The Tombs of the Righteous and Cosmic Energy in Ukraine
journal cover page; photograph in the coulours of Ukrainian flag of territory of Olbia, the Ukrainian National Historic and Archaeological Reserve, a famous archaeological site, located near the village Parutine, Mykolaivska oblast', Ukraine. 29.08.2021. Author: Julia Buyskykh.
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Keywords

Pilgrimage
Hasidism
Agency
Energy
Ukraine

How to Cite

Zatorska, M. (2023). The Tombs of the Righteous and Cosmic Energy in Ukraine. Etnografia Polska, 67(1–2). https://doi.org/10.23858/EP67.2023.3431

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the town of Uman (Ukraine), an important Hasidic pilgrimage centre built around the tomb of the Jewish righteous Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, I explore the notion of energy employed by Uman’s non-Hasidic and non-Jewish inhabitants to describe the pilgrimages and their impact on the town. I argue that for some of the Uman residents energy, as a part of a wider set of ontological convictions, explains the agency of human and other-than-human actors, as well as the animacy of the world they inhabit. In this contribution, I show how the notion of energy reflects the local and supralocal contexts, in particular the struggles for national identity and sovereignty and is employed in the process of co-creating the Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman by the pilgrimage’s ‘others’.

https://doi.org/10.23858/EP67.2023.3431
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