Az álmok szerepe a halál kulturális kezelésében a moldvai csángó falvakban
The Role of Dreams in Dealing with Death in Moldavian Csángó Villages

Summary/Abstract: In Moldavian Csángó villages dreams are elements of private religiousness, and they have an outstanding role especially in fi elds that cannot be fully institutionalized by the church, such as the cult of the dead. In these Moldavian villages the communication with the otherworld and the dead, the frequency of dreams about the supplications of the dead highlight a norm-enforcing aspect of popular religion emphasized as well by Natalie Zemon Davis. The ritual efforts made for the sake of dreams on the supplications of the dead and the need to conform to them stand as evidence for the importance of social norms and within them, the institution of the family, the relatives, and the neighbours, seemingly surprising in the context of the intense modernization of the Csángó society. Observing the death rites which ensure the quietude of the dead, familiarizing with the dead person’s otherworldy fate via dreams, the ritual efforts to carry out the requests of the dead and the impossibility to refuse these requests all prove an operational standard of social norms and traditional village institutions, as well as a level of individualization lower than expected. The ethnographic material presented yields the conclusion that dreams have an important role in the legitimation of norms, the operation of traditional institutions of rural society, and the sustenance of relationships. The dreams about the dead generalize social relationships, reproduce the assessment and position of individuals or families in the symbolic network of the community. At the same time, dreams contribute to the interpretation of signifi cant events in community life, putting the collective system of meanings to the test. They can induce religious actions and ritual behaviours (praying, crossing oneself, candle lighting, mass payment, vows, fasting, donations). Their invocation and the attempts to understand their meaning may assist one in his personal experience of the metaphysical essence surrounding the entire life.

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