This study presents the manner in which traditional Romanian communities tend to perceive crisis situations triggered by theft or murder, and the way in which individuals respond to these situations, through symbolical acts and representations of intra-community social balance adjustment. This material explores one of the most widespread folk rituals, which has been updated and adapted to criminal contexts: searching for culprits by way of “bucket divination” (drawing lots by means of a water-filled basin). The mechanisms for regulating intra-community crises analysed in this paper were identified during a field research conducted in Transylvania, especially in its rural areas. The interpretation proposed here relies on the grid Mary Douglas develops in her classical study of cultural anthropology, entitled Purity and Danger. [1] [2]
[1] Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London and New York: Routledge, 2002; originally published: 1966).
[2] This study has been elaborated as part of the Project CNCSIS_IDEI 942/2009, code CNCSIS 2424.
