Browsing by Author "Petreska, Vesna"
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Item Kletvata vo makedonskata tradicionalna kultura(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2012) Petreska, VesnaCurses are spoken formulas that express a desire to happen something bad in the future to someone or something, with the assurance that it will capture. This conviction or belief is based on faith in the magical power of the word. In the folk life curses are being made when the most important values in the community are injured. Therefore, curses are discussed in relation to the values that are maintained in a given community, and their violation determines sin, and depending on the committed sin and weights required curses or punishments. Looking from this social perspective, they represent a measure of values in the society that occurres as an indication of distortion of values, whether those who suggest deteriorated values occupy a high or low social status in the community or family. The curse is correcting the distortion, i.e. some satisfying justice, out exclusively on force majeure, and indefinitely. In this regard it emphasizes that the most important values in traditional Macedonian culture were life itself, created progeny, and their family, property and honor. Most evidence of the belief in the power of the curse by folk stories is the event of an accident either cursed person or his family. Therefore, curses also point another very important value, which is highly appreciated – the natural course of human life, birth-marriage-death, that value in ritual practices tend to emphasize or re-establish if it is disturbed, and curses she tries to unravel.Item Proximity/distance at the meeting on “the other side”(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2012) Petreska, VesnaFolk healers and their ability to heal can be connected with death or the being owned by death. This deeply archaic structure is evident in how knowledge is acquired, namely that it is passed on from mother to daughter or granddaughter/grandson in a place that suggests a connection to the other world (water, bridge). It is also evident in the fact that the women performing charms must be postmenopausal. Also important is the fact that when knowledge is acquired through dreams and visions, the soul of the initiate or the initiate him- or herself must be in touch with the other world and then return to life by passing over a thin line: a bridge as wide as a hair or a straw. This is a condition akin to death followed by eventual recuperation. Another important point is the difference in physical appearance to those treated, for example, old, white, a pale face, piercing eyes, small, slouching, etc. All these incorporate the idea that the communication with the “other world”, “the other side”, is always given to those people that somehow were in touch with the other world, which from that perspective are far from us, but originating from our environment and transferring the message that they are also close to us. The connection with the other side, with the other, distanced world was also seen in the time-space structure on the charms.