Paper short abstract:

The paper approaches the processes and phenomena which shape the written and oral dimensions of the local culture from the northern part of Buzau (Eastern Romania) department, in order to grasp the way traditions are perceived today, focusing on the narratives attached to territories.

Paper long abstract:

Concerned with the narratives of spaces, and based on a fieldwork in norther area of Buzău department, the paper will cover two topics: (a) the way local memory is culturally transmitted through written and oral narratives, and through the interaction between different generations (by means of collective memory - see Halbwachs 2007; and narrations of life experiences lived by the interlocutors), and (b) the way the living memory becomes "secondary" ("mediated") memory, as it is filtered through the written culture and re-collected through "sites of memory/lieux de mémoire" (Nora 1987). It is a process highlighted especially within the cultural actions initiated by local actors, or by outsiders, in order to attach meaning to a territory, as a reaction to the tendencies of our time, subject to the principles of the economy of experience (Pine and Gilmore 1998).

The presentation stresses the need to interrogate the process of changing an oral narrative into a written text, or as archive document - source and resource for researchers or cultural actors, who address the traditions of a community by means of remembrance or commemoration actions, with a retrospective and/or critical role (Goody 1977). It also discuss the need to document the narrative memory in a contemporary community, that should include the cultural literate milieu - publications, shows, local cultural performances (Baudrillard 1981), which becomes the object of memory and re-activates the empirical memory.

Paper short abstract:

Galicia is a land of music, with a musical tradition extremely rich and alive. In particular, the type of popular (folk) songs called cantigas outstands significantly. Despite several published compilations exist, little academic attention was paid to the astronomical ornaments their lyrics contain.

Paper long abstract:

In Galicia, the NW Spanish region of the Iberian Peninsula, the musical tradition is extremely rich and alive, both in tunes and lyrics, even with a very extensive variety of instruments employed. In particular, the type of popular (folk) songs called cantigas outstands significantly because of their characteristics. In general, their lyrics correspond to poems in quartets, invented by the people, transmitted orally over generations, and sung by women (called cantareiras) playing tambourines, and other percussion instruments, in groups. The themes cover a wide variety of subjects and, in particular, all jobs, trades or occupations developed in Galicia -some of them still in use. They also include love songs and a good deal of the so-called Galician "retranca" (breeching). Current cantigas are often referred to as "coplas", a term also used in other Spanish regions.

Several compilations of cantigas have been published so far. Noticeably many of them mention the Sun, Moon or stars, in various combinations and in connection with other topics. However, little academic atention has been paid to them, the so-called "astronomical cantigas", without many specific literature references available.

With the aid of informants, amateur musicians and the reviewing of books and other on-line materials, the aim of this work is the study of Galician cantigas mentioning the Sun, Moon and stars trying to extract trends, statistics and possible clues on a true social astronomical meaning for them, if at all exists. Oral tradition and written compilations complement each other in a fundamental manner for this study.

Paper short abstract:

Dyeing with natural colorants is one of the traditional Latvian skills. A survey carried out in 2016-2017 among people interested in this field in Latvia has shown that the use of written sources plays an important role in practising natural dyeing, along with direct inheritance.

Paper long abstract:

Dyeing with natural colorants is practised in Latvia also today. Discovery synthetic dyes more than 160 years ago created a rapid disappearing of this traditional knowledge. However, the actuality of this knowledge from time to time renewed due to various circumstances. In time of the Second World War, during the collapse of economic life, when natural dyes were used for clothing colour dyeing, the number of publications on dyeing with plants in the Latvian press significantly increased. The growth of interest in dyeing with natural colorants during the Soviet occupation period partly was the result of the publications (articles in magazines and book on dyeing with plant dyes) by the dyer Ilga Madre and her workshops activities. In order to study the tradition of the use of natural dyes today, a survey was conducted in 2016 and 2017 among dyeing workshop participants in different part of Latvia. The survey has shown that the use of written sources plays an important role in practising natural dyeing, along with direct inheritance. Due to the fact that only a small part of the users of natural dyes in Latvia participated in the dyeing workshops and in the survey, the correspondence of Latvian natural dyers available on the social network will be also analysed. Various sources are used to preserve and develop the dyeing skills - both direct observation/oral tradition and written/visual materials.

Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to discuss the ways in which new technologies and perceptions of the modern have left their mark on the "traditional" Icelandic folk tale in the 20th century. Narratives will be discussed in their social, historical and geographical contexts and recurring themes explored.

Paper long abstract:

What can the dreams of a Reykjavík woman tell us about visions of Europe, mental illness and killing technology in the 1930s? What about the East Fjords wondertale of a man who takes a flying machine to the land of the Jews? And what was the significance of a cinema screen in a prophetic dream about WW2? In this talk, I propose to take an in-depth look at selected Icelandic-language folk legends and wondertales from 1900 to 1980 in which visions of modernity, the future and new technology are expressed.

The aim of this paper is to provide insight into a changing narrative tradition. Stories will be placed in their historical contexts, in Iceland, Europe and the wider world. The impact of the technological and political changes described in the narratives on Icelandic society will also be considered, and all accounts will be viewed first and foremost as a reflection of their own era.

Recurring themes such as mental and physical illness, landscapes and fear of the modern will be discussed and their respective roles in the narratives analysed. Finally, I will propose that the fears, hopes and other sentiments expressed in these narratives are just as relevant to modern-day discourse as they were 50-100 years ago.

Paper short abstract:

The transition from joke-telling rounds to sharing humor digitally marks an important shift in the oral vs written dichotomy of family communication. Reducing jokes to written texts challenges the key notions of family humorous discourse and requires new approaches to the study of family traditions.

Paper long abstract:

The oral tradition of joke-telling flourished in Belarus (and many other countries) throughout the 20th century. One of the practices associated with it were joke-telling rounds that were mostly performed among family or friends. During such rounds, jokes were often decontextualised and enjoyed as stand-alone humorous texts, their funniness being subject exclusively to their verbal features and narrators' skills.

An oral joke cannot be reduced to a written text due to the non-verbal aspects involved in its performance (Norrick 2004); however, globalisation and the spread of information technologies contributed to a wide circulation of jokes in the form of written texts. This has also affected the traditions of family joke-telling. This primarily involves the practices of joke sharing. When I conducted fieldwork on Belarusian family humour in 2016-2017, many of my interviewees stated that they often read jokes out loud rather than told them orally to their family members. Many of the younger interviewees said that they preferred sharing jokes digitally (even when both family members are in the same room), although they did remember participating in joke-telling rounds as children.

Stripping oral jokes of the performative aspect and reducing them to written texts does not only affect the mechanisms of humour transmission, but has also an effect on the understanding of the humorous aspect of family communication. The changing emic notions of "joke" and "family humorous traditions" of the 21st century require new approaches to data collection and analysis.

Paper short abstract:

For the Aromanians Balkan population, the process of passage from an almost entirely oral culture, to a written one, began at the end of the 20th century. Analysing this process allows seizing the modalities of generating new cultural configurations as well as the mechanisms of their production.

Paper long abstract:

In the case of Aromanians, native population in the Balkans, the process of passage from an almost entirely oral culture, to a written one, began no earlier than the end of the 20th century. While the Aromanian group identity has been built between the Romanian and the Greek propaganda in the Balkans, the new European policies regarding the ethnic minorities led to the (indirect) recognition by the EU, in 1997, of Aromanians as distinct ethnic group, with distictive language, different from the Romanian one, to whom it has been historically associated.

Analysing the processes triggered by these political and social settings allows seizing today the modalities of generating new cultural configurations, their sources, their models, as well as the mechanisms of their production.

Paper short abstract:

The Legend about Three Suns of the Nanai people related to the Amur people cultural heritage. During the Soviet period it has become an element of local educational activities. The literary version of legend serves as an ideological basis of the emerging new-shamanism on the Anur River territory.

Paper long abstract:

The Nanay people is the indigenous inhabited the Lower Amur River district of Eastern Russia. Their mythology includes both autochthonous (formed as a result of making the local natural environment habitable for people) and borrowed from Eastern Siberia and China layers. This syncretism has ancient roots and is confirmed by archaeological remains from about 5-4 thousand BC. The same ancient basis is found in the Legend about Three Suns that tells about the times of sizzling heat on the Earth. According to this story, the spirit named Hado killed two Suns thus enlivening the Earth and giving rise to the Nanai clans. This legend has a spatial reference represented on the Earthly plane. During the Soviet period based on atheistic ideology, the legend existed in the context of archaeological heritage as the Amur Neolithic monuments. It has found a "written substrate", has become an element of educational activities, local history lessons since that time. In the scientific literature, the Russian version served as an interpretation of the archaeological monument. The cultural rebirth on the new “platform” was started in the second half of the 1980s. The local intelligentsia played the role of translator and keeper the traditions, what turn in writing form. The literary version of legend was added by some details related to the Cosmic order and ancient times. Currently, it serves as an ideological basis of the emerging new-shamanism.