Schimbare culturală şi semnificaţii sociale la populaţia rurală din Maramureş
Cultural Change and Social Meanings among the Rural Population of Maramures

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyzes a cultural change unfolding in an area usually perceived as very traditional. The paper explores the way a rural community gives up a traditional funerary ceremonial, linked to the celebration of the ancestors, for a new celebration resembling a Catholic one. This change began in the early 1960 concomitant with social and political changes such as collectivization. While the disappearing celebration is a token of a more traditional society and of a social structure based on rich and poor peasants, the new celebration is the expression of a modernizing society. The paper points out the emphasis of the ritual changes from a community orientation to a more familial one. The simplification of the ritual is a sign of the worker-peasant society’s integration into modernity.

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