article

Text and context in Serbian ritual lament

Canadian-American Slavic studies15 (1)Published In 1981 • Pages: 52-60

By: Halpern, Barbara.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study '…of ritual lament as part of the repertoire of oral genres in a contemporary 'traditional' oral culture, concern is with context as much as with text, with function, with how people communicate in a given social situation' (p. 52). The author presents as an example of ritual lament a situation which she recorded in the 1960s in which a cluster of women gathered for a memorial service at a mass grave for several young men killed by lightning several years before. Halpern describes the setting, presents the text of the lament offered by one of the grieving mothers, and analyzes its content.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Drives and emotions
Music
Burial practices and funerals
Cult of the dead
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Serbs
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1997
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Europe
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southeastern Europe
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1996
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1950s-1970s
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1950s-1970s
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Serbia
NotesAdditional notes
Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
73641861
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Serbs