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This paper is an unconventional review of the online roundtable meeting under the heading “Perf 03c: Old Rituals, Changing Environments, New Rules III”, which took place on 23 June 2021, during the 15th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), titled “Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation, Transgression”. It includes an analytic introduction and the edited transcript of the roundtable discussion. This roundtable concluded the work of two previous panels organised by the SIEF Ritual Year Working Group, narrowing the discussions to the impact the recent COVID-19 pandemic had on the ritual year. Scholars from nine countries discussed issues related to the changes in the lifecycle and calendric rituals brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through various case studies and auto-ethnographic observations, participants considered the changes in social and individual experiences; the increased interest of the society in the essence of rituals; rethinking of the emotional component of daily routine and festive events; the way ritual participants and researchers adapted to the restrictions imposed by local authorities; changes and negotiations of the ritual space; new business proposals related to the ritual sphere, as a response to the restrictions; and the use of new technologies in the ritual contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, religious celebrations in Romania were greatly affected by restrictions meant to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Easter, the highlight of the Orthodox Christian ritual year, was celebrated in empty churches during the spring lockdown. Participation in religious activities was later progressively permitted. During autumn, pilgrimages were allowed, but only in compliance with strict regulations. This article focuses on the restrictions imposed by public authorities, the solutions found by church representatives, and the faithful’s reaction to the new situation. The Orthodox liturgical year begins in Romania on the 1st of September, marked by a series of pilgrimages, occasioned by feasts for several saints whose relics are venerated in local churches. Some of them, centuries old, attract thousands of people. The celebrations last several days, during which people wait patiently, for hours, to touch the holy relics. In 2020, governmental measures limited participation to local residents, without previous consultation with the church authorities. This caused great discontent. Still, the number of pilgrims was not substantially less than in previous years, in large part due to the direct negotiations between the faithful and the local law forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates field notes written during the monographic campaigns of 1929 and 1932, undertaken by the Sociological School of Bucharest led by Dimitrie Gusti in Drăguş village (Făgăraş region, central Romania). These previously unpublished notes are preserved in the private Stahl Family Archive and refer to the order of places occupied by peasants within the church. As in many Orthodox churches from Transylvania, in the Drăguş church women and men were separated. The nave, which is closer to the altar, was occupied by men, and the narthex was occupied by women. Unmarried women and men stayed together in the back; children were upstairs in the choir; while gipsies stood next to the door. Despite recommendations of the Church's representatives, that old people should stay in the front, out of respect, the complex social structure of the village imposed a different rule. All members of the same lineage were aligned in a chain formation inside the church (called the stacidia, in rom. strana,). In it, each member had a specific place. The front position was occupied by the head of the parental household (the father, and after his death by the son, usually the youngest, or the son-in-law, in the case of a matrilocal marriage), succeeded by the other male family members. Women followed the same rule in the narthex, where the chains continued. The distinction between two social categories: the descendants of former imperial border guards (who received privileges) and the descendants of the serfs was less obvious, but still noticeable, as in the past. The same alignment was followed in the cemetery, where each member of the community was buried in its family strana. Two of the field notes were made by Octavian Mureşanu who only took part in the 1929 campaign. An additional eleven notes were written in 1932, when the monographic teams returned to Drăguş. These field notes were made by the famous Romanian sociologist Henri H. Stahl, who continued the investigation conducting a series of interviews, assisted by his co-worker Xenia Costa-Foru. Contrary to Muresanu's notes, Stahl's interviews were transcribed in such manner as to preserve the peasants' idiomatic speech and expressions. After writing down the informants' oral testimonies, Stahl verified the information given to him. He tried in vain to find the ”written rule from the ancestors”, however he was able to consult the assessment record of the Church council meetings and transcribed three of them, dated 1902 and 1906. This article traces the history of the field-notes (interviews and documents), comments on the information they provide, and finally transcribes them, in order to make them available to the scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Orthodox church of Drăguş village (Braşov County), was the last of the painted wooden churches from the Olt region (also called the Făgăraş region, central Romania). The unpublished documents presented in this article were initially preserved by Henri H. Stahl in his private archive, and were, after his death, included in the Stahl Family Archive. The first document, dated April 20, 1933, is a certified copy of a report signed by Valer Literat, a corresponding member of the Historical Monuments Commission (H.M.C.). It describes the church and its state of decay. The rapporteur extolls the beauty of the church's interior wall paintings, recommending the church be restored as soon as possible. The second document is a request, signed by Nicolae Iorga, President of the H.M.C., and is addressed to the Minister of Instruction, Cults and Arts, Dimitrie Gusti, the leader of the Sociological School of Bucharest and initiator of the monographic campaigns undertaken in several Romanian villages in the interwar period. Based on the positive report that he attached to his request, Iorga asked for funding, to undertake the restoration of the church. The monographic campaign of 1929 drew attention to the wooden church in Drăguş, but for reasons which remain unknown, it was never restored and no longer exists. Based on currently available sources, including valuable archival material, this article reconstructs the 1933 events and tries to learn more about the old church from Drăguş village and the historical context in which it was in use. Thus, this article complements the subsequent article in this volume, authored by Irina Stahl, regarding the order of places within the church, introducing and clarifying several aspects that will later be expanded upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An initial fragment from an unpublished novel, signed by Henri H. Stahl, the Romanian sociologist, was published earlier in issue no. 5-6 / 2018 of the Romanian Journal of Sociology. The text was accompanied by an introductory study in which I presented information regarding the manuscript, as well as the context in which it had been created and the motives behind this unexpected literary venture. The fragment selected for publication was meant to highlight this new and hither to unknown talent of its author. This sample of his work provides significant insight into H.H. Stahl's linguistic talents, as he used expressive and beautiful language to recreate the atmosphere of villages from long ago. Full of passion and emotion, the text shed a new light upon the personality of the great Romanian sociologist, who was always reserved in his scientific texts. From "between the lines", one can feel his love and deep attachment to the faith of the peasants and their villages. Two new unpublished fragments of the novel, meant to complement the previous fragment, are now available at the end of this brief article. In them, one can recognize Stahl's keen analytical view, that of a highly skilled sociologist capable of engaging people in genuine and revealing conversations while possessing the sharp eye of the observant researcher, in quest of details and nuances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henri H. Stahl is known for his studies in social history and methodology, but he was also passionate about other, lesser known, research topics. Among these is his preoccupation with the development of a sociology of the Romanian peasant’s culture and spirituality, which he later synthetised in his controversial work Critical Essays (1983). However, before he fully developed his theories on the matter, unhappy about his own incapacities, he attempted to give a literary shape to his vision of folk philosophy and life of Romanian villages. What resulted was a novel, today still unpublished but conserved in the Stahl Family Archive. The novel combines his field notes, methodological suggestions, as well as his personal opinions, emotions and feelings, which he never let intrude into his scientific work. The value of this unpublished text is today undeniable, and it deserves to be known by the public. The present article reveals, for the first time, the shape and the content of this novel, and draws out the circumstances of its creation. The article is succeeded by a short sample from the novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article recounts major life experiences of the two Henri Stahl, father and son, in the period just prior to and during the difficult years of World War I. Seen through the sparse and sometimes vaguely outlined background of the nascence of sociology as a science in Romania, one gains insight into the future sociologist Henri H. Stahl. Although focus is placed upon the father, who was actively involved in the military conflict and whose emotional account of the Porumbacu battle is to be found in the Annex, several defining events in Henri H. Stahl's early life are emphasized. Among those are: his first fieldwork experiences in the company of his father in the preliminary years of World War I; his first indirect contacts with a Romanian village and peasants viewed through volumes and journals from his father's library (many inscribed in the Sămănătorism - "The Sower" movement); his eventual direct contract with peasant life through the military orderly Iordache and his wife, Voica, both from the village Fălăştoaca in Giurgiu County. The article thus focuses on lesser known aspects of the life of sociologist Henri H. Stahl, the experiences, events and encounters that marked his childhood and formative teenage years and ultimately played a role in determining his evolution into a researcher of rural life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the question of secularization of Europe, and in particular of Romania, by using multiple international data sets. Secularization has been defined separation of the state government and religious authority resulting in a decrease in church attendance, a diminished trust in religious institutions, a lessening of religions' importance in society, an increase in religious diversity with a concomitant decrease in group cohesiveness, and the rise of situational ethics and moral relativism. Several theories of secularization are explored in an effort to determine the presence of a secular continuum. Although there may be an increase of secular behaviours in member states of the European Union, a claim of growing secularism in Romania is not supported by an examination of the multiple data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comparison of roadside memorials in two European post-communist countries, namely the Czech Republic and Romania. The number of memorials, dedicated to the victims of sudden death, often resulting from traffic accidents, has seen a significant increase in both countries over the last two decades. As the phenomenon appears to be assuming worldwide proportions, the authors have chosen to focus on a comparison of two societies which have widely different approaches towards death and religion. Whereas in the Czech Republic roadside memorials have more to do with the memory of the dead in the here and now, in Romania they are closely interlinked with religious practices and beliefs regarding the soul and the afterlife. Roadside memorials thus reflect the progressive secularisation of Czech society and a religious revival in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper brings into light the French word maisnie, currently used in the Social Sciences by scholars dedicated to the study of households units, especially from the South - East European region. In 1974, the Romania originated French anthropologist Paul Henri Stahl is the first one to introduce this 11th century French word into the Social Sciences. His choice came as a response to a translation dilemma he found himself confronted with, while writing his studies regarding the South - East European social units: the inexistence in the currently French language of a word able to designate the “smallest social unit”, as he called the household. Instead of creating a new word (as in the well known case of the zadruga), he propose one which had actually been used in the different regional French dialects in the Middle Ages, maisnie. This word used to designate a social unit very similar to the Romanian gospodărie, the Bulgarian družina or kupčina, the Serbo-Croatian domačinstvo, the Albanian shtëpi or the Greek mikokiato. Starting by specifying the particular context in which this word made its entrance in the vocabulary of the Social Sciences, the paper continues by focusing on the social reality hidden behind this complex notion. In the last part conclusions are drawn with regard to the applicability of the ancient French notion of maisnie to comparable social units from the South - East European region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper brings into the light the French word maisnie, currently used in the Social Sciences by researchers dedicated to the study of households units, especially from the South-East European area. In 1974, the French anthropologist Paul Henri Stahl was the first one to introduce this XIth Century. French word into the social sciences. His choice came as a response to a translation dilemma he found himself confronted with, while writing his studies regarding the South-East European social units: the inexistence in the currently French language of a word able to designate the „smallest social unit“, as he called the household. Instead of creating a new word (as in the case of the well known zadruga), he proposes one which had actually being used in the different regional French dialects in the Middle Ages - maisnie. This word used to designate a social unit very similar to the Romanian gospodărie, the Bulgarian družina or kupčina, the Serbo-Croatian domačinstvo, the Albanian shtëpi or the Greek mikokiato. Starting by specifying the particular context in which this word made its entrance in the vocabulary of social sciences, the paper continues by focusing on the social reality hidden behind this complex notion. The last part deals with the utterance of a few conclusions, regarding possible approaches between the ancient French maisnie and the other similar social units from the South-Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the bonfire celebrations in Ireland, the rising of Christian popular music, and the funerary rituals in Transylvania.