An approach of the agrarian ceremony of the harvest garland in the light of the individuating process

• Author: Daniela Sorea
• Position: Faculty of Sociology and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 85-96

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 7 (56) No. 2 - 2014

AN APPROACH OF THE AGRARIAN

CEREMONY OF THE HARVEST GARLAND

IN THE LIGHT OF THE INDIVIDUATING

PROCESS

Daniela SOREA1

Abstract: For C. G. Jung, the individuation is the individual’s formation

process as psychological unit. The individuation process responds to a

natural necessity and unfolds for the pu rposes of human evolution. The

individuating-type essential experiences are communicated in humankind’s

cultural productions. The operational ization of the individuation concept

provides a tool for interpreting cultural productions in functionalist terms.

Investigated in this way, the agrarian ceremony of the harvest Garland in

Ţara Oltului, Romania, unveils its mandalic and balancing signification.

Key words: individuation, archetypal representations, mandala, agrarian

ceremony.

1 Faculty of Sociology and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov.

1. Introduction

Carl Gustav Jung is regarded as the

founder of analytical psychology. Its core

concept is individuation. This paper aims

at highlighting the connotations of this

concept and the usefulness of an

interpretative scheme focused on it in

approaching traditional culture. In order to

achieve the last desideratum, this paper

submits an interpretation in individuating

key of the agrarian ceremony of the

harvest Garland in Ţara Oltului [The Olt

Land]. Ţara Oltul ui, the ethnographic area

located in the South of Transilvania,

between Olt River and Făgăraşului

Mountains, was researched during the

interwar period by the team of the

professor Dimitrie Gusti, the founder of

the Sociological School in Bucharest. Ion.

I. Ionică, a student member of the team

deepened his researches and used their

results in elaborating his doctoral thesis. In

order to describe the ceremony of the

Garland, this study resorts to Ion I.

Ionică’s research results.

2. Recent approaches to the process of

individuation

The impact of the archetypes and

synchronistic experiences on self-

realization has been valued in recent

psychological researches [29]. Jung’s

approach on the myth and its associated

ritual dimension proves useful in drama

therapy [8]. Woodside, Megehee et al.

consider that the use of archetypal

representations enhances the success of

brand strategies, in marke ting [31].

Jung himself encouraged the

interpretations of cultural productions in an