Original scientific paper

LAMENTING IN CROATIA IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Grozdana Marošević ; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Since they are formed by both poetic and musical expression elements, folklorists and ethnomusicologists have linked laments with the idea of poetry and music (singing) and dealt with them as a musical-poetic genre, even though they are not regarded as singing in the communities in which they are practised. Laments are stylised weeping, a particular system of sounds in which speech, music and shedding of tears lose their individual identity and create a special (ritual) language in which one mourns the deceased, and communicates with the dead and the afterlife. On the basis of data noted down from the 15th to the 20th century, we consider in the article the magical, social and psychological function of lamenting as a ritual practice, characterised, particularly in the past, by a high degree of formality and conformity to rules in respect of performers, time and place, content (patterns, formulae) and the manner of performance. Linked with changes in family relations, with more highly expressed devotion and sensitivity within them that lead to emotional rejection, concealment and the introduction of the taboo surrounding death and suppression of public expressions of grief, one can monitor changes in attitudes towards lamenting that came about from the 19th century onwards: the practice gradually ceased to be the norm, and was completely abandoned in many communities.

Keywords

lamenting; Croatia; Burgenland

Hrčak ID:

2925

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/2925

Publication date:

15.12.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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