SLFK 214 - January 22, 2004
Would like to do more material culture, esp. since very important principles of composition and transmission of culture, of belief
But might get too far behind
Look at spirits and from these see the elements of belief
Will look at it somewhat differently than Ivanits
House spirit
Male
Can be married, even have children, but no stories about wife or babies
Stories about the male spirit, domovoi
Told a series a week ago
Smothers at night
Moves with the family - or, if not, punishes
Things I didn't tell - more traditional stories, like the ones Ivanits uses
(about fieldwork versus document, archival sources)
Helps with embroidery if a woman has been good
Rocks the baby
This means that he is male, but likes female work
Spirit world is the INVERSE of the human world in general
If white bread and vodka is special food for people, then spirits like black (everyday) bread and milk
And they are around at night when people are asleep
Runs around naked - humans need clothes
Has hairy body
Cone head
He can see the future - people can't
Will cry if someone, especially a male, is about to die
Will cry if a misfortune will befall the family
Barn spirit - may or may not be distinguished from the house spirit
Repeat how the farmstead works and how many of the functions that, for us, occur in the home occur somewhere in the farmstead here
Cooking
Bathroom
Cellar is usually external
Can be nice - help with livestock if he like them and their color and if he likes the owner of the farm
Can be nasty - hurt animals
Trip the farmer - rakes
Scratches on animals
Ovinnik - farther from main house and nastier still
Story about granny baking potatoes
Bathhouse spirit - quite nasty and very few stories about his being helpful
Punishes from using 4th steam
First three are for people and 4th is for other spirits, including from outside farmstead
If human uses fourth steam - spirit throws rocks, whips with twigs
Story of many who tries to take a steam bath in the stove in the house
Outside spirits, like forest, field, water and uniformly nasty
Punish for fishing out of season (after the day of a certain saint - Elijah)
Same for swimming out of season
Forest spirit tries to lead astray - to get the human for going where humans shouldn't go
Also punishes for taking too much wood
Too many berries, mushrooms
Spirits enter the farmstead and steal babies
Attack pregnant women
Old maid and the domovoi
Fortune-telling with the spirits
Bathhouse spirit and babies
Barn spirit and weddings
One way to arrange this - spirits are the personification of a place
They are keepers of order
And whatever that place is and whatever you are supposed to in - they make sure you do
Some stories of reward - mostly punishment
Like the story about my failure to leave food out for the domovoi at Christmas
Or the lazy man who didn't want to bathe in the bathhouse
In that sense, stories about them are very much like American urban legends
Kentucky Fried Rat
Chicken head in Chicken Nuggets
Worms in burgers (or kangaroo meat)
All this = you shouldn't eat fast food
Other messages too, like the greed of the corporations
Folklore is always multifunctional
Soda and other candies are bad for you
Syringe in soda can
Pop rocks and soda
Gender differences - woman get punished a lot in American material
Woman too interested in tanning to look good
Diet pills over internet
Has additional message of you shouldn't try to be too cheap
Women get it for working late at the mall - tendon slasher
For driving late at night - killer in the back seat or the accident and ants in the face
For staying in the dorms when everyone is gone - mutilated roommate
For attending night classes in Cabell - 4th floor rapist
Women certainly get it for interest in sex
Internet date with dad
Misbirths, like devil baby
But men get it too - AIDS Mary
Purloined kidney
So - both cultures have LEGENDS - a type of oral or verbal folklore - that tell stories about good things that happen to you if you are good
But mostly bad things that happen to you if you are bad
And thus reinforce proper behavior - with some ambiguity - but more on the ambiguity later