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Manuscripts and Broadsheets. Narrative Genres and the Communication Circuit among Working-Class Youth in early 20th-Century Finland

Author(s): Kirsti Salmi-Niklander / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

In this article the hazy boundary between folklore and literature, orality and literacy is explored in relation to the individual and the community. How do people who belong to the first generation of active writers in their family and community express their own experiences through fictional narratives and the literary tradition? This question is explored in relation to the working-class youth in the small industrial community of Karkkila (Högfors)in southern Finland. The most important research materials are the editions of hand-written newspapers written by these young people from 1914 to 1925.My theoretical background is derived from both folklore studies and book history. Inspired by the research of Robert Darnton, I have outlined the communication circuit of the working-class youth during the early 20th century, discussing the position of the manuscript tradition (hand-written newspapers, ballad books, minutes) in relation to the printed texts(books, newspapers, broadsheets) and the oral tradition. In my article I focus on the narratives of love in the manuscripts written by the working-class youth. How do they work with the ideas and narrative genres and themes adopted from the printed media and the oral tradition? I outline fictionalization of personal experiences and localization of fictional, printed texts as two basic narrative strategies utilized in these processes.

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The Modern Genre of Finnish Mass Sermon

Author(s): Päivikki Antola / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

The paper looks into the mass sermon in the Finnish Lutheran Church around the turn ofthe millennium. The material consists of day services documented by means of participant observation. Day services are nowadays called a mass, if communion is served. A mass sermon can be characterised as persuasive communication encompassing three processes: 1) a process that strengthens a person's worldview; 2) a process that shapes the worldview, or 3) a process that changes the worldview. The paper discusses the semantic and functional principles of communication in a mass sermon: familiarisation, emphatic and trustworthy behaviour, self-confidence, personification, principles of opposites and common interest, the authoritarian principle, principles of assigning blame, winning time and building obstacles. From the listener's point of view, the mass sermon answers the question what the listener has to know to be able to interpret the sermon according to his own worldview. I will show that the mass sermon meets the criteria of a religious genre in its origin, form, contents, function, style and structure.

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Narrative Form and the Structure of Myth

Author(s): Emily Lyle / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

At each stage in transmission of a tale from generation to generation, modifications take place but something remains. Thus there is a potential for material to be retained from a time in the distant past when the narrative was embedded in a total oral worldview or cosmology. This article introduces the analogical discovery method and uses it to build up a structure based on a group of tales from Greece , Ireland and Wales. It draws the conc lusion that the structure of myth that is indirectly discernible through them deals with four generations, both of gods and of humans, the last of which contains the king. It agrees with the view proposed by Georges Dumézil that myth reflects human social organisation and argues in addition that matrilineal succession to kingship provides a good fit with the tales. The suggestion is put forward that there was a total, quite complex, cosmological code of which narratives retain traces and that scholars today have the opportunity of decipheringit.

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Narratives, Space and Drama: Essential Spatial Aspects Involved in the Performance and Reception of Oral Narrative

Author(s): Terry Gunnell / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

In the past, oral narrative tended to be regarded as a two-dimensional phenomenon largely confined to the form of the spoken or (later) printed word. Over the last twenty years, however, oral narratives have gradually gained “thickness” in the eyes of folklore scholars who have increasingly demanded that more attention be paid to the social and personal contexts that gave rise to these narratives. This present article reviews the ways in which the understanding of oral narrative depends on its physical, mental and social surroundings, noting also how the process is actually reciprocal, since while taking much from their surroundings, narratives are also capable of subtly changing the contexts that gave birth to them. Working out from the three-dimensional nature of the oral narrative performance, it is argued that much could be gained from analysing oral narratives as pieces of theatre or dramatic performances rather than as pieces of text.

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Contemporary Linguistic Theories of Humour

Author(s): Arvo Krikmann / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

The paper will discuss the following subtopics: Arthur Koestler’s bisociation theory of humour and its reception; Victor Raskin’s script-based theory of jokes (SSTH) in his "Semantic Mechanisms of Humor; the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) by Victor Raskin and Salvatore Attardo and the attempt of testing GTVH by Willibald Ruch; Salvatore Attardo’s Linear Theory of Humor (IDM); The analysis of puns by Attardo; Humour and pragmatic maxims (Raskin, Attardo, etc.); Attardo’s Setup-Incongruity-Resolution -model (SIR); The further taxonomy of “logical mechanisms” (LM) of jokes by Attardo, Hempelmann, and Di Maio; the “Anti-Festschrift” for Victor Raskin.

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The Karelia of Memories - Utopias of a Place

Author(s): Outi Fingerroos / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2006

Karelia has always been a place of utopias and dreams in Finland. The images that we have of this area tend to originate in national projects and Karelianism. Karelia has been divided between two states – Finland and Soviet Union – since Finland gained independence in 1917. The Isthmus belonged to Finland until 1939. After World War II a total of 430,000 evacuees, 407,000 of who were Karelians, were resettled in different parts of Finland.The article concentrates on the memories of Karelian evacuees. The aim of the article is to find, construct and analyse the different ways in which the past is remembered, the experiences of different generations of Karelia, and the phenomenon of “new Karelianism”. Karelia is not just an abstraction but a place of memories and utopias for Karelian evacuees. Their utopias are different than those of supporters of Karelianism because of their misery and dreams about going back there. Karelia is also a meaningful place for different generations. It is a place which Karelian refugees and their children and children’s children as well as researchers and cohabitants in the new hometowns of the evacuees visit again and again.

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Rahvaluule e-kursused: uudishimust kogemuseni

Author(s): Tiiu Jaago / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 38/2008

There are three types of online folklore courses available at the University of Tartu: e-publications of open access study materials (subject web sites, e-lectures, and e-textbooks), video lectures (e.g., on DVD), virtual e-learning environment with limited access (three main e-learning platforms are used in Estonia: WebCT, Moodle, IVA). In this article I focus on my eight years of experience with WebCT, having worked as a learner, course compiler (including designer) as well as the lecturer. The need for web-based courses increased together with the growth and the broadened opportunities in the use of WWW. The fact that the web site of Estonian Folklore (www.folklore.ee) already featured a number of electronic databases as well as e-publications introduced the need for the use of these materials in educational work. WebCT enables the user to present material in written and audio format, present lore texts as audio or video recordings or images and thus present web lore in an entirely natural context. Present-day students have grown up in the computer era, which is why searching the Web for material is as natural to them as searching for information in books once was.

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Pronkssõduri sammude vaibuvas kajas. Siberist remigreerunud eestlaste kohanemisest Eestis: keel, stereotüübid, elulugu

Author(s): Aivar Jürgenson / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 38/2008

The article discusses the adaptation process of repatriates, the practical value of ethnic stereotyping and its relation with everyday communication. The paper seeks to answer the question to which extent is the stereotyping process related with biography and the actualisation of stereotypes in specific situations? The analysis is based on interviews with two Estonian repatriates from Siberia following the public unrest related to the relocation of the bronze statue of a Soviet soldier in Tallinn in April 2007. The author concludes that reciprocal ethnic stereotypes are directly linked to biographical situations, and also to the idea that ethnic stereotypes might be of huge importance in the orientation and identification of a person in a specific biographical situation, while being quite marginal or non-existent in another. Stereotypes are never isolated and are closely related to other cognitive schemes, while shaping people’s attitudes and behaviour. In recent years several studies on the Russian population’s loyalty to Estonia, their willingness to learn the official language, adjust themselves to the cultural and political values in Estonia, and apply for Estonian citizenship have been undertaken. While learning about the population’s orientation, individual self-identification conditioned by a specific biographical situation has to be seriously considered. The author claims that the use of ethnological methods (dense description, in-depth interviews) may contribute greatly to the study of national stereotypes and, in turn, to the study of national conflicts and xenophobia.

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Kurtide kogukond, viipekeel ja pärimus visuaalsusele toetuvates tehnoloogilistes keskkondades

Author(s): Liina Paales / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 38/2008

The article discusses the specific devices for the deaf people, and sign language and deaf lore in the new technological situation. There are different types of hearing aids supporting the concept of the deaf as the disabled who must be cured from their deafness and taught to communicate orally with the hearing world. Today there are many modern devices that support the visual aid, which is more comfortable for the deaf. In fact, for the deaf who are more cultured there is nothing to be cured or healed. They are sceptical about the emergence of any new medical device (e.g., cochlear implant), which aim seems to be turning a deaf into a hearing person. The deaf have become adapted to new technologies for their community’s needs and use their language, culture and folklore in new environments, such as the Internet. Various telecommunication devices have made the direct translation of sign language possible. The deaf have become used to communicating on cell phones, videophones, web cameras, etc. Sign language communities have discovered the virtual space to share their culture and folklore among the community members and with the hearing world. There are many examples of deaf lore available on the Internet, mostly from among American deaf folklore. Many stories have been translated from sign language into verbal language, but one can also encounter authentic sign language texts in the form of video clips, sometimes with voiceover or subtitles. Virtual space is a wonderful place to present deaf people’s own folklore, which has also been called sign lore. Fine examples of sign lore are ABC stories and number stories, also some popular signs like ‘I Love You’ sign. Deaf comics are also part of deaf lore and culture. Deaf comics characterise the cultural side of deafness from a humorous viewpoint. New technologies offer the deaf good opportunities for expressing their culture and promoting sign language and also for being in touch with other community members and with the hearing people.

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Vaenunimedest eesti internetis

Author(s): Liisi Laineste / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 38/2008

Ethnic, religious or other group-based dysphemisms are the most obvious manifestations of prejudice, ethnocentrism, sometimes even indicating actual feelings of xenophobia. But they also mirror the present and past on interethnic relationships, as slurs and dysphemisms are part of a nation’s or a group’s reactions to culture contacts, for example to the ethnic diversification of society. Nicknames are affected by quite objective factors like the amount and density of population, migration, etc., becoming more aggressive in the context of insecurity, fast and unanticipated changes, or perceived/actual threat on the welfare of the group. The present study focuses on the use of aggressive nicknames in the Estonian web from the sociological and folkloristic perspective. The material covers the years 2000–2007 and features news comments posted on the Estonian online news portal www.delfi.ee from a selection of one-week periods from each year. The study describes the main objects of online flaming and the social background of target choice. The results show that online commenters play with the concepts of normal and abnormal, right and wrong, good and bad, while naming the “other”. They display their (sometimes radical) nationalism through juxtaposing themselves to “abnormal groups”. Temporal dynamics of ethnic and other hate speech in news comments show that the highest relative amount of slurs were used in 2003, regardless of the rise in national consciousness following the public disturbances in Estonia in April 2007. This trend is supported by the rise in other categories and by a sharp and direct confrontation to the “other” in Internet comments (but also the news themselves) during 2003. In the last years, commenters appear to use much less aggressive and straightforwardly offensive language to characterise groups other than their own. The trends show higher sensitivity and sense of responsibility, and the use of argument for the need of political correctness, possible censorship or even fear of punishment. The biggest number of instances of offensive slang are directed against Russians, while homosexualism and religion are also targets of dysphemisms. At the same time, ethnic slurs against Russians are proportionally much lower than those used against Gypsies, the Black or gays. Thus, as the number of comments in the case of a news story about Gypsys, for example, is much smaller than in the case of (very often provocative and emotional) news featuring Russians, the relative amount is somewhat distracting. The use and intensity of flaming also depends on many contextual cues: the news story and its construction, its main subjects, the identity or attitudes of the commenting persons, the social context of the news, etc.

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Pärimusliku ainese teke ja areng Perekoolis ning selle avaldumisvormid

Author(s): Reeli Reinaus / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 38/2008

The article discusses the spread, reception and manifestations of folklore in online environment. The material under discussion has been drawn from the forum of the online Estonian family portal www.perekool.ee The first part of the article explores the spread and development of lore material and related behavioural patterns in the forum. The author also points out the ways in which the attitudes towards a homogeneous corpus of material differ in terms of the mode of presentation. Since today virtual communities have become the primary form of social interaction for many people, the place where they spend most of their day, these environments naturally involve the creation and transmitting of folkloric information. The attitude towards folkloric material in this particular forum may depend on the context and the background knowledge of receivers: folklore is both ridiculed and valued. Often the attitudes depend on how, by whom and in relation of what it is presented. It is noteworthy that beliefs are spread in the forum within one generation. While formerly beliefs were transmitted from older generation to the younger, the older generation and their worldview, which is perceived as irrational from the viewpoint of modern science, is no longer considered trustworthy. However, if it is presented as someone’s personal experience story, the belief is accepted as an alternative way. The second part of the article observes the forms and functions of material that could be categorised as folkloric. The forums feature a variety of folklore genres: folklore related to the religious world (belief accounts, memorates, and legends) and entertaining material. The entertaining function of the forum becomes evident even in the inclusion of religious themes for entertaining purposes. Forums of active use, such as www.perekool.ee, help to spread folklore by actualising the latent material in people’s knowledge. This is why some archaic beliefs may generate questions and doubts even in modern times. The family forum Perekool thus becomes the reconstructer of omens and beliefs as well as the distributor of new phenomena.

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Püha Ksenia legend setu naise Ksenia Müürsepa vaimses universumis

Author(s): Merili Metsvahi / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 10/2007

The article is focused on a saint legend told to the author of the article and her colleagues, who were taking folklore interviews with Setos, by Ksenia Müürsepp (1911–2004) on her own initiative. The legend represents an idiosyncratic fusion of the story of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia and an image of Saint Xenia. The main character is St. Xenia as a champion of (Orthodox) Christianity. The legend is compared to other folk narrative genres and a survey is given of the other legends told by the same person. Also, the narrative strategies used are compared with those of other genres. As the legend was about a female saint playing an active role the author became inspired to study a woman's general position in the Seto community, as well as the extant abstractions of types of women occurring in folk tales. The conclusion reads that the legend of St. Xenia enabled deviation from the local gender stereotypes, because the events were placed in a distant time and place. At the same time, Ksenia's believing the legend to be a true story enabled her subconscious identification with the central character – her namesake – to a greater extent than would have done a tale of any other genre or with a male main character. For Ksenia Müürsepp the sex of the main character was less important than her fight for Christianity.

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Loss of a Syncretic Theatrical Form

Author(s): Javaid Iqbal Bhat / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2006

The folk theatre called Bhand Pather is probably the oldest theatrein the subcontinent if not in the world. Though the history of its evolution has not been comprehensively documented yet one can find references to it in some of the extant manuscripts. In this paper, the author attempts a complex exploration of this endangered form as a key component of tradition and its interface with modernity not merely through direct confrontation with the products like television, but also in the ideological domain.Bhand Pather lends itself for a study of the shifting landscape of the intercommunal relationships. It is one of the unique sites on which the nuances and complexities of Kashmiriyat can be easily worked out. It has been nourished both by Hindu Shaivism and Sufi mysticism. The presence of secular characters is an eminent feature of this form. The most significant feature of this art rich with the antique flavor is the way it presents us a non-idealized version of Kashmiriyat.

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Ethnographic Legacies: Niko Kuret

Author(s): Ingrid Slavec Gradišnik / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2006

Niko Kuret was one of the most crucial personalities in Slovenian ethnology in the second half of the 20th century. Interested in a variety of subjects, he was nevertheless closest to ethnography even in the period before the Second World War. Although his ethnological research commenced in thelate 1940s, he was not able to fully immerse himself in it until his full-time employment at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology in 1954.Rather than Kuret’s infrequent explicit statements about theoretical research in ethnography, it was his research plan that represented the basis for founding the Commission for Slovenian Ethnography in 1947, his participation in discussions about future orientations in ethnology, his organizational work, and his methodological instructions that clearly indicate what ethnography/ethnology meant to him and what purpose he saw in it. His research on social and spiritual life and culture, the methodology of which was essentially that of cultural history, expresses his principles and ideological orientation. In this respect, Kuret was an heir to ethnographic tradition. This can be seen from his methodological approach to folk culture as well as his opinion that its elements and values should be made familiar to the public. Yet as a scholar with diverse knowledge, well versed in scholarly production in Slovenia and abroad, and a participant in international scholarly discussions, Niko Kuret was able to follow, and accept, new trends in contemporary ethnology. These, however, he preferred to leave to his younger colleagues.

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Why the Literary Interpretation of a Tale is Not Popular? Little Red Riding Hood

Author(s): Bronislava Kerbelytė / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2006

Throughout times, folkloristics has focused on the relationship between the oral tradition and the printed texts of folk tales. Contemporary performers sometimes openly admit that they have read a tale in a book. Some literary tales that are well known by the community are very rarely narrated, such, for example, is Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault. The text was translated into Lithuanian in the first half of the 20th century. Although profusely studied, folklore collectors have not recorded the tale in oral tradition because of available literary sources and also probably owing to its rarity in oral lore. The structure of Perrault’s text is different from that of traditional folk tales. This article attempts to determine the tale type under which the tale has been classified, and describe the main plots from Perrault’s text and the structures of each of these plots. It appears that Perrault has substantially transformed the folk tale, and on the basis of the tales recorded from oral tradition, an attempt will be made to reconstruct the tale heard by Perrault.

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The Range – and Purposes – of Australian Public Festivals That are Functioning at Present

Author(s): John S. Ryan / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2006

The ‘festival’, this customary and very Australian institution, hasalways embraced a multiplicity of rituals, forms and activities; for it is public in its presentation, participatory in its nature, an embodiment of the community,and also a carrier of its traditional/long accepted values and beliefs, notably those of defiance and of the scurrilous and mocking.Recent classification would seem to indicate that social and class bases enable the (larger) festivals to be put in several categories. Alex Barlow opted to categorize these festivals into eight, seemingly progressively developing, clusters: seasonal, harvest, food, sport, historical, cultural, religious, ethnic/folk. Australia today enjoys a vast variety of festive celebrations, civic, playful, religious, popular, and traditional. The catalysts/determinants to the regular performances and their attractiveness are: (present) power; (residual) class; the distinctive/seeming enclave; or the perceived/energetically claimed/promoted ‘regional’ style. The author also outlines some theoretical perspectives on the late modern/post-modern public celebration of festivals on the basis of two major scholars in the U.S. – William M. Johnston and Jack Kugelmas.The Australian/post-modern festival complex/area of associations – and one somehow close to the area of meaningful and accessible ‘heritage’ – is one evolving in its deeper significance, and acting as a bowl mirror to tell us much about the actual local/national past and its possible future. Yet it continues to defiantly celebrate life, and so it remains, as it always has been, the most important/uncertain/enigmatic presentation of a culture’s /any culture’s values, meaning, more spontaneous behaviour and place on history’s spectrum.

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Place Names about Life by the Sea – an Archaeological Perspective on the Estonian-Swedish Landscape

Author(s): Kristin Ilves / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2006

No toponym has come from nothing and there has always been a linkbetween a place and its name. When it concerns the past, it is a scholar’s task to explore this connection. The article discusses Estonian-Swedish maritime place names from an archaeological perspective, and is based on the premise that research into toponyms should depart from the principle that the scholar tries to reconstruct the name giver’s viewpoint. The article deals with two main topics: the meanings of place names related to the Estonian Swedes’ possible practical use of the coast and sea, and, more importantly, to the possible function of place names as indicators of archaeologically interesting maritime locations. Also, the question of the dating of place names will be touched upon. The perspectives of different place names as indicators for locating landing sites will be analysed at length.

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Фолклорна анегдота: између индивидуалног и колективног – теренска истраживања Срба у Медини (Мађарска)

Author(s): Marija Ilić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2007

This work is based on folklore material, which was gathered during ethno linguistic field research of Serbian traditional lexicon and spiritual culture in Medina village in Hungary in 2002. Folklore material is composed of the sayings by the informer Sava Sokic and primarily can be defined as a series of comical narrations. If we look upon these narrations as a genre of oral speech and within context of ethno linguistic interview, we can notice a complex structure of this oral genre. That is, this genre functions as a memorat with typical beginnings and met textual comments. On the other hand, it respects almost all genre norms, which are characteristic for folklore anecdote. Therefore, comic narrations of Save Sokic, and that are valid also for folklore anecdote in general, can be classified as borderline genre – between memorata and fabulata.

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DİYARBAKIR’DA BEBEĞİN İLKLERİ: HEDİK, KÖSTEK KESME TÖRENLERİ VE ÇOCUKLARA YÖNELİK HALK HEKİMLİĞİ UYGULAMALARI

Author(s): Rezan Karakaş / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 16/2012

Birth is a highly celebrated event in modern societies and has even been more celebrated starting at prenatal period and continuing following birth with unusual rituals in folklore and human history. In this study, we will try to present customs and rituals surrounding babies’ first natural growth and behaviors (first teeth, toddling, first haircut etc.) and the practice of being ‘medical expert’ among ordinary folks without any medical expertise in the province of Diyarbakir, Turkey. All the output included here is collected through participatory observation and interview methods. ‘Hedik’ and ‘köstek kesme’ rituals aim to introduce babies their first experience in which they have their hair and nails cut with special ceremonies. Moon flushes (ay dönmesi) is an old disease commonly believed to have resulted from people’s fear from some natural events. This disease has been cured by making coins which would look similar to crescent-shaped moon. For many centuries, all these sorcery practices have been repeated as accepted rituals to introduce children or babies into the community. These rituals are also internalized as mandatory practices which must be done to pass them on from one generation to another one. In modern life, though, most of these rituals are all, but forgotten and some older people in these close-knitted communities are constantly trying to remind young people of these rituals.

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ŞAMANİZMDEN ALEVİLİĞE DİNİ RİTÜELLERDE RAKI İLE KIMIZIN İŞLEV VE ÖNEMİ

Author(s): Turgay Kabak / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 16/2012

Beverages are also one of the main ritual at almost all belief systems from old ages to monotheist religions in today. The beverages, could been classified as ones have alcohol and ones have no alcohol, have lots of function same as shedding and helping to trans. Also in this study, we are going to try to analyse the function and importance of the koumiss, belongs to ones have alcohol, in the time from the old Turkish religion to Alevism.

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