of "Tirth Yatra" for Hindus and "Haj Yatra" for Muslims which motivates Indians for religious and spiritual tourism more. So, there are many concepts in Indian society which directly connected to religious tourism. According to Tourism Industry in India, 60% of travel packages were made for religious purpose. This data shows the importance of religious tourism in Indian economy. That is why this paper is an attempt to know the socioeconomic impact of spiritual and religious tourism in Indian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Folkloristika: Journal of the Serbian Folklore Association is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study is a qualitative case study that seeks to determine whether students' mathematical discourses in solving polynomial inequalities are more ritualistic or explorative. A comprehensive analysis of students' routines was conducted through the observations of what they said and did (write, draw, and so on) around task situations in a small group. This study's participants were five 11th-grade students from a public high school. These participants were chosen using the maximum diversity method of sampling. The data for this study were obtained through small-group work. The small-group interactions lasted 80 minutes and were video-recorded with two cameras. The commognitive approach was used to analyze the student routines in this study. The criteria for analyzing routines were the performers' agentivity /external authority, focus on the goal or the procedure, and flexibility. The findings of this study revealed that the students' routines were neither purely ritualistic nor sheer explorative. Even those whose routines were ritualistic in all task situations thought about the procedure and asked logical questions about the task. In addition, the findings indicate that teachers can play an important role in encouraging students to engage in more exploratory mathematical discourse. This study contributes to the future research on students' discourse in the context of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historica (1803-7550) is the property of University of Ostrava, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Pre-Columbian workbaskets were common inside burials, especially in coastal Andean regions. They mostly contained tools and raw materials related to textile production, but there were also some elements (e.g. Spondylus shells) not strictly connected to a practical use. Workbaskets are mentioned in many contributions by scholars and researchers but unfortunately rarely studied in detail. The Pre-Columbian collections housed in the Anthropology and Ethnology Museum in Florence include four Peruvian workbaskets. As no in-depth study has ever been published on them, this contribution aims to provide a detailed analysis of their structure and contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synesis is the property of Synesis and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Complutum is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is known that the Turks have adopted many religions in history. Shamanism is also among the ancient beliefs of the Turks. Shamanism; Tengrism is also known by names such as the religion of the Sky God. This study examines the food and drink habits of Turks who believe in Shamanism during the mythological rituals they perform on the occasions of birth, marriage, and death. It also investigates how food and beverages were consumed during these occasions in Turkish mythology. The study emphasizes the reflections of the eating and drinking rituals in Turkish mythology to the present day. . In this context, a compilation article was made by using the literature review method, one of the qualitative research methods, by making use of secondary data sources. Various Turkic peoples and Turkic tribes were examined by scanning the relevant academic literature, and a conceptual framework was tried to be created. The research shows that Turks often use plant foods (barley, wheat, and oats) grown in their geographical area and horse meat in their rituals because it has an essential function in their lives. In addition, milk has an important place and is often consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific advancement and globalization have influenced the way fields like anthropolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and ethnolinguistics should be studied to research intercultural communication. This study examined the national dishes that make up the Kazakh gluttonous discourse, its components, customs, and rituals, and how serving a dish to a guest can cause both positive and negative cultural consciousness in cultures. The data collected in the form of lexical and semiotic units, forming a gluttonous discourse at individual and institutional levels, was subjected to a conceptual analysis. It was felt that gluttonyms as lexical units played an important role in preventing negative cultural consciousness and forming empathy for national dishes. National dishes such as 'bas tartu', 'tabak tartu' in the Kazakh gluttonous discourse and cognitive conceptual basis of some customs in the preparation process and serving a dish to the guest were studied. It was found that the Kazakh gluttonous discourse was one of the sources of the national conceptual image of the world. This allowed us to determine that some of the institutional functions of the Kazakh gluttonous discourse were based on the national conceptual image of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory Reference Disorder (ORD) is a known clinical entity for several decades; however, it is only in ICD 11 that it has found its niche. Long considered a delusional disorder, it is currently classified as an obsessive–compulsive (OC) spectrum disorder. ORD is characterised by an erroneous conviction that the body is emitting an unpleasant smell. Patients harbour referential thinking, practise rituals to eliminate or mask the perceived odour, and avoid social interactions. While the conviction can be at a delusional level in some patients, the preoccupation has an obsessive quality in others. The level of insight can be varied. Patients present to mental health settings after traversing a long pathway of care comprising of various specialists. Medical and psychiatric conditions which can present with ORD-like symptoms need to be ruled out. Establishing a therapeutic alliance is the first step in management. There are no randomised controlled trials comparing treatment options in ORD. Antidepressants, antipsychotics, and their combinations have been used with varying degrees of success, in addition to psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Data on prognosis is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the need for local ownership of peacebuilding is routinely emphasized, the importance and the modalities of engaging with local cultures and traditions are not adequately understood, and the peacebuilding potential of local customs remains largely unharnessed. Drawing on extensive interviews with community leaders (n94) and farmers and villagers (n107), and using a conceptual framework that combines notions of the everyday and events that mark a rupture with the everyday, this article explores the opportunities that local people's everyday interactions, culture, and traditions offer for peacebuilding in post-Islamic State Ninewa Plains, Iraq. In doing so, the article makes a theoretical contribution to the everyday peace literature by further developing existing typologies of everyday acts and attitudes of everyday peace. Demonstrating how everyday acts and attitudes of peace sit on a scale with negative peace on the one end and positive peace on the other, the article introduces the concept of 'affinity' on the positive peace side of the scale, to refer to an affective engagement with the other and to acts of getting to know, understand, and participate in what is important to the other community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative investigation examines the layers of meaning associated with the baisri, a traditional Buddhist sacrificial offering. Documentary review and field research was conducted with local people, monks, pilgrims and tourists in Kham Chanod, the spiritual home of the legendary Naga in Northeastern Thailand. The findings reveal that the baisri culture is flourishing in this remote corner of Thailand owing to a resurgence in the popularity of the site following the success of a Thai movie about the Naga. Huge quantities of traditional baisri are now traded in the region, but the original religious meanings of the object continue. Artisans retain the original religious symbolism of the baisri, and visitors value the spiritual meaning of the object. However, a new secular function of the object has emerged with its newfound economic importance to the local community. This article discussed that dichotomy between the secular and the sacred through the lens of the baisri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum determinations are highly complex and difficult decisions. At the heart of this decision lies a credibility assessment of the asylum claimant's narrative, which confronts the decision-maker with a seemingly straightforward question: do I believe this person's story? To uphold legitimacy of this assessment, semi-legal criteria have been established internationally. However, these criteria have been criticized for relying on inaccurate and simplistic assumptions about human behavior, autobiographical memory, and communication. In light of this contestation, I ask how the legal-administrative practice of assessing credibility of asylum applications gains legitimacy in the eyes of the public, policy-makers, and legal professionals despite resting on highly disputable assumptions? To answer this question, I draw on interviews, observations, and written judgements from the Swedish administrative courts to explore how symbolic messages are tacitly conveyed through the use of judicial language, activities, and objects. The analysis suggests that cohesive, albeit tacit, messages about credibility assessments being accurate (rather than arbitrary), objective (rather than subjective), professional (rather than lay), and just (rather than unjust) are produced to both near and distant audiences. The study contributes to the literature on credibility assessments by offering a theoretical perspective that can unpack the relationship between symbolic communication in courts and perceived legitimacy for disputed practices within asylum determinations and migration control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Cultural Studies / Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Journal of Cultural Studies / Kultur Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The transformation due to climate change of the high Alpine mountains is intensifying. A real disruption in the perception of this milieu and in the ways of interacting with it is ongoing, as evidenced by recent funeral ceremonies organised for disappearing glaciers. The investigation and documentation of the alternative interactions with mountain entities, such as glaciers, is challenging the very existence of the "Great Divide" that modernity has supposedly created between humans and non-humans. Through ethnographic observations and semi-directed interviews, the conducted study uncovers in the Valais Alps and in the Mont Blanc massif the hidden relationships developed with their environment by high-mountain people, such as glaciologists, mountain guides, or crystal hunters. It shows how they relate with specific glaciers or rock walls, listen to them, see them as living and dying, and build up new attention schemes and forms of attachments. It, therefore, allows a first characterisation of what may be akin to a form of animism in a Western context, reputedly naturalistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigated cultural practices and the exclusion of girls from access to education in southern Tanzania using mixed methods. Primary data was collected using key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Purposive sampling was followed to sample 39 participants, including primary school students, teachers, parents, initiation ritual trainers, and education officers. The research found that the age of initiation rites changed from 12 to 18 years to 5 to10 years. Although the age for participation in initiation rituals was reduced, training content remained the same. Training content focused on preparing the passage from childhood to adulthood, focusing on sexuality and marriage. Initiation rituals resulted in girls as early as five years old being detracted from classroom instructions. The research recommends two sets of training related to initiation rites: that the first training be conducted before puberty for girls to navigate adolescence, fine-tuning the contents to focus on menstrual hygiene management and self-efficacy, while discouraging early engagement in sexual conduct; Second, that another training be conducted at age eighteen, or just before marriage, to prepare girls for family life. Finally, the research recommends policy action to set a minimum age for participation in initiation rites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective workplaces – such as coworking spaces, open workplan offices, maker spaces, or fab labs – are founded on one central premise: working alongside others leads to interactions, collaborations and access to 'buzzing' knowledge. Yet, at the same time, users of these places go there to do their (often freelance) work, requiring a productive, and therefore usually quiet, work environment. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands, this research explores how users of collective workplaces navigate the coworking paradox: the need for quiet workplaces and the desire for social interaction. It shows how interactions emerge through rituals and especially routines, and describes the spatio-temporal conditions under which these interactions may lead to successful forms of social exchange and community formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Durkheim, individuals' survival and well-being rest on cultural resources and social belonging that must be revived periodically in collective assemblies. Durkheim's concern was to clarify how these assemblies achieve this revitalization. An intensive examination of primitive religions led him to identify successive levels of engagement experienced by participants and to develop explanatory principles relevant to all types of collective gatherings. Durkheim's conception is widely referred to nowadays. However, the question of its empirical status remains open. We extracted from his text his main statements and translated them into research questions. We then examined each question in relation to current theories and findings. In particular, we relied on the plethora of recent cognitive and social-psychology studies that document conditions of reduced self-other differentiation. Abundant data support that each successive moment of collective assemblies contributes to blurring this differentiation. Ample support also exists that because shared emotions are increasingly amplified in collective context, they can fuel high-intensity experiences. Moreover, recent studies of self-transcendent emotions can account for the self-transformative effects described by Durkheim at the climax of collective assemblies. In conclusion, this century-old model is remarkably supported by recent results, mostly collected in experimental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the rituals and practices surrounding death, dying, and grief worldwide. This study examines how the pandemic has influenced grief and rituals of parents who have lost a child. Using an explanatory sequential research design, this mixed-methods study collected quantitative data through an online survey and qualitative data from in-depth interviews and open-ended survey questions. A total of 112 parents completed the survey, and eight parents participated in the in-depth interviews. The merged results demonstrated that the pandemic had a severe impact on all the rituals associated with the death of a child. However, most parents felt able to say goodbye to their child in the best possible way. The merged findings also show that most parents experienced a high level of grief after the death of their child, particularly mothers, whereby their grief was negatively impacted by pandemic restrictions and lack of social support. The viewing of the deceased child was associated with lower levels of grief, while upsetting viewings, establishing a digital memory page, not wanting a memorial, and conducting an alternative service were associated with higher levels of grief. Higher levels of grief, including unexpected death, female gender, lower educational attainment, and living in rural areas, were associated with higher levels of grief. Our findings highlight the need for follow-up care during and after a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on case studies of seven (attempted) lynchings in Pakistan, we argue that they can be considered lynching rituals, which are instrumental in a context of political strife. 'Shrpsnd anasr' (agitators) play an important role as ritual engineers; they assemble crowds by spreading rumours and vocalizing accusations, use rhythmic chanting and slogan repetition to generate a shared vengeful mood and focus the crowd's attention on the (fabricated) encroachment of a moral imperative (notably blasphemy). We conclude that the vengeful effervescence generated in lynching rituals strengthens the clientelistic interdependency networks of religious–political leaders. The contribution of our study lies in demonstrating the importance of bodily practices in lynching rituals and their instrumental political value for both masses and political leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of interculturalism as an alternative paradigm to the dominant multicultural integration policies in immigration countries, the importance of cities, as landscapes of intercultural interactions and consumption has become more and more important. This study aims to investigate how cities and city-related consumption practices play a role in consumer acculturation, an area that is largely overlooked in previous research. A hermeneutic approach is used to analyse and interpret the data collected through semi-structured and unstructured go-along interviews with 18 Iranian immigrants who live in Dortmund, Germany. Beyond the dichotomy of the home and host countries, the findings of this study show how city-related activities and interactions can lead to the construction of a sense of belonging to the hosting society. We show how such a sense of belonging can be constructed through immigrant consumers' involvement in city-related rituals, private appropriation of public space and reterritorialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the following article, I study strategies of adapting to the pandemic-induced restrictions among four different Pagan groups that operate in the city of Krak'ow--three represent the Slavic Native Faith movement and one modern Druidry. My conclusions are drawn from ongoing field research among contemporary Pagans of Kraków. The ritual modifications developed by the researched groups can be divided into three strategies: first, adjusting to the restrictions during actual rituals onsite; second, relocating rituals to the online sphere; and third, refraining from official public rituals, with secret small rituals instead. The first strategy seems to be crucial for my respondents, as they perceived only the rituals onsite to have "energy," essential to the quality of the ceremony. The two other strategies were considered as a half measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean Rouch is the iconic director of the French New Wave, the ethnographer and visual anthropologist of sub-Saharan Africa, and also the inventor of the cinéma vérité style. His perplexing and much-debated film The Mad Masters is a cornerstone of his oeuvre in regard to ethnographic filmmaking. During a “hauka” possession ritual emblematic figures of colonial rule come to life as “spirits” in front of Rouch’s camera. The reception of the film proposed many diverse interpretations. Is it an anti-colonial parody, collective therapy, the carnivalesque reversal of the world as Bakhtin described it, or the “colonised psyche” theorized by Fanon? My paper aims to introduce shades into the debate and discuss how arguments relate and rely on each other. I first clarify the visual research methods of the filmmaker and the general context of his cinematic approach. Secondly, I argue that in order to understand the social dimension of the ritual presented in the film we have to undertake a close reading of the film involving postcolonial theories, the notion of the carnival, lévinasian ethics and written ethnographic descriptions of the hauka-cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]