SLFK 214, February 10, 2004
Article in Balzer about dual belief
This is a standard term for describing the belief system of the peasants
Dual = Christian and pagan
Article argues for multiple belief
And he is right, not so much that it is not Christian and pagan
Rather, the pagan is not one unified system, but multiple systems
There is what we have attested
Usually in documents about getting rid of pagan belief
And there are older layers like matriarchy that I have been talking about
There are also systems that have nothing to do with religion, but more lower mythology
Witchcraft in as sense falls here and, in a sense, it is linked to pagan religion
There are 2 types of witches
There is a belief in witches that is discussed by Ivanits and persists today
Though there is a big difference between the STORIES about these people and what the people are actually like
Stories, to make it a good story, are much more extreme than reality
Reality is people who practice a type of medicine or healing which is used quite widely
When biomedicine is unavailable
When biomedicine is not enough
You can say that this sort of treatment has a heavy psychological component
And not just psychosomatic
It also calms, gives reassurance
The amount of attention a traditional therapist pays to a patient versus amount of time spend by an MD
My "people want to be taken seriously" argument
To go from what these real people are to the stories as in Ivanits you need the narrative and imaginative element
No one sets out to commit malefice
Well, perhaps some small number do
But the baby/babky type ladies tend to be very sweet and caring and hardly destructive and harmful
Still, these same sweet and gentle ladies are prone to accusations
Baba San'ka and her dog
What is going on?
One factor is the animistic thinking already discussed
Something does NOT go wrong just because
There must be an agent
And usually there is someone's ill will
So, kid does not just get sick in a foreign country
Groom does not just faint in a hot and stuffy church after much drinking
Someone MUST have evil-eyed them
This is like:
Door doesn't just close; domovoi must have done it
Fishing lines don't just get tangled up; vodianoi did it
And I gave American parallels
Computer does not just die at an inconvenient time
Interestingly, in real life, there is seldom a specific person accused when something goes wrong, though it does happen
Fainting groom - no one person is accused of evil-eyeing him
"Cooking" daughter's marriage and kysyl'
So, on one level the various witch beliefs are like place spirit beliefs in that these people think there must be a cause
Things don't just happen; there must be a cause
Like a pissed-off domovoi
Or the malefice of a witch
And there are 2 strata of witches: born and learned
Born won't harm you intentionally
But, since they have innate power
Could be instance where you piss them off and they don't mean to get back at you
But they can't control own power and they do cause harm
Learned witches, something that is the subject of stories, not real life
Will harm you intentionally
Again, this is not something that people will admit to be
Rather, something they are accused of
Connection to place spirits in another sense
Douglas and society types theory
Remember Slavs and enclosed units
The creation of a UNIT of space makes it easier to see that unit as a living entity
To create a unit, borders are erected
In this culture, everything is fenced off and enclosed and borders are protected big-time
Such societies, Douglas says, are prone to witchcraft beliefs
In a society with less tightly sealed and closely protected borders, bad things can be blamed on strangers, those bad people who come from outside
But if you keep all outsiders out and you STILL get spoiling of people and animals and twists in your crops
MUST be some internal badness that is the source of the trouble
The internal badness tends to be a witch
Member of the community, etc.
But one with power
Or one with bad eye
Weaning and getting a bad eye inadvertently
ANYONE can cast an evil eye if jealous enough
Woman and "setting candles"
But this was intentional
What if you just like (and covet) someone's blouse, or jacket, or child?
Deflecting compliments
Nervousness at excessive praise of children
Alexis and the woman who breaks her hip
Restate connection between witch beliefs and place spirits:
Animistic thinking
Creation of a unit with closed and protected borders
Spirits - this unit is alive
Witch - if there is something bad, then there most be rot within
Other aspect of witch beliefs that is important for us
Emphasis on food
Again - several reasons for connection
Importance of place has to do with the importance of the land
Stated this in a number of ways
Land is important because it is that which feeds and sustains
Other reason is body as symbol
Again Douglas - human body as symbol for body politic
Head of state, right-hand man, political body
If human body is symbol for social body, then effects on social body are likely to be paralleled by effects on human body
So, the nature of the witch's malefice is to cause "spoiling" of humans, animals
Literally something rotten within
Recall egg ceremony and trying to extract the badness from within
It is done with a food - the egg
Stories about the eggs being fed to dogs
Other cures - whisper over water and make the patient DRINK = take inside the body
Write on a piece of bread and make a patient eat
Words are things that come out of the mouth
Transfer to a substance like water of bread
And then to the patient
Patients often complain of some sort of pain in the gut
Greg sure did
Woman who extracts egg with white frog inside from a man cursed by his ex-girlfriend
Witch stories in Ivanits linked to food - spoiling as an illness
Twists - these are in grain and affect the food supply
Please note that you can spoil your own self and/or your family by being careless or lazy
Not making sign of the cross over dough while kneading it
Not making sign of cross over mouth
Yawning at the table without covering mouth
(all these connected to food, of course)
Older stories
Witches steal milk from the cows of their neighbors
Knife and reins method
Witch sucks milk from cow in the guise of an animal: cat, dog, pig, frog
Witch "spoils" milk of a cow
It mixes with blood
Starts to smell bad
Simple reduction in quantity
Special nature of milk as substance that both comes out of the body and goes into the body, though someone else's
Fewer stories about witches affecting crops - or stealing them, lifting out of ground
But still food
They do other things too, like enforce order believe it or not
Chase young people at courting parties who stay out too late
They can tell when someone makes an obscene gesture in church
Or wears underwear inside out or backwards
Which is a good way to figure out who is a witch
Why would you want to?
Other ways of identifying have lots to do with food
Cheese in mouth or in shirt
Easter egg shells in mouth
Hiding under bread trough
Scalding milk in a skillet (or frog)
Focus on food with witches part of general emphasis on food in this culture (and in this course)
Part of it has to do with the subsistence economy problem
Part has to do with the nature of the society, that it is closed and body is VERY important symbol
Collapse of Soviet Union articulated in food shortage fears
Colorado beetle legends
Fears of Americans using Russians for body parts, "harvesting" organs
There is everyday witch
And there is also another type of belief in witches
This one is back to some sort of early religion
There is another type of witch
Attested in fairytales only and thus not taken all that seriously
But the sorts of stories she appears in and what she does in the tales make her appear serious indeed
Learned witches MAY be connected to her in the sense that they were her servants, or priestesses
Fairytale witch is
Baba Iaga
Tell the Vasilissa and the journey to the underworld
The 3 horsemen
She is much more than the western witch
Though she can devour little boys and girls, favors older ones
She controls morning, noon, and night, horses of
The cycle of the crops
The fiber arts
Doll story and the tasks that she sets
She is a serious mythological being
Not just some bugaboo to scare children