<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article looks at how the Krishna devotees in Mayapur, West Bengal, learn how to chant and listen to the sound of the holy name properly. They suggest that if one is ‘pure’ enough and knows how to listen one experiences the syneasthetic level of sound called <italic>pashyanti</italic>. At this level, one can reach beyond the duality of the ‘hidden and manifested’ worlds, the external and internal levels of sound; and one can ultimately see God face to face. This is also considered a level at which one can realise that the sound of God’s name and God himself are the same. I will focus on how the devotees learn to create this sense of intimacy with God through the sound of his holy name, and argue that listening is not merely a process connected to our auditory sense but rather a creative and engaging activity, a skill that one can develop.</abstract>

Searching for the Hidden God: The Intimacy of Sound and Listening among Krishna Devotees in Mayapur

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In this paper, I present two very different and yet very similar ethnographic examples of mountain-related pilgrimage and sacrifice ritual performed by the present-day highland Maya. The question I ask is why the sense of sacredness, animation and power of the mountains endures among the traditionalist as well as Pentecostal Maya in spite of the extensive transformations of the world today. In so doing, I examine the native concept of the mountain not merely as a social or cultural representation, but as an expression of everyday lived experiences and existential relationships between people and the physical and spiritual world they inhabit. Finally, I argue that the experience of interaction, communication and intimacy between the Maya and their mountain deities can be best defined as a dynamic participation in the course of the world – an existential economy of ‘working the world’.</abstract>

Maya Intimacy with the Mountains: Pilgrimage, Sacrifice and Existential Economy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article<xref ref-type="fn">*</xref> concentrates on the material side of religious intimacy in Afro-Brazilian Umbanda through an ‘ontographic’ perspective as well as looking at materiality as evidence. It is based on an eleven-month fieldwork period among devotees, clients and individual practitioners of Umbanda in Southeast Brazilian metropolises, especially in São Paulo. In people’s experiences of spiritual work (<italic>trabalho</italic>) and spiritual development (<italic>desenvolvimento</italic>) carried out with Exús – guardians, guides and protectors who have, after their death, returned in order to work for people’s wellbeing – ritual objects (such as bodies, clothes, beverages, herbs, cigarettes, candles, songs) are seen as constitutive in knowledge production and life transformation. The central claim in this article is that diverse material and immaterial objects through which Exús interact and materialise, are neither primarily symbolic nor representative, but are re-configurative.</abstract>

Exú’s Work – The Agency of Ritual Objects in Southeast Brazilian Umbanda

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article<xref ref-type="fn">*</xref> offers an anthropological analysis of a conflict over the use of a set of ‘healing chains’ and other focal objects kept in the Orthodox Christian monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen, Bulgaria. In a nutshell, the conflict captures the leading religious imageries propagated by the custodians of the monastery on the one hand, and the spiritual leaders of a new religious movement, so-called Deunovians, on the other. The analysis helps situate some of the significant changes currently affecting the religious culture of Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria within a broader social and cultural context.</abstract>

Healing Chains, Relationships of Power and Competing Religious Imageries in the Monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen (Bulgaria)

Funeral Rites from Moldova in a National Context

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 18 (2024): Issue 1 (June 2024)

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Volume 17 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023) The Divine, the Demonic and the Beyond in Belief, Narrative and Practice of Central and East Asia

Volume 16 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022) Hybrid Beliefs and Identities

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Volume 15 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

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Volume 10 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

The Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics (JEF) is the joint publication of the Estonian Literary Museum, the Estonian National Museum and the University of Tartu. JEF is an international, double-blind peer reviewed multidisciplinary forum for creative, inspiring and cutting-edge academic contributions. Addressed to an international scholarly audience, JEF is open to contributions from researchers all over the world. We aim to encourage discussion of the socio-cultural diversity of the whole world in a thought-provoking, imaginative and experimental scholarly spirit. JEF publishes articles in the research areas including but not limited to ethnology, folkloristics, museology, cultural and social anthropology, sociology, semiotics, history, human geography, cultural studies, heritage studies, and critical theory. JEF aims to offer both theoretical and empirical insights to deepen and advance our understanding of society and culture. The journal encourages contributions that use various disciplinary perspectives and theoretical and methodological approaches. JEF welcomes contributions analysing empirical data as well as theoretical and methodological contributions, critical literature reviews of current research as well as papers engaging in creative or applied practice. In addition to full-length articles the journal also welcomes research notes and book reviews.  Rejection Rate:   69%   Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.  Open Access Statement  JEF is issued two times per year, both in print format and online. The journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.　  Description of the review process:　  Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics is a peer-reviewed journal. All submissions are initially evaluated by the editors and can be desk-rejected at this stage. Submitted research articles that meet the academic and journal’s editorial standards will be read and reviewed by at least two anonymous referees. JEF is using double-blind review, meaning that the author and reviewer identities are concealed from each other throughout the process. Based on the reviewers’ written reports, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editors can accept, reject, or request minor or major modifications to the manuscript.  JEF has neither article submission nor article processing charges.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections. 

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

Volume 10 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

ARTICLES

Searching for the Hidden God: The Intimacy of Sound and Listening among Krishna Devotees in Mayapur

Maya Intimacy with the Mountains: Pilgrimage, Sacrifice and Existential Economy

Exú’s Work – The Agency of Ritual Objects in Southeast Brazilian Umbanda

Healing Chains, Relationships of Power and Competing Religious Imageries in the Monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen (Bulgaria)

NOTES AND REVIEWS

Funeral Rites from Moldova in a National Context

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