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The article presents some historical evidence about the veneration of individual trees, primarily the juniper and the oak-trees, traditionally considered to be sacred in the Zaza culture, as well as generally groves and forests. Unfortunately, the once vast and rich forestal covering of the Zazas’ main habitat in Dersim (Tunceli), which was a proverbial phenomenon still in the beginning of the 20th century, has been almost totally exterminated as a result of the mistreatment by the Turkish government. The folk beliefs related to tree worship have also been considerably erased from the people’s memory, lingering on only among the elderly in the remote mountain villages as a dwindling echo of the past.

Although the influential factors of social trust have aroused heated discussion, the research on the influence of religious belief, especially Chinese folk belief, on social trust and the mechanism between the two is relatively insufficient. This study aims to explore the influence of folk beliefs on Chinese residents’ social trust and the mediating role of social support and the sense of identity. The empirical analysis of 23,823 Chinese residents shows that there is a significant positive correlation between folk belief and social trust. Social support and a sense of identity play a mediating role between folk beliefs and residents’ social trust. People with folk beliefs can significantly promote their social trust by improving their degree of social support and their sense of identity. In addition, the influence of folk belief on the social trust of residents in eastern, northern China and rural areas is more significant, showing regional and registered residence heterogeneity. Therefore, we should correctly interpret and popularize the core spirit and social and cultural significance of folk belief to form a bond of social trust. At the same time, folk beliefs can be returned to the people, which will help people find a sense of belonging and sense of identity and enhance their social trust.

In China, \"world religions\" (or institutionalized religions)—Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism—as well as the Chinese indigenous Daoism are recognized by the government as \"religions.\" As long as these religions are practiced within the acceptable range of rules set by the government, the government will view them as legitimate religions and will protect them. However, there are many folk beliefs in a great variety of locales in China that are not officially recognized or treated as religions. The question of their legitimacy has been a long-standing problem that has perplexed Chinese society. This paper focuses on the issue of the legitimacy of folk beliefs and argues that three paths have been followed to legitimize folk beliefs in contemporary China: folklorization, religionization, and cultural heritage. It then examines the ways that the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) movement has transformed folk beliefs into \"cultural heritage.\"

Folk beliefs about Great Yu and Emperor Shun in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, are of great significance in the local area. Two rituals recently named Reverence for Yu the Great and the Emperor Shun Temple Festival respectively have been recognized by the state as intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This recognition has become another driving force to simultaneously revive and objectify local culture in support of China's rising tourism industry. During this process, when folk beliefs at the grassroots level are transformed into the objects of the state ICH movement, regional governments replace folk groups as the main, official bodies that regulate and represent these folk beliefs. Folk groups lose their rights to the social and economic values of these cultural resources. In this context, the displaced agency of folk groups leads to the redistribution of economic resources and the restructuring of their power relations. Thus, this article aims to explore a fundamental question regarding the ICH-driven process of cultural reconstruction: for whom we should conserve ICH?

This article discusses kanashibari, the Japanese version of an experiential phenomenon better known in North America as the \"Old Hag.\" A native of Japan, the author provides cultural background on kanashibari and investigates kanashibari personal experience narratives so as to demonstrate how Japanese individuals self-diagnose their experiences by referring to culturally prescribed explanations (both scientific and supernatural) for the phenomenon.

Mahasu is the joint name of four gods whose influence is widespread throughout the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Like other deities in the Western Himalayas, they are regarded as royal gods who rule over territories and people. This book traces changes in faith and practices surrounding the Mahasu brothers, and shows how the locals understand these changes by emphasizing the dominant role of humans in the decisions of the gods. The locals are also constantly testing the authenticity of the human mediumship. Thus, the book presents the claim that the gap between local conceptions of divinity and the perceptions of anthropologists regarding gods may be narrower than we think. The Biography of a God: Mahasu in the Himalayas is based on ethnographic research, resulting in an important contribution to the study of Indian village deities, Himalayan Hinduism, lived Hinduism, and the anthropology of religion.

The study of folklore has historically focused on the daily life and culture of regular people, such as artisans, storytellers, and craftspeople. But what can folklore reveal about strategies of belonging, survival, and reinvention in moments of crisis? The experience of living in hostile conditions for cultural, social, political, or economic reasons has redefined communities in crisis. The curated works in Theorizing Folklore from the Margins offer clear and feasible suggestions for how to ethically engage in the study of folklore with marginalized populations. By focusing on issues of critical race and ethnic studies, decolonial and antioppressive methodologies, and gender and sexuality studies, contributors employ a wide variety of disciplines and theoretical approaches. In doing so, they reflect the transdisciplinary possibilities of Folklore studies. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, Theorizing Folklore from the Margins confirms that engaging with oppressed communities is not only relevant, but necessary.

The paper is a critical study of the Armenian demonic nomenclature of the ancient and later periods, covering the Classical and Middle Armenian texts and modern dialects, including Western Armenian traditions, which were alive until the first decades of the 20th century among the population of the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The author presents a full list of the Armenian demons of different periods, critically revising the origin of their names and functions on a comparative background.

In this article, we outline the analytic limitations of action theories and interpretive schemes that conceive of beliefs as explicit mental representations linked to a desire-opportunity folk psychology. Drawing on pragmatism and practice theory, we recast the notion of belief as a species of habit, with pre-reflexive anticipation the primary mechanism accounting for both the formation of beliefs and their causal influence on action. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in three ways: first, by linking it with recent research on the cognitive and motor development of infants; second, by drawing out a typology of belief states that accounts for a range of different experiential traits; and third, by applying the new model to reinterpret two belief-based phenomena of broad sociological interest: \"irrational\" decision making and religious conversion.

The revival of folk (popular) religion in China in the last three decades has been noted in many publications and documented in ethnographic studies. However, until now there has been no quantitative study that provides an overall picture of Chinese folk-religion practices. This article is a first attempt to draw the contours of Chinese folk religion based on three recent surveys conducted in mainland China and Taiwan. Three types of folk religion are conceptualized: communal, sectarian, and individual. Different types of folk religion may have different social functions and divergent trajectories of change in the modernization process. At present, in spite of the dramatic social, political, and cultural changes in modern times, the adherents of folk religion still substantially outnumber the believers of institutional religions in Chinese societies.