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Juško-Štekele, Angelika
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- PublicationTHE CONCEPT OF PILGRIMAGE IN THE CULTURE OF LATGALE(2014)The aim of the paper is to characterize pilgrimage as a significant concept in Latgalian culture by emphasizing pilgrimage’s dialectic comprehension and most essential manifestations in culture. The study use a linguistically culturological approach and reviews pilgrimage as a global and multilevel structure, that consists of conceptual, emotively evaluated, historical and etymological layers (Степанов 2001: 84). For this purpose there were used mainly such written sources as vocabularies, periodicals and fiction, that refer to pilgrimage. While gathering various interpretations of sacredness and journeys, paper deals with four main comprehensions of pilgrimage in Latgale: firstly, pilgrimage as a religious activity, that means walking to a sacred place along with the prayers, secondly, pilgrimage as a social campaign for the affirmation of ideological efforts, thirdly, pilgrimage as an individual and sensitive search for the eternal values and, lastly, pilgrimage as a type of a religious tourism in contemporary post-modern society.
The beginning of Catholic pilgrimage tradition in Latgale usually tends to be associated with Aglona, when Dominicans or the so called White Fathers Order began their activities in the region in 1699. Today, within the Rēzekne–Aglona diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, there are several sites, which have been officially acknowledged as sacred on the basis of the corresponding features they possess. Primarily, it’s the altarpiece of the Virgin miracle-worker and other relics, that are special for the Christianity and where pilgrims may pray for health or any other mercy. Secondly, in the territory of the sacred place there may be located objects of nature, that bring health and blessing, for example, sacred spring. The appreciation of religious pilgrimage in Latgalian culture has been also affected by the historical context. From 1918 to 1940 pilgrimage activity experienced especially strong prosperity, but it changed during the Soviet-era, when pilgrimage subject in mass media was forbidden and lost its official support, but it still continued to proceed. Organized pilgrimages to Aglona recurred only in 1989 along with the so called Third Latvian National Awakening.
Pilgrimage in Latgalian culture appears also as a social campaign for the affirmation of ideological efforts, where comprehension of sacredness from the scope of the Christian Religion transfers into secular every-day lifestyle and subjects to ideological dogmas of era. Such interpretation of pilgrimage especially activates during 1920s–1930s, as well as in 1940s and 1990s. The aspiration for such pilgrimage usually is a place, person or monument, but all pilgrimages that are distinctive to the affirmation of ideological efforts possess fragmentation feature. With the alterations within the ideological emphasis the idea of the ideological pilgrimage either disappears either transforms into ceremonial procession or simple memorial tribute. Comprehension of the pilgrimage as an individual and sensitive search for the eternal values is more related to the individualized pilgrim’s motive, that is connected to emotional experience, namely, search for the deprecated and irreversible values. This motive is especially noticeable within the exiled Latgalians’ literature, where such personages as motherland, home, mother and mother’s tomb are united and related to the Virgin’s archetype. The pilgrimage process, that Latgalian exiled writers live through in their imagination, shows, that it is one of the most essential values, that is evaluated during the immense influence of foreign countries, that helps to preserve Latgalian identity at times while far away from home. One of the most popular type of tourism today is religious tourism. In Latgale it began in the 20th century through periodicals of 1920s–1930s. Now it is an integral part of the global tourism industry, including both national and international projects. Meaning diversification in the contextual semantics of the pilgrimage shows its deep roots in the Latgalian culture and how it merges universal, national, ethnic and denominational characteristic marks in cultural traditions.
- PublicationTRADITION AND IDELOGY: DISCOURSE OF THE PILGRIMAGE TO AGLONA(2015-12-22)The purpose of this article is to characterize the tradition of pilgrimages to Aglona and the collision of religious and anti-religious ideology during the Soviet period in the latter half of the 20th century. In respect to research sources (magazine and journal articles), the research uses social constructionist theory, which provides a critical view of information taken for granted, the historical and cultural conditionality of facts, and links between knowledge, social processes, and their development. The attention of the article is not strongly focused upon the pilgrimage as a cultural phenomenon, but upon the meaning assigned to it in specific historical and cultural situations during the period of Soviet ideology. Elite discursive characterizations of 19 pilgrimages were published from 1952 to 1976 in Latvian Soviet mouthpiece publications such as the newspapers „Cīņa” (‘Struggle’), „Padomju Jaunatne” (‘Soviet Youth’), the magazine „Zvaigzne” (‘Star’), etc. From these materials a body of text has been compiled that consists of 12,893 words, which were statistically analyzed with the computer program Mono Conc pro for Windows. Content analysis of the research material utilizes the method of ideological analysis of media text developed by the professor of media pedagogy Alexandr Fedorov, looking for influencing techniques adopted by mass media such as instrumentation, projection, selection, exaggeration or embellishment of facts, insult, attribution of offensive properties, evidence presentation and stylistic simplification. The understanding of ideological structure in the article was supported by the work of the American political scientist John Zaller, who updated knowledge of informative tools used in so-called elite discourse or top-down political ideology to influence public opinion.
- PublicationPRESENTATIONS OF AGLONA’S PILGRIM GROUPS: AUDIO-VISUAL CODES(2016)The article „Pilgrimage to Aglona: Audio-Visual Codes” is dedicated to Aglona pilgrimage, which is considered a significant element of intangible cultural heritage of Latvia. The importance of this tradition has been acknowledged by its vitality: in spite of the historical complexities, the tradition of Aglona ritual pilgrimage has survived for more than a century and in due course has strengthened its value in practice and social memory of the community. At the same time it is not a rigid value based in the past; instead it exists on its own and develops according to the dialectical patterns of ritual. The aim of the article is to investigate the most significant audio-visual codes featured in Aglona pilgrimage, by revealing the most distinctive expressions of identity among pilgrims and by highlighting the diachronic development of audio-visually perceptible attributes relevant to the pilgrimage. The subject of the research is a specific part of the pilgrimage ritual – presentations of pilgrim groups on Assumption Day of the Virgin Mary into Heaven on August 14, which are staged during the holy mass dedicated to pilgrims and youth. Typologically presentations staged by pilgrim groups are being viewed as a closure phase (postliminal rite) of a transition ritual (liminal rite). The article examines 93 presentations prepared by pilgrim groups in 2014, 2015 and 2016. For data acquisition an on-site observation was applied, which falls under the definition of the sensory anthropological meaning (Howes 2003:54). Analysis of presentations staged by pilgrims was conducted by means of structurally semiotic approach that allows defining the specific symbolic language of the pilgrimage while displaying sensory perceptible ritual codes of the pilgrimage – visual and audial codes, i.e. the visual attributes of pilgrim groups and verbally musical representations with their characteristic performative and reproduction elements. The visual code of pilgrimage refers to various aspects of social identity. The affiliation to religious identity has been presented by such religious symbols as cross, flags belonging to various congregations, religious movements or separate Christian communities, tablets with images of pilgrimage patrons and visualisations of the intent of participation in pilgrimage; locally patriotic identity has been attested by the flag of the country, region, municipality or city. The research confirms that religious symbols (especially cross) and the related ceremonies are becoming more modest, whereas locally patriotic representations are expanding, thus marking the geographical circumference of the pilgrimage and confirming Aglona as a sanctuary of international significance. The clothing of participants reflects either their professional identity (National Armed Forces, clergymen, nuns) or affiliation to a specific interest group (European Guides). The audial codes are explored within the repertoires of pilgrim presentations, appearing in the form of performance and reproduction. Metonymically, the audial codes in pilgrim presentations contain the most essential functions related to the ritual in general and demonstrate such inherent features of the postmodern culture as interplay of the traditional and the innovative. The traditional values have been represented by sacred symbols and topics, but the innovative by artistic performance techniques: method of exact dating, typological generalizations directed towards community identity generation, stylization of texts drawn from other cultural areas (folklore, pop culture). The verbal codes of pilgrim groups in turn manifest ambivalence that is inherent to the pilgrimage ritual in general and marks not only the text, but also a the dialogue among generations and values. The audio-visual codes being organically embedded in the symbolic system of pilgrimage ritual language reveal multi-layered dialogue on cultural values, which is present within the ritual at subject, text and action level.