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This article examines how esoteric traditionalism in contemporary Russia searches for legitimisation using alternative archaeology. Although New Age spirituality is often considered a private religion, some of its manifestations have a significant impact on the public sphere. The author demonstrates that the New Age in Russia contributes to redefining of categories of religion, science, and cultural heritage through the construction of sacred sites and discursive opposition to academic knowledge. The research is based on analysis of media products that present esoteric interpretations of archaeological sites in southern Russia and ethnographic data collected in a pilgrimage to the dolmens of the Krasnodar region.

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Naithani, Sadhana. 2019. Folklore in Baltic History: Resistance and Resurgence. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. 128 pages.

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The current paper looks into the issues connected with underwater cultural heritage in Estonia and deals with its legal and physical protection. The report discusses the topic of what we actually mean by underwater heritage, what are the threats in terms of preservation and what are the possibilities to protect underwater heritage in Estonia. The paper analyses objects that are not defined by the UNESCO convention from 2001 as underwater cultural heritage, but which form a considerable part of underwater objects in Estonia that are protected by the state. A wide range of challenges – protection, ownership, value – is illustrated by the study of the history and present state of the battleship Schleswig-Holstein.

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Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

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A place name sign is a linguistic-cultural marker that includes both memory and landscape. The author regards toponymic signs in Estonian Sign Language as representations of images held by the Estonian Deaf community: they reflect the geographical place, the period, the relationships of the Deaf community with hearing community, and the common and distinguishing features of the two cultures perceived by community’s members. Name signs represent an element of signlore, which includes various types of creative linguistic play. There are stories hidden behind the place name signs that reveal the etymological origin of place name signs and reflect the community’s memory. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to introduce Estonian place name signs as Deaf signlore forms, analyse their structure and specify the main formation methods. Secondly, it interprets place-denoting signs in the light of understanding the foundations of Estonian Sign Language, Estonian Deaf education and education history, the traditions of local Deaf communities, and also of the cultural and local traditions of the dominant hearing communities. Both perspectives – linguistic and folkloristic – are represented in the current article.

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Book review of a monograph by Eda Kalmre, The Human Sausage Factory: A Study of Post-War Rumour in Tartu. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013. 180 p.

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3. Vol 15 No 1 (2021) /
4. Notes and Reviews

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The wedding is an integral part of family life. The ways in which it is organised can differ not only between representatives of different religious groups, but also between members of the same denomination. By applying cultural-historical, ethnographic and qualitative data processing method, the paper focuses on transformations in Old Believer wedding rites between the first half of the 20th century and the present. Analysis of interviews conducted in the south-eastern region of Latvia reveals that there have been several variations in Old Believer weddings (traditional, religious and civil) which interacted and overlapped, thus creating new hybrid forms. The transformations depended on urbanisation and economic processes, political conditions, and the development of the community in interaction with other ethnic and religious groups under conditions of globalisation.

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Tradition has been claimed to be a keyword in the folklore lexicon. Yet the word has not proved central to the thinking of many folklorists. More often, the term is simply used to mark territory. By characterizing certain songs, tales, dances, or customs as traditions, such expressions and behaviors are declared to be part of the discipline’s proper subject. But the term is usually theoretically empty. It is rarely defined, and it raises no critical questions. In this essay, tradition is defined, the critical questions evoked by this definition are specified, and some of the ways that folklorists might go about answering these questions are delineated.

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Preface to the Special Issue Anthropology of New Age Culture in Post-Soviet Russia

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Starting from 1960 traditional birth attendants were forbidden to deliver in Romania and pregnant women found themselves forced to give birth in hospitals. The highly respected village figure became a cultural phenomenon that made her more of a legend character. A village from Galaţi County experienced an uncanny event that activated the cultural information on midwives, as a continuation of the stories of her qualities. In hospitals, however, rituals are maintained under the intention of purifying nurses from unclean birth, while granny-midwife became a role, a character usually played by the mother of the woman in parturition. Customs evolve against the loss of this important social persona and we face an artificial scenario. We are now able to witness the last social effects of banning homebirth.

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