The anthropologist Juliet du Boulay won the 2010 Runciman Award for this interesting and far-reaching book, the subject of which is “the imaginative world of an Orthodox Christian village (i.e. Ambeli) in Greece, and specifically the cosmological, religious and moral imagination associated with the characteristic forms of life” (1). In addition to the introduction, the book contains twelve chapters (The World; Earth; Water; Time; Work and Bread; The House and the Stranger; The Life in the Blood; The Violence of Death; The Progress of Mourning; The God-Bearers; The Incarnate God; The Dance of Life); an appendix on practices no longer extant in Ambeli at the time of fieldwork; bibliography; glossary; and index.
The book results from the ethnographic fieldwork that the author conducted, mainly in the mountain village of Ambeli on the northern part of the Greek island of Evia (Euboea) in the period 1966–1973. The customs and institutions of the village were published as Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village (1974), whereas the present book pays special attention to the people’s cosmological and religious ideas. It goes from the world and the importance of earth and water via work and its main result, i.e., food, particularly bread; to the family and life cycle passages in connection with the saints (i.e., the God-Bearers); to God; and ends up with the importance of cyclic symbolism, which permeates Greek culture in gestures and processions and above all is manifested through the round dance in life-cycle passages, particularly marriage and death, an aspect du Boulay also has treated in two very interesting articles both published in Man (1982 and 1984).
The structure of the book is related to the important link between the subsistence economy and the worldview of these Greek peasants, a link that several other researchers also have illustrated from other Greek contexts and more generally, particularly A. Kyriakidou-Nestoros and L.K. Hart, both of whom have treated the concept of cyclic time and its connection with the agricultural and ritual year (cf. chapter 4), although du Boulay rightly goes further, arguing for a connection between the peasant’s worldview and that found in urban communities in the Orthodox world, particularly as it is manifested through the Orthodox liturgy. Her presentation of life-cycle passages, dances, and the importance of topics such as water and different symbols, however, could have benefited from M. Alexiou’s most recent book [1], which also gives a more updated presentation of Greek culture from a gender perspective, where both the male and female views are presented. Although du Boulay stresses the importance of women as bearers of the blood (407), of women’s work, of the house and family, as well as of the Panagia (Virgin Mary, i.e., “the All-Holy One”), she gives priority to the male or the honor and shame perspective, as also her former supervisor at Oxford, the late John Campbell, did. This perspective goes perfectly with the official ideology of the Orthodox Church, but has been questioned by several female researchers including J. Dubisch. Although Christ is the most important being according to the same official ideology, in practical life there is no doubt that the Panagia is the most important figure for Greek Orthodox men and women, which further illustrates women’s importance within Greek culture. The material du Boulay presents would have profited from her discussing this more in depth, for example, by expanding on her important comment on the importance of coming from the same womb (199), which she illustrated, although in a footnote, in her aforementioned article from 1984.
In the presentation of the earth (chapter 2) and death (chapter 8), I miss a reference to the important work of Elene Psychogiou on earth and death rituals in modern Greece, which also treats the link with ancient rituals [2]. Du Boulay does not intend to discuss this particular matter, since her project is rather to illustrate the connection between popular and official belief (371 f., 381 f.), focusing on the role of Orthodox Christianity in forming the culture (383–389), although one may ask if it was not a two-way contract between the two rather than a one-way domination as she maintains.
Her discussion of the round dance in the final chapter is her most important contribution to current scholarship. Many researchers, such as L.M. Danforth and C. Stewart, have illustrated the importance of the right-handed processional movement within Greek culture, but no one has treated the topic so thoroughly as du Boulay. She illustrates how “the right-handed dance pattern stands universally for the undeviating forward movement of blessed and auspicious giving... in baptism,” in marriage, in kinship, and at death, and also connects with the Orthodox liturgy, the links between the local and the liturgical being necessary to form a culture. Despite her intention, she does not manage to keep out the ancient material, for according to du Boulay dance was also important in ancient drama. Next, she links dance and the Orthodox liturgy, citing several Christian references such as Clement of Alexandria (415). However, dances were as important in ancient Greek culture as in the present. This is, for example, documented by several projects and publications from the Dora Stratou theatre in Athens, focusing on the “living link” of the modern Greeks with antiquity, the goal being to illustrate ancient survivals. In the ancient world, however, and from a comparative perspective trying to illuminate both periods, the importance of dances is particularly illustrated by the girls’ dances in connection with rites of passage and choral dances, as illustrated in many written sources and vase paintings, the latter from the Mycenean period onward. Dances were also important in ancient mystery cults, such as at the Eleusinian mysteries. This, along with other features, probably was the reason that Clement was so critical of ancient Greek mysteries, seeing them as competitors to his own new Christian religion.
Du Boulay concludes her work by pointing out that the three levels of the dance—the divine, the faithful before the sanctuary, and the villagers’ round dance—together form a single cosmic liturgy in this Orthodox culture, which she has also clearly illustrated. So, apart from my critical comments concerning the relation with ancient material and a missing—and longed for—female perspective, this is a very rich study that will be of great benefit to all of us who study Greek culture, both modern and ancient, as well as similar cultures, Christian and non-Christian, particularly in the eastern part of Europe. I have learned much from this work, and commend it highly.
NOTES
[1] M. Alexiou. After Antiquity: Greek Language, Myth, and Metaphor, (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002).
[2] E. Psychogiou. “Maur?g?” kai El?n?: Teletourgies Thanatou kai Anagenneses [“Maur?g?” and El?n?: Chthonic Mythology, Ceremonies of Death and Rebirth in Contemporary Greece], Demosieumata tou Kentrou Ereunes tes Ellenikes Laographias 24 (Athens: Academy of Athens, 2008).
I might also mention that many of the topics in du Boulay’s work are also treated in my own book from 2007 (based on my PhD dissertation, University of Bergen, 2004), and although it is not easily accessible to English-speaking readers, it is accessible to the Scandinavian part of the JFRR readership: E.J. Håland. Greske Fester, Moderne og Antikke: En Sammenlignende Undersøkelse av Kvinnelige og Mannlige Verdier [Greek Festivals, Modern and Ancient: A Comparison of Female and Male Values] (Kristiansand: Norwegian Academic Press, 2007).
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[Review length: 1218 words • Review posted on November 3, 2010]