The Beginnings of a Modern Christmas

Restad, Penne L.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195109801.003.0003

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Many social and cultural historians followed Elias in taking social conventions as a window onto unconscious social meanings and studied topics quite remote from newspaper headlines: children and family (e.g., Jacobson, 2004; Stearns, 2010), consumer culture (e.g., Stearns, 2001), and family rituals such as holiday customs and family rites (e.g., Joselit, 1994; Pleck, 2000; Restad, 1996). Influenced also by the French histoire culturelle and microhistory (e.g., Burke, 1987; Davis, 1987; Ginzburg, 1992), and without necessarily self-identifying as Blochian, in practice this vast scholarship followed in Bloch’s footsteps and differentiated norms from actual experiences (e.g., Stearns & Stearns, 1985).…”

Section: An Ethnological-historical Study Of Meaningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Shoham

2023

American Behavioral Scientist

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Can conventional rituals be meaningful? When and how can conventionality be part of processes of meaning-making rather than a mere obstacle that the cultural analyst must overcome? The article traces the meanings of minor rituals that populate the world of modern industrial societies and seem to have universal appeal. The article applies a Blochian regressive method to ethnological history in order to re-create the gradual process in which conventions appear, are disseminated, popularized, turned into group icons, and ritualized, and only then—and only sometimes—acquire discursive meanings that are often contested. This sequential model reveals the power of conventionality—the lack of contemplation about social conventions—in the processes of popularizing, ritualizing, and iconizing conventional acts. In the terms of Alexander’s meaning-centered performance theory, this conventionality exemplifies a “perfect” or “effortless” fusion of performers and audience. The article thus argues that the meanings of conventional rituals—and perhaps also of conventional performances of more “sacred” rituals—often lie not in symbolic significance or semiotic thickness, but in deep conventionality: meaningfulness encoded in the convention itself.

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Section: An Ethnological-historical Study Of Meaningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Shoham

2023

American Behavioral Scientist

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“…Northern Europeans associated the plant with Norse goddess of love, Freya, and developed the custom of kissing underneath mistletoe branches. Christians incorporated this custom into their Christmas celebrations, and kissing under a mistletoe branch eventually became a part of secular Christmas tradition (19).…”

Section: Original Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethnobotanical, Phytochemical and Mineral Analyses of Phragmanthera Incana (Klotzsch), A Species of Mistletoe Growing on Three Plant Hosts in South-Western Nigeria

Ogunmefun,

Fasola,

Saba

et al. 2013

Int. J Biomed Sci.

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Mistletoe is collected wildly on various plants and Phragmanthera incana is noted to grow on different plant hosts. This study was designed to carry out the ethnobotanical survey, phytochemical and mineral analyses of Phragmanthera incana, a species of mistletoe growing on three plant hosts namely Cocoa (Theobroma cacao), Kolanut (Cola nitida) and Bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis). Mistletoe samples were identified at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria Herbarium. Phragmanthera incana was screened for its phytochemical constituents and mineral cations along its hosts following standard methods and to confirm if the mistletoe species is host specific. The powdered samples of the mistletoe species (Phragmanthera incana) was used for both the phytochemical screening and the cation mineral analysis. The uses and the harvesting methods of mistletoe were also reviewed extensively in this paper.

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The Beginnings of a Modern Christmas

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

The Ethnobotanical, Phytochemical and Mineral Analyses of Phragmanthera Incana (Klotzsch), A Species of Mistletoe Growing on Three Plant Hosts in South-Western Nigeria

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