SLFK 212 - RITUAL AND FAMILY LIFE - REVIEW

DIRECTIONS: Same as usual. Please read carefully. Argue your point rather than trying to guess what one of us might say. Support your point by giving examples. Please be thorough and answer all parts of each question.

Please type your answers and please double-space.

Part I - Food as Symbol (20 points, 30 minutes)

Please write an essay on one of the topics below. As always, answer as completely as you can and support with examples. These questions ask you to briefly summarize the material in the Toomre and Glants book on food in Russian culture and then to give a folkloric explanation.

1) Chapters 4 and 5 of the food book discuss restrictions on food that are forced and voluntary restrictions respectively. Briefly recap the material in these chapters. What was forced hunger (chapter 4)? How did the peasant react to lack of food? To what extent did he treat available food rationally? What was fasting (chapter 5)? Why did peasants fast and what benefits did they see in fasting? Engelhardt was the nobleman who described peasant hunger. What moral stance did he take toward food consumption?

Part II - Worobec (20 points, 30 minutes)

Please write an essay on one of the topics below. As always, answer as completely as you can and support with examples. Worobec is a historian and looks at Russian and Ukrainian peasant culture from a historian’s perspective. Please recount her perspective and then give a folkloric explanation.

1) In her discussion of courtship, Worobec says that a woman who was sexually active prior to marriage and especially a woman who got pregnant out of wedlock would sully her reputation and ruin her chances of a good marriage. Later in the same chapter she says that, in certain regions, a woman who had born a child out of wedlock, especially a woman who had born a son, was a particularly desirable marriage partner since she had already proven her fecundity. Recount Worobec’s treatment of extramarital pregnancy. Then, using Douglas, give a folkloric explanation for the coexistence of opposites.

2) Discussing children and parenting, Worobec says that women neglected their children, leaving them in the care of others, sometimes for days at a time. Not much later in the same chapter she says that Russians believed there was no love gentler and purer than the mother’s. Give Worobec’s account of the mother-child bond. Then explain these seemingly contradictory statements using folk belief.

Part III - When things go wrong (20 points, 30 minutes)

Most discussions of ritual deal with the normal progress of a human life. But not all lives progress normally and ritual, often a modification of a life cycle rite, can be used in an anomalous situation. Pick one of the situations below and write an essay. Remember to address all parts of the question. Since we are dealing with anomaly, Douglas would be appropriate here. However, I will not insist.

1) What is considered a misbirth in Russian and Ukrainian culture and how is such a birth handled? What can the midwife do for a malformed infant? What can she do for an infant that is about to die? What might be done with a stillborn baby?

Part IV - The Course as a Whole (40 points, 60 minutes)

Please write an essay on one of the topics below.

1) Russians and Ukrainians are very border-conscious and protect openings such as windows, doors, and gateways. Briefly discuss the protection of boundaries that occurs under normal circumstances. Because boundaries are important, they can be used as symbols in ritual. Discuss the use of windows, doors, and gateways in life cycle ritual. Please make sure to go through marriage, and the funeral, and baptism. You can add what is done at birth and at death if you wish. While birth and death are physical events, not rituals, they are surrounded by many symbolic acts and you are welcome to include these in your discussion.