Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29/2. (2009)
Cultură spirituală
Etnografie 269 CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCHES REGARDING MAGIC IN MARAMURESH (SUMMARY) Based on direct research in the field, in this geographical area, our present study comes to fill a gap: the lack of this kind of research that should be present in the specific reference materials. Of course, the motivation of this research consists in the up-to-date conservation of different and important traditional forms of many aspects of magic: charms/witchcrafts, spells/sorceresses, bindings and unbindings, some of them of a great complexity and based on the use of a rich and ancient number of tools for magic. In the first part of our presentation, we categorized the performances used in magic, their nomination in the regional lexicology, and the ways in which they came to be part of a rich folk tradition as well. We enhanced the elements causing the nowadays-usage of magic, and also its up-to-date ranges. In the second part, we made a thorough analysis of varied aspects of magic we found in our research in the field, one of them being the weather magic, a magic functioning according to the folk people's will to influence and control the weather phenomena, such as rainfalls, winds, storms a.s.o. During our study of this kind of magic, we analyzed the instruments used in the process and also we made a comparative presentation of them with other instruments of such kind used in other parts of Romania. During our research regarding the weather magic, we emphasized the very ancient and extremely interesting forms of it, such as: the burial of a ceremonial draught puppet in the Vi§eu Valley (Ro.: Valea Vi§eului), abating storms by a holey stone, and calling rain by the snake-killing ritual, found in some other peoples' folk cultures. Our study presents and brings into discussion kinds of forms of magic which have as a final aim people's homes' protection and the removal of evil spirits out of them, then the uses of practices of magic due to attract and stimulate wealth in householder's property. One of the categories of these interesting practices we have made our research on is that of finding, catching and making a thief give back what he has stolen. Here too, we
