We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Obiceiurile de naştere şi oraşul. Reacţii magice în faţa ameninţărilor nevăzute.
- Authors
HULUBAŞ, ADINA
- Abstract
The study presents some of the conclusions a post-doctoral research which gathered data on childbirth beliefs from 20 urbanites, for almost 2 years. Most of the traditional memory of superstitions and rites proved itself to be alive and active, although subjects have been living in towns for decades and decades. The author explains this fact by three characteristics of human reactions to life, and details the second one: science cannot answer to all the questions raised by events, the need to deflect harm and the aspiration to influence positively the future. All the apotropaic elements surrounding the yet unbaptized baby speak about a magical vulnerability to the world around. Moreover, death before Christianization represents an unchanged fear for the first generation of town dwellers, since it is considered a great sin for the parents. The study also investigates common elements of this belief with similar ones from different European countries. Moreover, in order to cheat death, urbanites still magically sell the sick babies on the windows from their apartments.
- Subjects
BIRTH customs; CITY dwellers; PROTECTION magic; TALISMANS; SUPERSTITION
- Publication
Memoria Ethnologica, 2013, Vol 13, Issue 48/49, p56
- ISSN
1582-8573
- Publication type
Article