SLFK 214 - January 15, 2004
Whole series of folklore courses
This course is about time and space - shows you cultural perspectives on something that, at first, seems like a given, could not be different from one culture to the next
Space esp. - physical reality
How can different culture see it differently?
Space is a continuum
For people to deal with it, you have to say: this is your space and this is my space
This is your yard and this is my yard
This is University property - and the rights and RESPONSIBILITIES that go with it
Getting injured on someone's property also, or city property
Who pays for sewer repairs and where?
Personal space experiment
In your face - violation of another person's space
Examples of cultural differences
House orientation - Russian and US
Protecting boundaries in general
There is a reason that the Soviet Union had the Iron Curtain
One of the interesting aspects about Russian space (and Ukrainian) is that it is seen as alive - every unit of space has its own spirit
House spirit
Barn spirit
Forest spirit
Water spirit
And so forth
An I-Thou rather than an I-It relationship to nature
My childhood
Strange noises in the house = domovoi
Falling objects, slamming doors = domovoi
Walking home during Christmas time and falling on a VERY small patch of ice, fracture in arm
Mom - did you leave a Christmas Eve treat out for the domovoi?
Summer 2000
The something tries to smother you at night, presses on chest
Fairly widely documented phenomenon of sleep paralysis - interpreted as visit from domovoi
Ask for good or for evil?
Moving and forgetting to ask the permission of the domovoi
Furthermore, luggage left on top of his place
He shaves the cat
Vechernii Kyiv - the domovoi in a Kiev apartment
Older stories
The man who takes a steam bath in the stove in the house instead of the bathhouse
Woman who bakes potatoes on Sunday
Fishing out of season
Assya and the story of the forest spirit
These are the beings of lower mythology - I call place spirits
Russian scholars call the study of them demonology
Though they are not demons in the American sense at all
Their relationship to the Devil is ambiguous
In fact, the idea of a devil seems to be an import from the West
They can do good - domovoi likes women and will help them out
First part of our course will be a look at Russian and Ukrainian concepts of space and at the spirits that personify each unit of space
We will look at the patterns of belief that underlie current concepts
As in pagan beliefs
Go on to the organization of time - specifically the calendar year
A bit of ritual theory along the way
Because Slavs are very boundary conscious, things that cross boundaries are extremely important - like food
Will use food ideas to help understand time and space
Then contemporary material - transition of the material in America today that they will work with
What I want them to get out of this - and this is on the syllabus
Some knowledge of Russia and Ukraine
Their strategic importance
Their commercial potential
So sensitivity to cultural variation in general
Growing up as a kid in the US and the difficulties thereof
I find folklore as a solution
Folklore for them, too, can be key to cultural understanding
Estrangement and ability to look at own culture critically
Distance from things that you take for granted
Cultural myths - you don't realize they are myths
See them as basic, even biological, truths until confronted with another culture
So the distancing helps you see the phenomena of belief in general and its power
Ability to speak in any culture, your own or other, on this very basis, "gut" level
Important for commercial success
Important for diplomacy
Critical thinking skills
Work with oral sources
Data gathering
Presentation of fieldwork in standard expository prose
Start reading Ivanits - for next week pages 3-82
Show internet resources and the course web page
Here I will start with some background discussion
Folklore is key to cultural understanding
3 areas of folklore
Material artifacts objects
Social sociofacts actions
Verbal mentifacts words
Material - housing, clothing, food
Social - drama, in a way, actions such as ritual
Weddings, funerals - those are life cycle rituals
Here we do rituals of the year - Christmas, Easter, midsummer or Ivan Kupalo
Verbal - songs and stories
As in legends about encounters with the domovoi
Songs sung during harvest, in spring to make sure the warm weather comes