[Download] "For Ourselves, Our Neighbours, Our Homelands: Religion in Folklorama's Israel Pavilion." by Ethnologies * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: For Ourselves, Our Neighbours, Our Homelands: Religion in Folklorama's Israel Pavilion.
- Author : Ethnologies
- Release Date : January 01, 2001
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 218 KB
Description
Each summer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, over forty local ethnic groups participate in Folklorama, a two-week festival that its coordinators describe as the "largest and longest running multicultural celebration in the world."(2) At Folklorama, ethnic communities represent themselves in "pavilions" that feature cultural displays, ethnic foods, and a typically lively 40-minute performance of folk music and dancing. These pavilions are located in various public and private spaces throughout the city: church basements, ethnic community centres, public schools and curling clubs, to mention only a few of the venues (cf. Willems-Braun 1994:78-81). Few would dispute the claim that in many of the community groups that organize Folklorama's pavilions, traditional religious assumptions, values, and forms of social organization are intimately connected to ethnic identity.(3) As such, one would expect religion in some conventional form (including, for example, references to traditional narratives, architecture, music, iconography, or religiously grounded social structures or values) to play a significant role in pavilions.(4) However, in many pavilions, one has to look very carefully to detect religious signs and symbols. This may be because, according to pavilion organizers, the Folk Arts Council of Winnipeg (the governing body of the festival) does not allow pavilions to accentuate the political or religious dimensions of the cultures they are representing (cf. Thoroski 1997: 106). Displays of religious difference in Folklorama pavilions are also delicately presented because the people who oversee the festival are no doubt aware that many in the general public believe religion is by definition a problem (religion and politics being the two topics well-mannered Canadians know not to bring up at social gatherings). As such, Folk Arts Council officials are fairly careful about the way they portray the festival to potential researchers.