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SLFK 214 - RITUAL AND DEMONOLOGY
Spring 2004
Course description:
Nature is messy, and humans, preferring order to mess, seek to regularize their experience of their environment by establishing categories. This course looks at the categories of time and space as they as they are established and used by the East Slavs, specifically the Russians and the Ukrainians. The course then works from the specific example of the East Slavs to look at the general phenomenon of category construction. To examine Russian and Ukrainian construction of space, we will look at so-called Slavic demonology: the spirits of the house, barn, forest, field, and lake, what I prefer to call place spirits. We will then look at the organization of time through a study of the festivals of the agrarian calendar year.
Course goals:
1) To explore the theoretical question of the necessity of categories and to examine the construction of categories.2) To learn about a culture that is different from our own. The cultures of Russia and Ukraine, especially in their rural, folk versions, are decidedly non-Western. Exploring these cultures teaches ways of thinking that are different, and thus fosters both sensitivity to cultural diversity and the ability to approach problems differently and in creative ways.
3) To practice data collection and analysis. Many students get no experience collecting their own data; they rely solely on published sources, the data collected by others. Yet, the ability to gather one's own material is vital. Folklore fieldwork provides an excellent opportunity for data gathering and analysis.
4) To develop the usual skills: critical thinking, oral and written presentation. I also like to foster work in digital humanities.
Course requirements: To get you to do this I will ask you to
1) Do the readings (see below).2) Attend lecture. Lectures will present data that is not in the readings. There has been a great deal of excellent folklore and ethnographic work done in Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, yet much of it has not been translated into English. I will use lectures to present materials that are not available elsewhere. Lectures will be supplemented by ethnographic photos and by videos. You will be responsible for all material that is presented in lecture.
3) Participate in surveys. In lecture, we will periodically conduct surveys to ascertain your attitudes toward American ritual.
4) Participate actively in discussion section. This will be your chance to discuss the readings and the material presented in lecture and to practice your oral skills.
5) Write a set of short response papers based on your readings and on a digital database.
6) Complete a collection project. You will either:
a) Participate in a yearly cycle ritual, document the ritual, and then analyze ORb) Gather data about a yearly cycle ritual through interviews, present your data, and analyze it.
7) Take exams based on your work.
Reading list:
1) Linda Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief2) Marjorie Balzer, Russian Traditional Culture (available as an e-book; please read pp. 3-102 and pp. 159-252)
3) Victor Turner, Ritual Process, pp. 94-203
4) Petr Bogatyrev, Vampires in the Carpathians
5) Caroline Humphrey, The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies after Socialism
Grade break-up:
Class participation, contributions to discussions in section - 20 % of gradeShort response papers - 15 %
Collection project - 35%
5-10 pages of discussion and analysis plus an appendix giving the ritual data collected, with full fieldwork documentation. Guidelines will be provided
Exams testing the materials presented in lecture and the readings:
Midterm exam - 10 %; exam date: March 4
Final exam - 20 %; exam date: May 5, 2PM
Second Writing Requirement:
This course does not automatically satisfy the Second Writing Requirement, but you may use it for that purpose, if you wish. To satisfy the Second Writing Requirement, you must write a research paper of at least 10 pages and submit it once in rough draft form (due March 25) and once in final form (due April 27). This paper will be IN ADDITION to the collection project; it will not be a substitute for the collection project or the short response papers. Rather, the paper will substitute for the final exam and will be worth as much as the final exam, or 20 % of your course grade. I will post a list of suggested topics no later than the middle of February.
Course Structure:
Unit one: Material cultureTo understand Russians and Ukrainians, it is imperative to see how they live. We will look at housing, clothing, and foodways.You will have a written assignment that requires you to work with a folklore database.
Unit two: Demonology - what I call place spirits
The cultural construct of space as articulated not only through housing, but also through the various spirits that are said to inhabit and control units such as the house, the barn, the forest, the lake, and so forth.Place spirits are seen as part of the unclean force and unit two will also look at beings who are believed to manipulate the unclean force, such as witches and sorcerers.
In conjunction with unit 2 you will be reading Ivanits, a book that covers the various spirits and discusses other manifestations of lower mythology. You will also read the first section of Balzer which talks about the pagan heritage of the Russians and other East Slavs and examines survivals of ancient beliefs.
Unit three: Ritual theory and the rites of the calendar year
Calendary festivals are rituals which mark transitions in time and seek to affect the period to come; they seek to bring wealth, prosperity, good harvest. We will first look at ritual theory that distinguishes yearly cycle rites from those marking transitions in a human life and examine the nature of the ritual state. In conjunction with this you will read Turner.Then we will look at the processes by which people seek to affect the future. In other words, we will look at rituals as magic acts and read Bogatyrev.
Finally we will seek to summarize the East Slavic world view and read the second assignment in Balzer.
The readings, good as they may be, do not describe the actual festivals of the Russian and Ukrainian calendar year and I will do that in lecture.
After looking at the rituals of the Russian calendar year, we will discuss your data collection and get you ready for your projects. You will be working with American rituals or the rituals of ethnic groups in the United States. For your project, you will:
1) Make up a questionnaire or a plan of research (a description of how you will gather your data)2) Present a set of raw data
3) Present a preliminary analysis
4) Submit the final product: a research paper with the data in an appendix. You will also do either a real poster session or an abstract of your paper that is akin to a poster.
Unit four will be a summary using Humphrey's book on life today. It will give us a chance to summarize by looking at modern manifestations of belief.
Unit five will be the collection project itself. I intend to stop lecturing somewhere around the middle of April, basically as soon as I have covered the data I need to present. At this point you will concentrate on your collection project. The project will be done in steps with each step scripted for you (see above). As you complete each step, you must see both the TA and me to present and discuss your work. These meetings are mandatory and are part of your project grade. We will then meet as a group during the last week of classes to sum up our work and to review.
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