Category: Blog

@article{JEF, author = {Olga Povoroznyuk}, title = { Belonging to the Land in Tura: Reforms, Migrations, and Indentity Politics in Evenkia}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {8}, number = {2}, year = {2014}, keywords = {belonging to land; migration; reforms; identity politics; Evenks}, abstract = {Tura is a mixed community where Evenks live alongside other indigenous groups and Russians. The establishment of Evenk autonomy, with the centre in Tura, in 1930 strengthened Evenk ethnic identity and unity through increased political and cultural representation, as well as through the integration of migrants from other regions. In the post-Soviet period, the community witnessed a population loss, a declining socio-economic situation, and the abolition of autonomy. In the long course of reforms and identity construction, the indigenous intelligentsia has manipulated the concept of belonging to the land either to stress or to erase cultural differences, and thus, to secure the access of the local elite to valuable resources. currently, the most hotly debated boundaries are those dividing Evenks into local and migrant, authentic and unauthentic, urban and rural. The paper illustrates the intricate interrelations between ethnic, indigenous, and territorial identities from an identity politics perspective.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {33–51}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/159} }

@article{JEF, author = {Johannes Müske}, title = { Constructing Sonic Heritage: The Accumulation of Knowledge in the Context of Sound Archives}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {4}, number = {1}, year = {2011}, keywords = {}, abstract = {This paper argues that sonic heritage does not exist per se, but is socially constructed. rather it arises from various measures of accumulating knowledge with respect to the collected sounds. a variety of actors, for example, scholars, or foundations, participate in this process by editing parts of the collections, publishing ethnographic or historic studies, and conducting digitisation projects. In this context, sound collections are identified as ‘cultural heritage’ as a consequence and result of archival practices. The processes that are linked to cultural heritage will be outlined and discussed in the present research in line with the model of the social construction of technology (SCOT). More specifically, the social construction of sonic heritage will be illustrated with a case study on the Edison-cylinders collection in the Berlin Phonogramm-archiv, UNESCo Memory of the world since 2000.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {37–47}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/4} }

The aim of the present article is to outline some of the basic characteristics of the post-Soviet ‘renaissance’ of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (under jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), for example the conversion from Lutheranism to Orthodox Christianity and the processes of rediscovery, reinvention and ‘Estonianisation’ of Orthodox Christianity. The restoration of the autonomous Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, beginning in the 1990s, is due to the historic presence of Orthodoxy in Estonia, but also has the particularities of a new project that seeks contemporary horizons and copes with specific postsocialist problems. The paper takes a closer look at the specific dimensions of these processes through a study of a small Orthodox community: the parish of St. Alexander Nevsky church in Tartu. The author strives to demonstrate the living process of reinvention of Orthodox Christianity in Estonia and more generally the ‘making’, creation, of religion. The small religious community in Tartu dealt with in the paper, shares a number of features of the transforming religiosity of Europe: emphasis on spirituality, openness to the impacts of globalisation, the hybrid character of certain religious practices. It is likewise an example of the fact that Orthodox Christianity may also be the free choice of people looking for moral perfection. This is one of the answers to the main research question about the reasons and character of a contemporary conversion to Orthodox Christianity.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.

@article{JEF, author = {Nikolai Vakhtin}, title = { The Concept of Work in Yupik Eskimo Society Before and After the Russian Influx: A Linguist’s Perspective}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {11}, number = {1}, year = {2017}, keywords = {concept of work; Yupik language; linguistic relativism; Soviet}, abstract = {The Yupik language has a word to signify ‘work’ derived from the stem qepgha(gh)- (qepghaq ‘work’ [noun], qepghaghtuq ‘he works’, qepghaghta ‘worker’, etc.) The scope of the meaning of this word changed drastically after the Russians came to Chukotka to stay in the 1930s. While in the pre-(intensive) contact times the word mainly meant ‘house work’ or ‘processing the carcass of a killed animal’, in mid-20th century it acquired new meanings, borrowing them from Russian. The usage of the word also became a replica of Russian usage: the concept acquired new dependent words, like evaluative adverbs and adjectives, or inanimate agents. This change of meaning reflected social changes that took place in the Yupik world as a result of the modernisation process of the 1950s and 1960s, and is an indicator of the deep transformation the society underwent under Russian (Soviet) influence. The paper analyses this process using two sources from two different epochs: Yupik texts recorded by Yekaterina Rubtsova in the 1940s, that is, in the pre-(intensive) contact period, and a modern Russian-Yupik dictionary compiled by Natalia Rodionova, a teacher of Yupik Eskimo at the Anadyr college, and published 70 years later, in 2014. }, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {170–177}, doi = {10.1515/jef-2017-0010}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/266} }

@article{JEF, author = {Merili Metsvahi}, title = { The Woman as Wolf (AT 409): Some Interpretations of a Very Estonian Folk Tale}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {7}, number = {2}, year = {2014}, keywords = {fairy tale; legend; wolf; werewolf; women; Finnic folklore}, abstract = {The article analyses tale type The Woman as Wolf, which is one of the most popular folk tales in the Estonian Folklore Archives and is represented there both in the form of a fairy tale and in the form of a legend. The vast majority of the versions of The Woman as Wolf were written down in the first part of the 20th century within Estonia and where recorded from Estonians. The article introduces the content of the tale, the origin of the first records from the early 19th century, and the dissemination area of the tale, which remains outside Western Europe: apart from the Estonian versions there are Sami, Karelian, Vepsian, Livonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian versions. While in almost all the Estonian versions the main protagonist is transformed into a wolf, in most of the versions written down in other areas and ethnic groups, another animal or bird replaces the wolf. The author is of the opinion that the Finnic area is central to the distribution of the folk tale The Woman as Wolf. The animal the woman is transformed into in the plot would not have been a wolf in earlier times. The article provides an explanation why the wolf is predominant in Estonian written sources. For that purpose the ways in which the wolf and werewolf were perceived in earlier Estonian folk belief are introduced. At the end of the article interpretation of the folk tale is provided. The author states that the plot and some of the motifs found in this folk tale reflect the difficulties women had in submitting to the norms and values of patriarchal order within their society.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {65–92}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/153} }

@article{JEF, author = {Tatiana Bulgakova}, title = { Contest in Nanai Shamanic Tales}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {9}, number = {1}, year = {2015}, keywords = {folklore; shamanism; Siberia; Nanai; contest; shamanic games; inter-shamanic conflict}, abstract = {The tale motif of the shamanic tale competition is examined with due regard for the interpretation given by the Nanai storyteller-shamans from the standpoint of their personal spiritual experience. In shamanic practice it is not the personal ability (skill or physical power) that provides a challenger victory in conflict, but obtaining spirits-helpers more powerful than those of his or her rival. The predominate role of these fantastic personages/helpers in tales that represent invisible spirit helpers perform real shamanic praxis, explains the loser’s unconditional submission and readiness to sacrifice their freedom or life to the winner. It also clarifies the motivation of the initiators of these contests and games: by means of gathering a great number of competitors, such shamans solve their personal spiritual problems, such as the need to overcome their adversaries or find allies in the struggle against their opponents.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {61–79}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/189} }

Overview about the 7th Semiosis and Culture Conference organised in May 2010 by the Komi State Pedagogical Institute in Syktyvkar, Republic of Komi, Russia.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.

@article{JEF, author = {Laur Vallikivi}, title = { What Does Matter?: Idols and Icons in the Nenets Tundra}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {5}, number = {1}, year = {2011}, keywords = {Nenets; Pentecostalism; missionaries; iconoclasm; materiality}, abstract = {This paper examines a mission encounter in the Nenets reindeer herders’ tundra. In post-Soviet Arctic Russia, Pentecostal and Baptist missionaries of Russian and Ukrainian origin have been fighting against idolatry and trying to persuade the Nenets to burn their sacred images or khekhe’’. They claim that among the indigenous Siberians idolatry exists in its quintessential or prototypical form, as it is described in the Bible. I shall suggest that this encounter takes place in a gap, in which the Nenets and Protestant have different understandings of language and materiality. Missionaries rely simultaneously on the ‘modern’ ideology of signification and the ‘non-modern’ magic of the material. They argue that idols, which are ‘nothing’ according to the scriptures, dangerously bind the ‘pagans’’ minds. For reindeer herders, for whom sacred items occupy an important place in the family wellbeing, the main issue is how to sever the link with the spirits without doing any damage.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {75–95}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/70} }

@article{JEF, author = {Tiina Sepp}, title = { Pilgrimage and Pilgrim Hierarchies in Vernacular Discourse: Comparative Notes from the Camino de Santiago and Glastonbury}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {8}, number = {1}, year = {2014}, keywords = {Camino de Santiago; Glastonbury; pilgrimage; pilgrim hierarchy; energy.}, abstract = { This article is based on my fieldwork conducted in two important destinations in the spiritual landscape of European vernacular religion – the Camino de Santiago (pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela) in northern Spain, and Glastonbury in southwest England. In this comparison between modern expressions of pilgrimage, I look into the power relationships that exist on the pilgrimage, describe how hierarchies of pilgrims are created and maintained, and reflect on the meaning of the words pilgrim and pilgrimage. The co-existence of the different belief systems of Christianity and New Age and the conflicts and tension between them will be explored. I will also examine discourse around competing male and female energies. }, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {23–52}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/129} }

The article analyses Pomor and Izhma Komi identities. The Pomor and Izhma Komi, who live in the European north of Russia, practically lost their identity during the 20th century and are currently undergoing a process of re-identification. The authors delve into the reasons and circumstances stimulating this process of re-identification, analyse which social groups are the initiators of this process and what is the content of Pomorian and Izhma identity today.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.