Published: 2016-12-31

Kashubian homo religiosus – religious faith in ethnic community.The example of folk piety in the Parchowo municipality (Bytów County)

Luiza Organek

Abstract

The article focuses on the relationship between religiosity and local ethnic community. It attempts toestablish how the traditional piety influences the character and changes of religiosity in the community witha strong ethnic affiliation. The analysis is based on qualitative field research of the Kashubian community ofthe Parchowo municipality (Bytów County).Close contact with Evangelicals and necessity to redefine national and religious identity influenced theperception of the Kashubian religiousness as the heart of the local values. Religiosity formed in the processof inculturation contained expressions of folk religiousness alongside ethnicized ceremonies. Festivals andcustoms determined the process of bonding and underlining ethnic distinction. To date, studies on Kashubianshave proposed a thesis of the folk religiosity crisis in Kashubia. Although a generational shift concerningreligious practices, as well as selectivity and new expectations towards the sacred can be observed, it wouldbe difficult to categorically identify these changes as nationwide. In this article I will try to reconstruct thetransition process and verify whether Christian values are so deeply rooted in Kashubia, that these changesoccur more slowly than in other regions of Poland. Such forecasts could be justified by the fact that some ofthe religious practices give their participants sense of unity and identity, which is still essential in Kashubia.

Keywords:

folk piety, Kashubians, religious ethnocentrism, language sacralisation, changes in religiosity, folk religiousness, ethnicization of religion

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Citation rules

Organek, L. (2016). Kashubian homo religiosus – religious faith in ethnic community.The example of folk piety in the Parchowo municipality (Bytów County). Academic Journal of Sociology, 17(4). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/index.php/ucs/article/view/2906

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