Marian Devotion Among the Roma in Slovakia

In this book Tatiana Zachar Podolinská explores how post-modern Marian devotion represents both the continuation and restoration of tradition in the modern world. Podolinská illuminates how Mary as a Great Enchantress has colonised the modern world and survived mandatory atheism in communist countries. The resilience of Marian devotion in the face of the secularising forces of modernity is due to how fluidly it mixes pre-modern and ultra-modern elements of beliefs and practices with the grassroot current of post-modern Christianity. At the same time, Podolinská elucidates how Mary has become the voice of peripheral ethnic groups and nations. This book specifically explains the devotion of the post-modern Mary among the Roma in Slovakia and explores how this community copes with marginalisation, creating islands of marginal centrality. By approaching the ethnicised and enculturated forms of the Virgin Mary (i.e. Chocolate Marys), the book illuminates her potential for helping the SlovakRoma on their own path from the periphery to the center.

Provides a comprehensive ethnographic picture of Marian devotion among the Roma in Slovakia Explores the continuation and restoration of Marian devotion in the modern world Contributes to the current debate in social theory and to the discussion on spirituality and popular religiosity

Autorentext
Tatiana Zachar Podolinská directs the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and is Visiting Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies of Religions at Comenius University, Slovakia.

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Inhalt
Chapter 1 - Traces of the Virgin Mary in the Modern World.- Chapter 2 - Romani Christianity in SlovakiaReligiosity of Those on the Periphery.- Chapter 3 - Marian Devotion among the Roma in SlovakiaEthnicised and Enculturated Mary.- Chapter 4 - Marian Apparitions among the RomaFrom the Periphery to the Centre.