Urbanisation, migration, depopulation and virtual ritual community - the village kurban as a shared meal
The paper deals with the specific use of collective rituals focused on blood sacrifice and a shared meal among Orthodox Christians in the Balkans, known mostly as kurban. In studying a variety of feasts, the analytical focus is on the collective gathering and the shared meal, which is celeb...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute for Balkan Studies SASA
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Balcanica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2024/0350-76532455085H.pdf |
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| Summary: | The paper deals with the specific use of collective rituals focused on blood
sacrifice and a shared meal among Orthodox Christians in the Balkans, known
mostly as kurban. In studying a variety of feasts, the analytical focus is
on the collective gathering and the shared meal, which is celebrated by the
small village community as its “homeland”, a sense of belonging to a virtual
community consisting of people from all over the world. This paper pays
particular attention to examples of the collective kurban in depopulated
villages. Among migrants in big cities born in the same village, the kurban
is understood as part of a common cultural heritage and a ritual that helps
produce and/or re-produce a group identity within a broader national
framework and urban social milieu. The kurban is also perceived by the
participants as a ritual way of creating social cohesion for kinship-based
and territory-based communities, beyond confessional attachment. In a
selection of cases, the paper demonstrates how a blood sacrifice and a
shared meal, as well as the symbolic use of the patron saint of a
birthplace, recreates cohesion between the former members and the new
migrants from the city to the village. |
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| ISSN: | 0350-7653 2406-0801 |