TY - BOOK ID - 80840137 TI - Writing on Water PY - 2018 SN - 9789633862582 9633862582 9789633862575 9633862574 PB - Budapest New York DB - UniCat KW - Judaism KW - Jews KW - Orthodox Judaism KW - Hebrews KW - Israelites KW - Jewish people KW - Jewry KW - Judaic people KW - Judaists KW - Ethnology KW - Religious adherents KW - Semites KW - Jewish sects KW - Ex-Orthodox Jews KW - Religions KW - Customs and practices. KW - History KW - Religion KW - Anthropology, Budapest, Communism, Folklore, Jewish studies, Jews, Music, Prague, Religion. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:80840137 AB - ""Writing on Water" is a first-hand account of the thoughts, lives and rituals of the secretly practicing strictly religious Jews during the era of Communism in Eastern Europe (primarily in Budapest) with especial focus on their traditional ritual chant as part of a total acoustic experience ("soundscape"). The book is based on extensive fieldwork and analysis of orally transmitted material. The subject matter is unique both in the choice of the communities and its focus on sound. I attempt to explain how melodies and soundscapes become the sustaining/protective "environment", as well as the vehicle, for the expression of world-orientation - in a situation when open speech is inconceivable. The first part of the book is a journey toward the lives/sounds of these communities, the second contains documentary interviews, and the third describes the communities' disintegration after 1990. The book conveys scholarly results through poetry, prose-poems and art-photos"-- ER -