This paper investigates the role of play and performance in ritual. By focusing on several lifecycle and holiday rituals of the 19th and 20th century Carpathian Mountains, the author of this paper addresses the place of ritual in people's lives. Drawing on archival records, earlier ethnographic studies, and his own thick description, the author focuses on play and performance in four specific contexts: wedding festivities, funeral games, post-Easter festivities, and caroling and mumming at Christmas. In the Carpathians, play and performance have permeated all four of these solemn and festive occasions in such a manner that serious and lighter forms are frequently indistinguishable from one another. A closer inquiry reveals a delicate balance between formality and festivity. Both lifecycle and holiday rituals demonstrate the play imperative's ability to convert the outrageous into something that is acceptable and even desirable. At the same time, participant's emphasis on propriety and proper acts has helped channel play and create a chorus out of disparate and cacophonous symbols and meanings. Through varied ritual, residents of the Carpathians have been able to say many things, and regularly recurring festivities and conventions in form have allowed participants to address a range of experiences and work out many possible meanings. In exploring forms and occasions, the author makes a case for the importance of local knowledge and for seeing ritual in terms of specific performances, places, and processes as manifest in events. A better appreciation of play, formality, and locality allows scholars to unravel the tangle of expressions and transformations intertwined in rituals.

Bridget Blomfield, Claremont Graduate University The Language of Tears: The Azah Ritual of Shi'ite Women Immigrants

The azah ritual plays an important role in the spiritual and psychological development of female Shi'ite Muslim immigrants in the United States. Having brought their religious traditions with them from Iran and Iraq, these women have carved a niche of light into American culture. In investigating its role, this paper will examine various aspects of the azah ritual, how it supports the creation of sacred space internally and externally and the use of the body as an instrument to access the divine. The benefits of the ritual and its psychological implications to the participants will be presented. A study of the importance of Matam and azah, which means sorrow, will be explored as a ritual that commemorates suffering and death as well as relationship to the dead during Muharram, where devotion to the Shi'ite Imams and their Mother, Lady Fatima is a crucial means of intercession between God and humanity. Through the chanting, movements, and weeping inspired by the azah, the suffering is made real and embodied in the female participants bestowing on them agency and authority in an often prejudiced Western culture. Whether the tears are shed for the symbolic loss of the past or current sorrows in their lives today, the lamenting process allows women to express the emotion of grief, to shed sympathetic tears that are healing for self as well as community. An investigation of the body of the community and how it "moves" as an essential, collective response to emotion will be explored. Finally, a look at what Westerners can learn from this ancient grieving process that unites the participants through body prayer and bonds them physically and spiritually. This paper is an ethnographic sketch that is part of a forthcoming book about the City of Knowledge School and its participants in Pomona, California.

Dr. Ronald Burris, Notre De Namur University & American Baptist Seminary of the West Martyrdom or the Baptism in Blood

In the teaching of Tertullian and how this affected or laid the foundation for North African Christianity. As a result of this martyrdom, Christians begin to develop various Rituals and celebrations around their dead martyrs - and this affected the Church in North African in many ways.

Dr. Agnes Irene Caldwell, Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Human Services, Adrian College "Keeping Your Head Down"; nationalist Responses to Loyal Order Parades in Portadown, Northern Ireland 1945-1967

A recent focus of research in Northern Ireland examines the conflict around the Loyal Order parades. The majority of studies look at the identity and meaning surrounding theses parades created through ritualized acts from the Unionist/Protestant community's perspective. While these studies admit the Nationalist/Catholic community finds these parades offensive and threatening, virtually no studies document why such opinions exist. This study addresses the Nationalist community's perspective on Loyal Order parades in Portadown, Northern Ireland. Using a qualitative case study from intensive interviews, focus groups, and content analysis, shows how the tactics of the Nationalist/Catholic community are mediated by colonialism, the political opportunity structure and collective identity of which they are a part. Specifically, I extend resistance tactics to Portadown, Northern Ireland from 1945-1967. While scholars assert that Nationalists in Northern Ireland did not resist their second-class position until the civil rights movement in the late sixties, evidence demonstrates both a methodological and analytical weakness in that claim. Nationalists did not resist their position, however it was done "behind the scenes" and known only to that community. Furthermore, resistance was not directed toward individual experiences such as discriminatory practices in housing and employment, but on the collective experience around Loyal Order parades.

Dr. John Cash, Folklore Institute, Indiana University Crossing Genres: Commemoration in Reenactments and on Memorial Day

Reenactments are increasingly the object of study because of the representations of history they provide. Two theoretical approaches to these representations are available to the researcher: the literary theory of narrative, and the analysis of the tourist experience. The problem with the former is that the reenactment is not a narrative, but rather a genre of symbolic performance; the problem with the latter is that, typically, only a single genre of performance is analyzed. Moreover, in neither approach is the transformation inherent in ritual and festival genres treated satisfactorily. In this paper I will critique these two approaches, and, proceeding from a description of the reenactment as a performance genre with a particular structure, I will discuss the changes in audience, communication, representation and transformation when the genre of performance changes from reenactment to Memorial Day commemoration. This paper is based on the final chapter of my dissertation, "Borrowed Time: Reenacting the Civil War in Indiana."

Zsuzsanna Cselenyi, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University Dancing Drums: Powwow at IU (video)

This film documents the Second Annual First Nations at IU Powwow, held on March 28-30, 2003 at Indiana University Bloomington. It focuses on the views of the organizers and of the participants about the functions and impact of a Native American powwow held in fairly a new context, especially on a university campus, which not only draws people from all walks of life, but also has a capacity for wide-spread education. The main issues addressed include cultural appropriation, education and awareness, and native and hobbyist representations and their repercussions in indigenous and academic circles. Those interviewed include some of the organizers, native and non-native students who participated in the organizing and supervising stages of the event, dancers and vendors, drums and singers, as well as spectators. The significance of the film lies in its capacity to shed light on a recent outgrowth of a cultural practice that has been going through dramatic social and cultural changes since its birth in the early 20th century and is expected to reflect the changing roles of indigenous expressive cultures within the greater fabric of American life. It also represents the efforts of college powwows to dispel stereotypes associated with American Indians, because "seeing Native people in person provides a whole new perspective and a more accurate understanding of their unique culture" (Dr. Wesley Thomas).

Dr. Ariane Dalla Dea, Department of Anthropology, University of California-Irvine The Theatricality of Culture and Politics: the Use of Theatre of the Oppressed in Participatory Democracy

The oppressed in Latin America traditionally have used popular theatre as a form of social and political expression. A radical shift occurs when it is the power structure that applies theatre as an instrument of power to empower its citizens. The city of Santo Andre in Brazil employs the popular format Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) to stimulate civic participation in the democratic process, establishing a new meaning and function to TO. Augusto Boal adapted many drama techniques building this live, interactive theatre medium during the 1960s as a political resistance tool to the Brazilian power structure of that time. TO uses the actor's life experiences as a script calling for the spectator's intervention to offer solutions to complex problems that he/she faces, and who, for the most, have experienced them at a certain level. from the anthropological perspective, the government's appropriation of what is a traditionally activist tool raises two key questions: 1) what are the implications of government-sponsored programs to intervene and promote democratic practices, such as participatory citizenship? And 2) how does the city government mobilize the citizenry to inform of their rights and to participate in the democratic process using TO techniques?

Kurt Edwards, Theatre Department, Bowling Green State University The Ceremony of Cars: My experience growing up at the Indianapolis 500

Using Turner's concepts of communitas, flow, and rites of passage, this presentation examines white, male, middle-class, middle-American heritage through the experience of modern motor racing. My goal is to create a looking glass through which we can see some of the issues, pressures, and problems inherent in developing men through a rite of passage in the Indy 500 paradigm. By examining my father's experience as it relates to my own experience, we can see parallels that are buttressed by Turner's ideas. I first explore my father's Indy 500 experience, then examine his experience through Victor Turner's theories, and finally, try to make sense of this rite of passage as it pertains to my own familiarity. Using autoethnography (the double meaning of "auto" is intended), I am attempting to grapple with my own epistemological understanding of growing up in a family that puts authority in the "driving" if its male children through a rite of passage ceremony in attending an automobile race, specifically in this case, the Indianapolis 500.

Ivie Erhahon, Assistant Chief Research Officer & AG Head, National Council for Arts & Culture, Nigeria Death and Traditional Mortuary Rites of The Edo Society

Kay Williamson classified Edo as a member of the Edoid family, which belongs to the (new) Benue -Congo languages. This new Benue-Congo is a subgroup of the Niger-Congo languages. In the Edo society, mortuary rites vary according to clan, locality, and the rank, status, and circumstance of the deceased. It is the prayer of the Edo that parents "go" (predecease) their offspring(s) and senior siblings their juniors. Again, the degree to which the deceased has fulfilled his social destiny determines the Edo attitudes to death. The most dreaded fate in the society is to die sonless, or childless. In a sense, funeral rite is the most potent symbol of the parents. The Edo believe that one who is not properly buried cannot gain access into the society of his deadkin and associates, hence one throws this question: "Why do you want children?" the response is often: "So that they may bury me well". For his survival as a social being, the Benin man is dependent on the performance of the mortuary rites of his children. Children of the deceased should perform the rites, with the senior son leading the role and no person plays an active part in the funeral rites for someone junior to himself. Children and childless adults are buried unceremoniously by the ighele and iroghae (youths) in the community. The traditional mortuary rites in the Edo society involves rituals and sacrificing of animals, etc, etc. When the full mortuary rites are accorded, in the case of the ordinary people, the take seven (7) days and for the Monarch, fourteen (14) days. This paper treats the traditional rites for a man who is survived by a son or more. In it, we shall look at Edo Social Organisation: kinship, domestic and family groupings, agnates and other kin, the different stages and procedures involved in the rites.

Kate Ferris, Department of History, University College London, United Kingdom Death in Venice: The fascistisation of funerals and the rituals of death in 1930s Venice

Drawing upon a chapter of my PhD thesis, which considers cultural experiences in the everyday lives and life cycles of Venetians under fascism, my paper proposes to address the impact of fascism on funerary rituals and the experience of death in Venice during the 1930s. Historians of Italian fascism have long debated the extent of the fascist regime's desire and ability to infiltrate the so-called private sphere(s) of ordinary people's lives: my inquiry, which analyses the nature of funereal ritual in 1930s Venice and, in particular, the way in which 'fascism' sought to appropriate commemorative rites and symbols and introduce novel ones in order to create and propagate a new fascist identity, can help towards mapping the experiences and responses of 'ordinary' Italians to the infiltration of fascist ideals, policies and the regime apparatus into their day-to-day lives. The paper also engages with historiographical debates relating to modernity's supposed 'denial of death' and the transnational trend for cults of commemoration following the unprecedented scale of bloodshed and loss of life of the First World War. The paper will seek to demonstrate the ways in which Italian fascism sought to appropriate funeral rites and experiences of death in Venice with the use of a number of case studies; accounts of the funerals, reported in the Venetian press, of a cross-section of Venetian society, ranging from celebrated members of the Venetian establishment, including the Patriarch and the leader of the local Fascist women's organisation to Venetians of more 'humble' origins, who died either in rather unusual circumstances or fighting in the Fascist campaigns in Ethiopia and Spain. It is expected that this paper will address not only the degree of the authorities' success in 'fascistising' funerals and death in 1930s Venice, but will also argue for the tenacity of more long-standing and widely held attitudes and rituals of death provided by national narratives and Roman Catholic discourses.

Jeff Gordon, Department of Geography, Bowling Green State University A Common Ritual Upon Reaching The Age of Majority: Legal Drinking and Gambling

Legal drinking and gambling are common rites of passage for those reaching the age of majority. For many people this achievement is a long-awaited and highly anticipated milestone in their lives. People so inclined feel they should celebrate and party when this very special time arrives. This includes the heady rush of indulging in formerly prohibited (i.e., as a minor) drinking and gambling. They want to enjoy their time of metamorphosis leading into the freedoms associated with adulthood. In this very purposeful adventure they break old restrictive boundaries and lose inhibitions. It can be a magical and surreal experience likely defined by those coming-of-age as "awesome." This ritual in which young adults first exercise their new freedoms is modified by geography. Legal drinking and gambling depend in part on laws restricting where such activity can occur such as riverboats, Indian reservations, gambling casinos, etc., which vary from state to state. Thus, not unlike pilgrims, these young adults seek out in-state casinos as destinations or make a pilgrimage to meccas in other states like Las Vegas.

Dr. Phillip A. Grant, Jr., History, Pace University The 1939 Dedication of the Baseball Hall of Fame

The official dedication of the Baseball Hall of Fame was held at Cooperstown, NY on June 12, 1939. The ceremony was designed not only to honor the most outstanding performers in the history of the major leagues, but also to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the introduction of baseball in the United States. Presiding over the festivities at Cooperstown were Judge Kennsaw M. Landis, High Commissioner of Baseball, and James A. Farley, Postmaster general of the United States. Also participating were the Presidents of the National League, American League, the Baseball Writers Association of America, and most of the executives of the 16 major league teams. Inducted into the Hall of Fame were Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Grover Cleveland Alexander, George Sisler, Eddie Collins, Napoleon Lajoie, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth. It was estimated that at least 10,000 people assembled at Cooperstown to witness the tributes paid to these illustrious retired ball players. The attendees had the opportunity to enjoy a lively exhibition game, involving such well-known contemporary players as Mel Ott, Billy Herman, and Hank Greenburg. The gathering at Cooperstown became an annual ritual in the 65 years since 1939.

Dr. Gregory Price Grieve, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina-Greensboro An Improvised Theory of Social Agency: Creativity, Festival Practice and The Invention of Place In Bhaktapur, Nepal

This paper articulates the improvisational aspects of the Nepalese city of Bhaktapur's Cow Procession Festival (Gai Jaatra). The Nepalese study is the first part of a five-year multiple- site ethnographic research project that explores the role of creativity in public celebrations. A city of around 80,000 inhabitants, Bhaktapur lies seven miles east of Kathmandu. Celebrated in late August, the Cow Procession is an intimate mix of death and carnival that commemorates those who have died during the previous year with a procession of floats and a series of satirical performances. My paper concentrates on a "forged" (nakali) goat sacrifice that I participated in on August 19, 1995 around 5:30pm. Although the sacrifice was forged, there was little apparent difference between this "forged" celebration and an "authentic" festival. It had a procession, a goat sacrifice, and even a ritual feast - all key elements of authentic worship. So, I describe the sacrifice in this way not because I thought it was forged, but because the Nepalis participating in the sacrifice described it to me as such. I argue that the forged goat sacrifice was an instance of social invention used by the area's people to "improvise" themselves into a mandalically organized lived world. Theoretically, I use performance theory filtered through local notions of practice, to suggest that we should use Improvisation Theatre ("Improv ") as a model for articulating human creativity. Such a model understands invention as (1) stemming from social problem-solving and "team work" rather than individual psychological inspiration; (2) constituted by the cultural matrix in which it is situated; and (3) as a performance rather than a product. Understanding the improvised elements of the goat sacrifice is significant not only for solving its "puzzle," but also for offering a larger model for articulating how cultures use public celebrations to invent place when faced with novel problems.

Dr. Moni'm Haddad, Israel Christian Feasts and Celebrations in The Holy Land

Palestine is considered to be the native land of Christ and the cradle of Christianity. During the ages, especially the last few centuries, Christians in Palestine were a minority, and the rulers of the land were non- Christians. They continued to live here, in their homeland, and to celebrate their feasts, ceremonies and rituals, more or less, according to the "mode" of the ruler, and his policy: tolerant with other religions or not. At the first half of the twentieth century Palestine was put under the British Mandate, according to a resolution of the League of Nations. H.M the King of the United Kingdom, declared in his council for Palestinian affairs to ensure religious autonomy for the Christian communities in Palestine. In this period of the British Christian Mandate, the Palestinian Christians practiced their religious freedom and celebrated their rituals and feasts freely, as far as possible. In 1948 the state of Israel was established, during the war of 1948 many Christian communities were destroyed, and the people were obliged to leave their own homeland and to move to the neighboring countries turning to be refugees. Christian sanctuaries were destroyed, and Christian properties were confiscated or blockaded, (just for example: many acres of the land of Jerusalem where the official authorities' buildings are built belong to the Christian properties). Apparently, the religious freedom and autonomy granted to the Christian communities in Palestine by HM King of the United Kingdom was respected, and Christians continue to enjoy it officially and in some fields of life. Unfortunately its implementation is different, too much different. The Christian minority who continued to live inside Israel felt quickly the changes of the regime: until now Sunday was considered to be the official rest weekend day, from now Saturday became the official rest weekend day, and Christians were obliged to work on their holy Sunday, any worker or employee who refused to work on Sunday - was taking sever risk to be fired and to lose his work and job. The same procedure affected the Christian celebrations, ceremonies, feasts and rituals inside Israel: at the beginning Christians continued to celebrate their feasts, little by little the laws, orders and rules were changed, and Christian workers and employees were forbidden from celebrating their feasts and rituals. Even appeal to the court of work affairs didn't help, and any Christian who wants to be religious and celebrate his feasts, will take big risk of losing his work and job. This non-just situation reached its peak during the historical visit of HE Pope John Paul II to Israel, when Christian workers were not allowed to leave their work to meet him. And it is claimed, until now, that Christians here enjoy their religious autonomy and freedom.

Dr. David Harnish, College of Musical Arts, Bowling Green State University The Anatomy of Balinese Temple Festivals and the Role of the Performing Arts

Balinese temple festivals, the largest and most public expressions of religion in Bali, Indonesia, celebrate the re-consecration of the temple. With an estimated 25,000 temples on the island holding festivals every 210 days (the Balinese year), such events generate frequent ritual behavior and ideation. In fact, early Western reports on the festivals helped craft the touristic and scholarly image of Balinese as deeply religious and exotic people. Though it is problematic to concisely define festivals due to their colorful diversity around the island, similar frameworks with marked stages operate in each one. Of particular importance are the performing arts. Music, dance and /or theater fulfill many of the essential rites that constitute a festival, and are often an acknowledged rite unto themselves. For instance, festivals nearly always begin with gamelan (ensemble) performances that act to call together both human and divine participants, and topeng (masked) dancing frequently accompanies and complements the priestly presentations of offerings to deities. This presentation will explore the essential elements of temple festivals and the functions of the performing arts to drive the events to successful completion. I will also discuss the rich variety of temples and their meanings and importance in constructing, and maintaining Balinese culture, and will present some specific festival examples. Other subjects broached include the values of the performing arts, the histories and discourses that they manifest in the festival atmosphere, and the changes that some festivals have recently experienced due to intrusions of state and state-sanctioned religious bodies.

Jeremy Hockett, Department of American Studies, University of New Mexico Mass-Observation's May the Twelfth and Burning Man: Ritual Reflexivity for an Ethnographic People.

On May 12, 1937 a daring and obscure experiment in ethnographic reflexivity, known as "Mass-Observation" (M-O), was initiated. Attempting what was called an "Anthropology of Ourselves," a team of avant-garde English anthropologists devised a plan to study "the beliefs and behavior of the British Islanders," and the" so-called other nation of the workers or the poor." The ethnography produced by M-O, entitled May the Twelfth, focused on the coronation of King George VI following the "great national crisis" of King Edward the VIII's abdication. It was to be "the observation of everyone by everyone, including themselves. "In this paper I argue that Burning Man can be understood as an "ethnographic ritual" - a type of liminal ritual for reflexive modernity that invites participant observation, as individuals are encouraged to reflect on their own culture, and their own roles in contributing to and constructing that culture. Burning Man is in its own right a ritual worthy of observation, much like the Coronation of George VI was for Mass Observation. But with Burning Man it is the ritual itself that observes rather than the ritual (and people's responses to it) that is observed. In both cases, however, reflexive knowledge is produced, the former doing so unconsciously, as it were, while the latter does so consciously and strategically as its main purpose. In contrast to the mass observation of a cross section of England on the day of one of its most powerful rituals - the coronation of a monarch - in which the "team" of observers is the vehicle of reflexive knowledge, Burning Man - the carnivalesque ritual itself - becomes the vehicle of reflexivity as participants become de facto ethnographers of their own culture. This is best understood in light of the example M-O offers. Quoting from the May the Twelfth report, James Buzard writes, and as its techniques aimed to negate those of the State, M-O renders itself the "new master of social magic," the production of May the Twelfth becoming "a transforming ritual curiously shamanistic in its own right," by means of which M-O "takes on the shaman's knowledge and authority even as [it] represents the scientific interpretation, and hence the secular negation, of the shaman's occult culture of magic. "Thus, "May the Twelfth presents itself as both record of and response to these official efforts, at once their imitation and critique."

Dr. Julia Huston Nguyen, History, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Celebrating Church and State: Holidays in Antebellum Louisiana

In antebellum America, church and state often intersected in the celebration of holidays. This paper will analyze that relationship in Louisiana, a state where economic, social, political, ethnic, and demographic changes were occurring at a rapid pace during the first half of the 19th century. Some Louisiana holidays, like days appointed for fasting or prayer, were set aside for religious devotion by a local, state, or national government. Others, like Thanksgiving, July 4th, or January 8th, were secular holidays whose primary commemoration took place in a religious setting. In celebration of either type of holiday, Louisianans and their governments exposed the values that their society upheld. When designating religious and secular holidays, local, state, and national governments often hoped to reinforce certain principles. Foremost among them was patriotism, especially important in a new state with many citizens who were not especially happy about being Americans. Many of the values surrounding Louisiana holidays were specific to the state and its unusual circumstances. The population- made up of Catholic Creoles of French and Spanish descent, Anglo-Americans, and recent immigrants from all over Europe- was often in conflict, warring over social, economic, and political power in the young state. Many holiday commemorations during the early 19th century recognized these tensions as they celebrated unity and a single American identity. During the 1850s and the secession crisis of 1860-61, holiday celebrations reflected the questions and concerns that Louisianans had about their place in the nation. As special days set aside from the everyday routine of antebellum life, holidays uncover many of the tensions of Louisiana society as well as the way that clergymen, civic leaders, and ordinary citizens attempted to resolve those tensions. My analysis of such occasions will bring new insights to the complexities and challenges of Louisiana society.

Rachel Kulasza, Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University Gone, But Never Forgotten: Creativity in the Humanization of Practices Surrounding Pet Death

This presentation will examine some of the physical aspects of how the death of a pet is culturally dealt with in the United States, focusing specifically on my 2003 ethnographic research with various individuals and businesses located in Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio. Pet death is typically humanized; thus the practices surrounding a pet death resemble funerary rites and death rituals we recognize as characteristic of how cultures throughout the United States treat human death. In accordance with how and why pet death is humanized, whether at home or in a more public sphere, such as a pet cemetery or memorial garden is the expressed level of creativity and individualization in each action and choice made. At the same time, these creative performances are remarkably similar and parallel to those familiar actions surrounding human death, such as choices made in how the body will be displayed and memorialized in a funeral service, what objects are included in the casket, and what is left behind at the grave site, how to mark the grave, and the significance of what items visitors leave. Such private aspects allow for uninhibited creativity of these humanized death procedures that personalize and individualize each pet as a unique and important member of the family group. Likewise, the creativity surrounding pet death is folkloric in that a select group is communicating their physical and emotional loss of a pet whom is loved as a member of the family; and thus communicating their beliefs through various artistic expressions in the actions and choices made concerning pet death as a humanizing practice.

Dr. Nirmal Kumar, Delhi University, India As a Muslim King Invents Hindu Imperial Rituals: The case of Mughal ruler of 16th Century North India

The Marxist historians have generally been describing the Indian State especially in early modern and pre-British period as agricultural leviathan with unlimited political penetration. To them the Mughal State (1526-1740s) was able to implement its policies and programs with remarkable ease. This linear and unproblematic development of society and polity in early modern centuries needs to be questioned. We see this so called strong and politically competent Mughal State taking various measures to buttress its political authority and ensure people's compliance. The Mughal State under its first effective ruler Akbar took measures to appropriate the support of the Hindu people. Akbar very consciously reinvented the obviously Hindu Imperial/royal rituals like Jharoka Darshan, Tula Daan, celebration of birthday according to solar calendar, participating in Hindu festivities. Though he celebrated other than Hindu festivities too like a Parsi Nauroj but since the population of other religion people were next to nothing his overtures to the Hindu assume more than all. Akbar's attempt to rationalize the state and make it acceptable to the Hindu majority was novel by all count. I would like to argue that contrary to the dominant Marxist view that the Mughal State was mainly and only 'Agrarian Leviathan', the all powerful Mughal state did try to appropriate cultural and social allegiance of the majority Hindus and gave them the message that the Muslim kings were in direct succession to the Hindu chiefs and rulers. Such acts increased the political legitimacy and social acceptability of the alien Mughal rulers. Assessment of the nature of pre-modern and early modern states in India needs a fresh look to redefine the is very urgent in the light of misapplication of Marxist theories to them, many a times willfully ignoring the cultural and ritual aspects of the state because that would have made the state's analysis solely on economic grounds weaker.

Dr. James Brooks Kuykendall, Music Department, Calvin College Pomp & Consequences: Tracing the Origins and Influence of a "Ceremonial" Style in English Music, c. 1880-1980

In the late Victorian era - and in the midst of a renaissance of English music - four prototypically English musical idioms coalesced to form a distinctly national style that served as the perfect accompaniment to newly thriving ceremonialism: echoes of Handel were forged with elements of hymntunes, marches, and patriotic and nautical airs. Although often regarded as vulgar and bombastic, this combination proved to be potent. As musicologist Wilfrid Mellers has mused, this Pomp and Circumstances sound was able to "send shivers down reluctant, even resentful spines". The potency of this "God-is-an-Englishman music" has lingered in the century since, even after the British Empire has ceased to be a geo-political entity. The music seems sometimes dignified and restrained, sometimes bombastic and triumphant, sometimes wistful and nostalgic. Perhaps because of this flexibility, the Elgarian ceremonial style has maintained a lasting place as a stylistic signifier for later composers. This paper examines briefly the origins of this style in the 19th century, and then turns to a variety of 20th century manifestations (from the hymn "Lift High the Cross" to the films The Dambusters and Star Wars).

Linda J. Lee, Program in Folklore & Folklife, University of Pennsylvania A Place to Remember: The Salem Witch Trials Memorial and the Politics of Memory

This paper explores how memorials and monuments embody cultural meanings and anchor those meanings in the landscape. Specifically, I analyze the range of meanings associated with the Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Salem, Massachusetts. Dedicated on August 5, 1992, this memorial is a production of space that carries multiple cultural meanings. The design of the memorial interprets the past for the present, drawing substantially of elements from the legend tradition of the witch trials. Recognizing the meanings inherent in this space helps to explain the role that this Memorial plays in transmitting Salem's heritage message. Residents of the city of Salem have had a complicated relationship with its notorious past, which is manifested as ambivalence in how the events of 1692 are remembered. The Salem Witch Trials Memorial honors the memory of the victims of the witch trials of 1692; 19 people were hanged and one person was pressed to death. In contemporary Salem, there are very few locations with any direct connection to these events. The exact location of the execution site is unknown, and most of these victims did not receive proper burials. The construction of this memorial (which is adjacent to the city's oldest cemetery) established a new public space for both remembering the victims of the witch trials of 1692 and enacting a variety of folklore performances. This paper is analytical in nature, drawing on theories of collective memory and forgetting, the significance of space, and the performance of heritage and historical discourse. I analyze how the memorial's design incorporates symbolic elements of the dominant local legend tradition; consider the ritual, tourist, and folklore performances that take place there; and explore the meanings related to the site's heritage message.

Dr. Barbara A. Looney, Independent Scholar Reunions at the Top: the Crazy Horse Memorial Annual Volksmarch

The Crazy Horse Monument, currently being carved out of solid pegmatite-granite mountain in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, will become the largest single memorial to any one person in the world. Sometime mid-century, when the work is complete, the final form will show the upper torso of the Lakota war chief, Crazy Horse, astride his stallion, arm outstretched. The statue will rise 500 feet high and 600 feet long. Between the Indian's arm and his horse will be a space capable of holding the entire carving of the national shrine of the four presidents at Mt. Rushmore, located less than an hour away. With work in progress, the only time the public can get close to the unfinished carving is during the annual 10 kilometer Volksmarch to the top, held the first weekend each June. This event, sanctioned by the American Volkssport Association, has grown from several hundred participants when it was first organized in 1986, to more than 15,000 walkers this past year. This paper examines how the annual march brings attention to the Native American world and legacy of Crazy Horse in ways that simultaneously embrace, enlarge, and inspire, yet also distort and redirect. The climb to the summit is both a tribute and a carnival. Marchers honor the Indian and his carver by their presence, even as their participation directs the focus to personal reunions and occasional wacky celebrations. Through narration and color slides, this paper explores the very public ritual that has emerged at the memorial site of a most private and mysterious Lakota man who refused to be photographed or to sit for a portrait.

Dr. Keith A. Mayes, Department of African American & African Studies, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Memory and the Politics of Black Holidays: African 96Americans, 20th Century Commemorations and the Formation of a Black Calendar

This paper examines the black holiday phenomenon in the 20th century. It will first begin by acknowledging the black commemorative tradition of the 19th century, particularly around emancipation holidays and their continued importance to African-Americans in the new century. As freedom became a reality through the progression of 19th century politics, African-Americans created new celebrations around the ending of the slave trade and various emancipation days (Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth, 13th Amendment, etc.). I will argue in this paper that blacks not only continued some of these holidays in the 20th century (mainly Juneteenth) but created new holidays germane to their ongoing experiences in American society, such as Black History Week, Brown v. Board of Education commemorations, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The paper will also examine the growth of Black Power holidays and their attempt to negate dominant American traditions: Kwanzaa (the so-called black Christmas), Umoja Karamu (the black Thanksgiving), Black Solidarity Day (first Monday in November before Election Day), Malcolm X commemorations, and Black Love Day (the black Valentine's Day). Taken together, these holidays gave rise to a distinct black commemorative calendar and underscored importance of historical memory and the politics of holiday creation in black America. The politics of black holiday making, however, involved various constituencies having differential accesses to power, which led to uneven holiday legacies. Some black holidays like Juneteenth and Martin Luther King established commissions and acquired wider recognition in American public culture while others have remained confined to black institutional spaces.

Kris Nesbitt, Curriculum in Folklore, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Angel Babies: Women's Webs of Loss and Transformation

I propose to present a portion of my Masters thesis for UNC's Curriculum in Folklore, which focuses on a new and growing phenomenon in the public memorialization of death - the widespread creation of memorial websites. My particular area of interest includes sites that memorialize lost neonatal, perinatal, and stillborn infants. The websites are an expressive form used in different ways by different women to speak about their own lives and, more broadly, the human experience of life and loss. Sites like these are a new phenomenon, arising as Internet access spreads and the opportunities for easy web design and hosting grow. The sites stand at a particular moment arising from new technology and changing cultural expectations for public self-expression and the meaning of community. The sites are also born, I argue, from the contestations and contradictions of millennial American culture. Infant loss websites reveal negotiations and contradictions between recent dramatic changes in social and family structure, increasing capabilities - and shortfalls -- in medical technology, societal views and expectations of infant mortality, and our culture's views on motherhood itself. Amidst all of these other issues, however, the idea of how we express and recover from grief stands at the forefront. Again and again, the women who create these sites write of their feelings of isolation. Others in their lives deny their grief. However, websites like these provide a form of resistance against cultural norms against openly revealing the pain of loss. Self-expression breeds transformation and healing. Women connect with others who share their pain over the Internet, and form close-knit, if electronically-connected, networks of support. By publicly displaying their disenfranchised grief through their memorial sites, the women develop and interweave an emergent ritual into their daily lives and continue to inscribe the lost infants within their life experiences.

Dr. Karl Neuenfeldt, Contemporary Communication, Central Queensland University, Australia Badu Island Tombstone Unveilings

Tombstone Unveilings are the main mortuary rites of Australian indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. They take place several years after a person's death and relatives are expected to contribute to the event and travel to the gravesite from the Australian mainland. The rites are unique in Australia and mix older Melanesian and newer Christian traditions. Music and dance are crucial to the events. On December 13 2003 there were 6 such unveilings at Badu Island. The paper comments on: the morning gravesite ceremonies accompanied by Christian hymns sung in procession; the evening program of celebratory and competitive secular singing and dancing that extends for many hours [often 4 pm to 4 am]. The event is a mélange of celebration, pilgrimage and competition, as local dance groups from Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea present well-rehearsed and entertaining programs to resident and returning audiences.

Dr. Colin Quigley, Program in Culture and Performance, University of California-Los Angeles Cultural Performance, Public Display, and Magyar Minority Identity in Transylvania

The Central Transylvanian region of Romania is currently home to a mixed population of Romanians, Magyars (Hungarians), and Roma (Gypsies). During my fieldwork there in 1997-99, I recorded a variety of public performances that reference Magyar identity in several frames: projections from Hungary that incorporate the Transylvanian Magyars into a nationalizing ideology; locally configured representations responding to the view from Hungary; Magyar-Romanian and/or Magyar-Roma distinctions; and intra-Magyar relations within Transylvania. The performances I examined fall at various points along a folkore-folklorism spectrum. In this presentation I focus the visit of a Hungarian folkdance ensemble to a village; the anniversary celebration of "20 years of Tanchaz (dance house)" in the city of Kolozsvar, presented in the Hungarian Opera House; and, carnival customs in a small town currently undergoing limited tourist development. I will use a short video to illustrate the Carnival example, "Here lies Mr. Farsang: Carnival in Torocko". In a number of largely Catholic Hungarian communities throughout Transylvania, the population observes Carnival through a variety of traditional customs. Torocko is one such town where Carnival customs kept rather muted under the former socialist regime have been reinvigorated since 1990. Farsang, as the custom is known in Hungarian, now serves as a high-profile public event that draws visitors to the community from throughout the surrounding region. The young men process in elaborate costume, in the form of a mock wedding/funeral cortege. Various masked figures accompany them, harassing the onlookers as they go. The event culminates in a lengthy oration, bidding farewell to the year, personified as the deceased farsang dome, that is, Mr. Farsang. The text cites the value placed on this custom and its links to Hungarian tradition. Social tensions are addressed in a humorous and at the same time self-deprecating ironic tone. The commentaries it makes on the growing tourist economy, local, and national politics are both subtle and biting.

Dr. Mojca Ram_ak, Scientific Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Slovene Ethnology, Slovenia Out of Fear, Close to Reconciliation

The paper is based on oral sources, 76 life-stories of Carinthian Slovenes of rural origins, the minority on the linguistically most endangered southern area of the Austrian part of Carinthia. Spiritual dimensions of death, as seen in Carinthian life-stories, include unexplained premonitions, with pure mythological elements which lead toward solving of eternal uncertainty with death, religiously strengthened notions of different afterlife existence, family's and community's attitude toward the death (which do not always confirm stereotyped notions of traditional funeral rituals), vanishing Slovene epitaphs on the gravestones and energetic rejection of presenting unnecessary violent death on the television. Empirical ethnological investigation was focused on private mourning and on death as an existential and social problem among the Slovenes in Austrian Carinthia. Different methods and strategies for understanding and acceptance of death are discussed: from simple rational logic to the sophisticated mediative ways of selflessness and detachment needed for acceptance of the unavoidable. Memories about death, compared to other turning points of life, are described rather sparingly. Interviewees talked about death of their relatives and acquaintances fleetingly, partially and with respect. During the years they have turned pain of loss into a bitter awareness of life's shortness and its uniqueness. The interviewees talk about death, which is somewhere nearby, as an unwanted intruder, but it does not invoke fear anymore - only reconciliation with life as it is. Different destinies from narrators' earliest years were accompanied by death, for instance women in childbed, who sometimes didn't get satisfactory medical assistance; death accompanied the incautious during their working activities, those who went to the army and those who were killed in the Nazi concentration camps. Of those who for whatever reason committed suicide, interviewees spoke weighted - many times they changed chosen words, as if they would try to express respect toward the intimate decisions of those, who could no longer bear the world (or the world no longer tolerated them).

Dan Shope, American Culture Studies Program, Bowling Green State University Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church: British Israelite Belief, Symbols, and Celebration and Its Connection To Herbert W. Armstrong's World-Wide Church of God Beliefs and Symbols

In their book Negotiating Identity: Rhetoric, Metaphor, and Social Drama in Northern Ireland, Buckley and Kenny assert a belief system of direct Jewish ancestry among many people in Ireland and England. Today these believers are referred to as "British Jewry "or "British Israelites." They are considered an influential group in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Linked to this long-held tradition is a similar, if not exact, belief held by many who were/are members of Herbert W. Armstrong's World-Wide Church of God. This paper is an analysis of this belief among many residents in Ireland, England, the history of this belief, and the symbols used in celebration by fraternal orders in Ireland such as the Orange Order, and its connections to the same belief among former World-Wide Church of God believers and their everyday lives.

Pastor, Dr. Brett H. Smith, University Baptist Church, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Liturgies for Learning and Labor: Rituals for Public Worship at the University of Illinois, 1897-1880

The University of Illinois (then called the "Illinois Industrial University") was among the first of the new wave of public agricultural and mechanical schools that arrived on the American scene during the later half of the 19th century. Though expressly designed to break with the normative church-related liberal educational tradition of its day - including the absence of theological studies or the training of clergy - the I.I.U. community nevertheless was quite intentional about cultivating a Christian identity and ethos. In their very first advertising pamphlet sent to Illinois high schools, the I.I.U. trustees said they desired to create a "Christian culture" at the University. This paper will describe how rituals of public worship sacralized their life together as a learning community, and catechized the faithful in the I.I.U.'s quest to become a state-sponsored, yet Christian school. Jonathan Baldwin Turner, a Yale graduate and Congregational minister, provided the theoretical grist for this new type of education, insisting that the I.I.U.'s graduates would become robust and useful human beings, trained for industrial progress. The traditional pallid, monkish theologue with his musty Greek and Latin would have no place in a new and bustling America, he argued. So, Baptist minister and I.I.U. President John Milton Gregory and the other campus leaders made the training of a utilitarian and healthful human being their goal. Gregory had recently published a speech entitled "The Right and Duty of Christianity to Educate," in which he spelled out religion's divine mandate to provide such moral formation for the nation's citizens. At Illinois, he coined the school motto, "Learning and Labor", arguing that an ideal Christian man or woman would balance mental and physical work, resulting in a more whole human being. Gregory drove this message home by preaching in daily and Sunday chapel services on the campus, a room where "Learning and Labor" was posted on the wall as an iconic reminder. He wrote theologically revealing hymns about the motto and other pertinent topics to the I.I.U., which worshippers sang together at various services. Along with regular chapels, he led the community in public rituals during special events like baccalaureate, commencement, cornerstone layings, and building dedications. Other dignitaries in Illinois political and educational life spoke from the I.I.U. pulpit as well. By describing the music, prayer, preaching, facilities used in worship, this paper will demonstrate through primary sources how the I.I.U. community engaged in a unique and fascinating amalgamation of non-sectarian Christian worship in a state-sponsored, public university setting.

Andy Soper, Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University Body, Brotherhood, & Bereavement: 9-11 Tattoos of the FDNY

This is a presentation on the performance of grief as evidenced through the 9-11 memorial tattoos of the FDNY community. This presentation will explore both the private and public display/performances of these images, including analysis of aspects of images, range of personal involvement in design, placement, and the rational for displaying such as memorial. I will also be using Signs of War and Peace (Jack Santino) as a springboard for discussion involving the performance of communal and personal grief.

Arunas Vaicekauskas, Department of Ethnology & Folklore, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania The Death and Society: Lithuanian Velines (All Souls Day)

Mihnea Vasilescu, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh Burying the Past: Romanian Revolution and the Heroes of the Revolution Cemetery

Romania was the only country in Eastern Europe that overthrew the communist regime with a bloody revolution. Almost 15 years after December 1989 Romanians still don't know what the people who heroically lost their lives actually died for, and who shot them. The bodies of those who died in Bucharest are buried in the Heroes of the Revolution Cemetery. Perfectly aligned marble crosses are decorated with pictures, statues, and poems, which try to convey something about the personalities of those who are buried there. Each of the post-1989 governments avoided to thoroughly investigate how the revolution actually unfolded. Currently, there are several competing accounts and interpretations of those revolutionary days but the death of the revolutionaries is still a question left unanswered. Because of this, the Heroes of the Revolution Cemetery is not only a site of remembrance but also a possible source of delegitimation. Ironically though, despite the cemetery's potentiality for counter memory, it remains a key location for yearly commemorations where governments in place organize dull ceremonies and unconvincing calls for reconciliation are made. Missing the unified voice of a representative group of revolutionaries that are the legitimate heirs of the ideals of those who died the cemetery ultimately becomes the place where the past is buried rather than the source of its regeneration. This paper is concerned with the ironical social location of this Cemetery within the public memory as well as within the political life of post-revolutionary Romania. from a theoretical point of view, it argues that sites of remembrance can be used for useful political purposes by powerful groups even when those sites are the sources of their contestation and delegitimation.

Martin Walsh, University of Michigan San Martin Caballero: the Fortunes of a Pan-European Saint and his Festival in the New World

St. Martin of Tours is high in what we might call the second tier of Latin American saints, and affords a manageable test-case for examining the transplantation of a European saint's cult to the New World. St. Martin place names are quite common in Mexico, Central America, and the Spanish colonial areas of the United States, and the image of the "Charity of St. Martin" (the saint's splitting of his cloak with a sword to share it with a beggar) is familiar today in popular religious iconography. This paper will survey the extent of Martin's cult in the New World, from Columbus's naming of a Caribbean island in his honor to church dedications at the end of the colonial era, and will examine the various modifications to his feats day of November 11 when interacting with indigenous cultures, with special attention to the fiestas of San Martin. Texmelucan (Puebla), Mexico and San Martin Jilotepeque and San Martin Chili Verde, Guatemala. Some surprising transformations took place. The European saint, known for his campaigns against the vestiges of paganism in Gaul, fared surprisingly well in the hybrid Christianity of the indios as the magical horseman San Martin Caballero.

Dr. Phyllis A. Watts, Professor of Sociology, Tiffin University Remembering the Past: Memorials along the "Trail of Tears"

Under President Jackson's leadership, the Indian Removal Act became law, thereby forcing the Indians - Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole - from their lands in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia. As they marched the eight hundred miles of forests, mountains, swamps, and wilderness roads, many died. It is estimated that one of every four Cherokee who started westward died along this route. The Trail of Tears starts in Georgia and ends in Oklahoma. The U. S. Forestry and the National Park Service officially recognized in 1973, a motorized route. I drove this route, photographed, and gathered historical documentation illustrative of the memorial erected at various sites along the route. This power point presentation illustrates those designated locations and Historical information located therein.

George Williams, Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission Megalithic Sites and the Cosmic Cycle of Rebirth

An important common feature for a number of prehistoric megalithic sites is the alignment of these structures with the summer or midwinter solstice. Strikingly, similar features can be found in North American prehistoric sites, suggesting that disparate prehistoric cultures shared similar cosmologies and rituals. We examine these common themes, which appear to suggest the importance of rituals regarding the sun, the earth mother, and rebirth. Additional clues may be found from the Native American sweat lodge ritual, which contains some of these features.