The latest episode of the “The Voice of the Folklorist” project has been released. The guest of this episode was Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Associate Professor Agaverdi Khalil, Head of the Department of Ceremonial Folklore and National Culinary Traditions at the Institute of Folklore of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS). In his presentation Agaverdi Khalil discussed the topic “Azerbaijani Ritual Folklore in the Context of a New Scientific Paradigm: From the Philological Tradition to a Socio-Anthropological Approach”. He noted that although ritual folklore had long been studied primarily from a philological perspective, contemporary scholarship increasingly emphasized the importance of examining its social, cultural and anthropological dimensions. According to his thought this approach enables a deeper understanding of the functions of rituals in society, patterns of collective behavior and their role in preserving cultural memory.

In the presentation it was also noted that seasonal and domestic rituals were not merely folklore texts, but constitute an important system of traditions that sustains the worldview, social relations and national cultural values of the people. The scholar mentioned that studying ritual folklore through modern scientific methodologies contributed revealing new dimensions of this field.

It is worth noting that the video was produced by the Folklore Studio of the Institute of Folklore.