The Yam Festival in contemporary Ghana : tradition beyond religious boundaries

This article is based on ethnographic field research conducted in the central part of Ghana, in the Brong Ahafo region. It gives a description of two yam festivals performed in 2010 in the small town of Jema and the nearby village of Kokuma. The author depicts the meanings associated with yams in traditional indigenous cultures and vernacular religions in Ghana as well as within the broader region of the Gulf of Guinea. Contemporary yam festivals are interpreted in relation to the old symbolic and sacred meanings of the yam as “the king of crops” as well as in relation to the contemporary circumstances of African societies which are becoming modernised and less dependent on traditional agriculture. A special focus is placed on the position of chiefs, royal attributes (stools) and involvement of people from different religious backgrounds (Christians, Muslims, “traditionalists”). The concept of “sensational forms” proposed by Birgit Meyer is discussed in relation to yam festivals, which are treated here as performances generating a specific religious “style” shared by contemporary Ghanaians irrespective of their religious affiliations

Challenging or confirming the national sacred? : managing the power place at Wawel Hill in Kraków

This chapter focusses on the case of Wawel Hill in Kraków to reveal how bottom-up alternative spirituality influences perceptions of this national heritage site. The presence of people who draw energy at Wawel (and who believe in the Wawel chakra – an energy spot) seems to challenge dominant national and Catholic oriented heritage regime and institutional managerial strategies. Drawing on ethnographic material, the chapter discusses how heritage is being conceptualized by various social actors present at Wawel. The strategies of the Wawel museum and the Wawel cathedral are confronted by the bottom-up perspectives of tour guides and energy pilgrims