Ritualizované správanie ako riešenie: tradičné postupy pri odstraňovaní následkov urieknutia v súčasnosti

Year, pages: 2015, 41 - 52

The study focuses on ritualised behaviour in the context of non-standard life situations. It studies in detail sorcery, specifically the magic ritual of bewitching (evileye), explained in terms of cognitive approaches. The aim of the research was to determine the factors supporting the dissemination of representations on this magic ritual as a solution to specific negative circumstances. At the cognitive level, the possible internal impulses when deciding on the use of magic ritual practices are related to the creation of concrete models of explanations for particular events. At the explicit level, this process is manifested by an explanation using supernatural concepts (bewitching), which was interconnected within the researched environment with a representation containing concrete ritual acts defined by tradition and considered to be an optimal solution to the crisis situation. The author bases her contribution on the results of the research conducted in two municipalities of western and south-western Slovakia. She explores in detail the traditional practices described by respondents when feeling threatened due to a specific magic practice – bewitching. She observes the impulses which make individuals use traditional practices, the ideas that they have about such practices, and the individual dimension of the declared experience. The author analyses the obtained field data in the social and situational context of the studied environment, and maps the occurrence of this phenomenon in the traditional culture of Slovak territory. The concluding part of the study summarises the results of the findings on the way of operation of the analysed ritual practices in terms of specific cognitive theories, and describes their role in the process of disseminating supernatural ideas about bewitching within the examined environment.

Melúchová, J. 2015. Ritualizované správanie ako riešenie: tradičné postupy pri odstraňovaní následkov urieknutia v súčasnosti. In Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 63, no.1, pp. 41-52. 1339-9357.

Melúchová, J. (2015). Ritualizované správanie ako riešenie: tradičné postupy pri odstraňovaní následkov urieknutia v súčasnosti. Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, 63(1), 41-52. 1339-9357.