In 1985 the County Administrative Boardof Jämtland initiated a process to protect Storsjöodjuret (the Great Lake Monster). Asother famous cryptids, the Monster has become a valuable resource in the ...process of cultural heritage, marketing and tourism. We apply Bateson’s theories of play (1972) and Goffman’s concept of frame (1974) to show how play offers a metacommunicative strategy to circumvent expressions of disbelief in a locally important folkloristic phenomenon. We ask what reactions the board’s invitation to play are met with, and how the case’szoological, cultural and juridical frames are negotiated.
The process is analysed with respect to the different actors’ relation to genres and keys. The playful process in 1985 is contrasted by the judicial intervention in 2002 by the parliamentary ombudsman by whom humour and play are not deemed acceptable communicative strategies. We understand this in terms of closeness, and find that closeness to Storsjöodjuret is a direct factor both to the complexity of suitable communicative strategy, as well as to the creation of the protective decision made as such.
Requests for personal funeral rituals increase with growing secularization and the indi-vidualization of death. Based on interviews, this article discusses four women’s experi-ences of independently ...planning and conducting secular memorials and ash disposals. Idiscuss the role of improvisation in the processes surrounding these rituals. Imagination,invention, improvisation, independence and inspiration emerge as characteristic aspectsof their accounts. Due to the atheist beliefs of the deceased, the families have activelydistanced themselves from the Church’s funeral ritual, and undertakers were not con-sidered helpful. To amend this, the relatives assumed responsibility for planning thesecular funerals rather than leaving responsibility to the dominant authorities of death.Arranging memorials and burials without previous experience made the mourners feelinsecure, but they also took pleasure in the creativity of the process, through which theycreated meaningful and deeply personal memorials and ash disposals. The study showshow rituals were (re)created by combining personal details with already establishedfuneral ritual elements, as the mourners both mimicked and actively distanced them-selves from existing ritual forms.
Inte som andra jular Nylund Skog, Susanne
Tidsskrift for kulturforskning : TfK,
2021
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article analyzes how Christmas celebrations are described in diaries, written around Christmas 2020. Three aspects of the Christmas celebrations are investigated; firstly, how they are ...demarcated in time and space, secondly, the importance of food and decorations such as the Christmas tree, and thirdly the social community and the feelings it creates. In this study, the Christmas celebrations created in the diaries are regarded as expressions of traditions, processes where the past is used and recreated in the present with the purpose of maintaining social relationships and feelings of belonging and thankfulness. The article concludes that in the diaries a Christmas composed of cooking, decorating and social interaction with relatives is depicted. The diary writers show creativity and ingenuity when it comes to maintaining and recreating traditions, while at the same time creating possibilities for meetings and social interaction, despite the special situation during the Corona pandemic. Future research can tell whether any of these adjustments of the celebrations will remain or not.
