Published book “Commerce and Traditions”, edited by Aigars Lielbārdis
Since 2004, when the Ritual Year Working Group of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) was established, it has brought together scholars who have devoted their academic interests and careers to studying traditions, cultural experiences, and codes embedded in the cycle of the cycle. Almost every year, the conferences take place in different cities around the world, bringing researchers together to discuss thematic issues and values. Often, the ideas presented at the conferences are later published in a series of Yearbooks of Ritual Year.
The collective monograph edited by Aigars Lielbārdis, “Commerce and Traditions,” was issued in the Series of Ritual Year and comprises articles presented at the conference held in Riga, Latvia, on 1–4 June 2022. The book largely concerns the economic and cultural sphere of the Western world and the cultural heritage of European nation-states, which is at the centre of attention – and even under the patronage – of the European Union and international organisations, or is striving to be so. The volume presents research and case studies from Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Romania, and Scotland. The authors highlight current issues in studying traditions and cultural processes at the national level and reveal broader interconnections within contemporary European cultural processes, rooted in a shared past of trade and religion and administratively bounded today.
Researchers, directly or indirectly, address the concepts of UNESCOization, festivalization, ritualesque, carnivalesque, and folkloresque. The volume also examines the consumerism, commercialisation, and commodification of traditions. The volume includes articles by Laurent Sébastien Fournier, Cătălin Alexa, Svetla Kazalarska, Žilvytis Šaknys, Oksana Mykytenko, Mariyanka Borisova, Aušra Žičkienė, Evy Johanne Håland, Skaidrė Urbonienė, Lina Gergova, Mare Kõiva, Elena Boganeva, Rasa Paukštytė-Šaknienė, and Andres Kuperjanov.
The book is published by the Estonian Literary Museum (Tartu) Publishing House, ELM SCHOLARLY PRESS; the cover was designed by the Latvian artist Krišs Salmanis. The publication was supported by The Ritual Year WG (SIEF); EKM 8-2/20/3, the NGO Estonian Folklore Institute, and the basic budgeted sub-programme 05.04.00 “The Krišjānis Barons Cabinet of Folksongs” of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia.