SLFK 214, February 17, 2004
Review of last class
The witch that has more to do with ancient religion than belief in a cause for everything
Namely the Baba Iaga of fairytales
She is a huge "cosmic" being who fills her hut
Controls the cycle of the sun (horses of the times of day)
She teaches the people who go underground to her abode about crops and the fiber arts
Young men who end up there often have to chose the correct one from among identical horses
Again horse and male connection; women and fiber arts
Then red death beliefs
These might well be the basis of the ancestor cult that we encounter in the late 19th century when collecting begins and now
These are connected to Baba Iaga as in
The males sacrificed in red death practices might have been sacrificed to a being like Baba Iaga, the being on which Baba Iaga is based
They may well have been sacrificed in a hut like the hut in which Baba Iaga lives in tales
Show Baba Iaga and skulls around house
She also gives the girl a "fire" that sets things right, exacts justice
Common elements, almost no matter what we look at
Concern with earth and crops, including "entering" the earth
Idea of sacrifice for the sake of the earth and of crops
Persistence of these beliefs &endash; willingness to sacrifice self for the motherland at the time of the Chornobyl disaster
Contrast to beliefs in Soviets using soldiers as cannon fodder during WWII
Pictured in Enemy at the Gates, needless to say, a western film
Reality was use of prisoners and they chose &endash; chance to get out of prison
Entering the earth if not for the sake of the whole community, then for personal salvation in all of the cave monasteries
Examining of body after it is immured in a cell for one year
Like examining the body of a sacrificed elder in red death?
General practice of concern with body decay
2 categories of ancestor now &endash; a specific deceased relative, Uncle Ivan, for up to one year
After that &endash; category of ancestor as a group
Why after one year?
Time it takes body to decay?
If body does not decay, then it is marked
Either special good = saint, like those in the Lavra
Or special bad = vampires, sorcerers and you need to take preventative measures
Body becoming part of soil means that your ancestors, your past becomes part of soil
And you get even more of an idea of why soil is sacred
Before we go from looking at divisions in space to looking a divisions in time, have a look at video which shows celebration of a holiday on which ancestors are supposed to return
Return of the dead doesn't just happen at any old time
Unless they are unquiet dead
There are certain portals in time that permit contact between spheres of being
To understand these, go back to the concrete stuff we have already done
How to deal with continuum of space
Make divisions
And some cultures are more boundary conscious than others and more protective of the boundaries