Paper short abstract:

The talk discusses Kristjan Jaak Peterson's (1801-1821) reorganised translation of Kristfrid Ganander's encyclopedia Mythologia Fennica (1789) into German under the title Finnische Mythologie (1821), observing the changes and additions made to the original material and the reasons for making these.

Paper long abstract:

KristjanJaakPeterson (1801-1822) was one of the first poets writing in Estonian. Yet his most important work to appear in his lifetime was a translation of the Swedish pastor Kristfrid Ganander's encyclopaedia "Mythologia Fennica" (1789) into German under the title "Finnische Mythologie" (1821) that was significantly rearranged in comparison with the original. Both works have played an important role as predecessors of the Finnish and Estonian national epics, respectively.

The presentation observes the choices made by Peterson in reorganising "Mythologia Fennica" into a work of translation. Peterson restructured Ganander's encyclopaedic material into a systematic survey, making a hierachical selection of the material and bringing together similar keywords. An additional value is given to the survey by parallel comparisons with Estonian folklore material gathered from the literature available at the time.

By transposing the local reports from Finland into a more general context of the treatise, Peterson diminished their localisation. In constructing an overarching survey, Peterson to a degree attempted to eliminate the contradictions between the popular versions appearing in the texts presented by Ganander, and to create a unified system. He attempted to locate a part of the mundane mythological material on a "higher levelˮ (e.g., he translated 'a maiden' as 'a nymf', 'a spook' as 'a god', etc.)

In rearranging the material, one of Peterson's aim was a consistent comparison with classical antiquity and the idea that the religious world of smaller peoples such as Estonians and Finns was as developed and complicated as that of the antiquity.

Paper short abstract:

Concentrating on few main folk poem collections of the 19th century, the paper examines perceptions of folk lyric, especially of nationally double disregarded lyric, rhymed folk lyric, in the making of transcribed oral songs visible and celebrated as Finnish cultural heritage.

Paper long abstract:

Publishing folk poem collections started in Finland in early decades of the 19th century. However, it was not until the first version of the Kalevala epos by Elias Lönnrot was published in 1835 when the importance of folk songs for Finnish language and history was recognised. Kalevala-metre folk poems mainly indicated celebrated epic songs while other genres, though transcribed and also published, remained in the shadow.

By focusing on perceptions of folk lyric, my paper will shed light on disgraced lyric material either included in or excluded from the publications. I will reflect on to what extend and what part of the folk lyric was labelled as representation of Finnish folk poem tradition. Furthermore, folk lyric will be examined in respect of the Kalevala and epic in the context of textualization practices. A special attention will be given to rhymed folk songs that were nationally double disregarded as having no value for cultural heritage.

Paper short abstract:

In 19th Century Finland common people's oral culture was important source for national identity. To construct this identity it was necessary to transform unique oral performances into literary presentations. This raised questions of authenticity of folk lore publications but was also seen as an instrumental addition to national body and spirit.

Paper long abstract:

In the nineteenth-century historicity and fascination on national identity demanded knowledge about nation's history and culture. In Finland oral poetry performed by common people was considered an important source of unique national character. The romantic belief presupposed that oral culture was the most authentic and original source for Finnish language and past. Correspondingly it was thought to be a chance to develop modern literary culture in Finnish language.

This was contradictory since the oral presentation of folk poetry was a unique bodily performance formed in an assemblage of the performer, audience and surrounding material conditions. Collecting these songs first to manuscripts, drastically editing them and finally publishing them was a process that transformed the folk poetry to a new material form very different from the original. Printed word could not vary in same manner as the live performance.

This process created a body of written works which in a particular manner functioned as an organ of the nation's body politic. Nation as a collective subject transcending individuals was typical metaphor in early Nineteenth Century, often making division between the body (e.g. the territory) and the spirit (e.g. the language) of the nation. Oral culture transformed into printed form was not only an addition to the spirit but acted also as a material organ in the collective subject's body. The printed folk poetry was perceived as an authentic presentation and was defined as an instrumental addition to both the body and spirit of nation.

Paper short abstract:

The paper introduces the practices connected to the creation of Soviet folklore in occupied Estonia during the Stalin Era. The focus is on various textual representations of the process of creation, performance and collecting of political songs and the personal experiences of the participants.

Paper long abstract:

During the Stalin Era the folklorists in occupied Estonia had to adapt the concept of Soviet folklore, developed in Soviet folkloristics in the 1930s, and acquire the practices of producing it in cooperation with the representatives of local oral traditions or non-professional authors. The most successful direction in this field was the creation of political songs glorifying the Soviet regime and its leaders, and addressing topical political issues.

My presentation focuses on the different written documents reflecting the processes of creation, performance and collecting of political songs - the articles in the press, the fieldwork diaries of folklorists, the personal letters and the memories. I will analyse the influence of the ideologically controlled "normative" Soviet public discourse and self-censorship on the texts belonging to the different levels of publicity, and try to unveil the reality beyond them: which was the meaning and function of the political songs in the local communities, where and why were these songs performed. In addition to the tracking of the common social processes connected to the production of Soviet folklore, the unpublished, more intimate writings help to point out the individual aspects of the cooperation of folklorists and singers, their motivation of satisfying the ideological commission, as well as the singularity of their individual experiences.

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers legal otherness as a paradoxical means for negotiating self-determination and sovereignty in the context of ethnographic inquiries. 'Self-determination' as a dimension of the emerging modernity may be traced in various projections on the ethnographic studies of law.

Paper long abstract:

Besides the twentieth century´s anthropology of law, legal alterity or otherness have long tended to be relegated beyond the field of legitimate folkloristic and ethnographic concern. The cliché of this disciplinary genesis is being undermined by a rediscovery of Jacob Grimm´s and others´ studies of legal otherness as a distinctive field of folkloristic and ethnographic study that preceded modern legal anthropology. Drawing on their ethnographic achievements, this paper considers legal otherness as a fundamental yet paradoxical means for negotiating the self-determination and sovereignty of emerging nations. On the one hand, legal otherness entails distinctive forms of legal authorities in specific types of local practices, which may be taken up in order to draw attention to the particular legal cultures and distinctively composite nature of non-state political units such as kingdoms, regions, or tribes. On the other, it increasingly features the processes of modernisation, nationalisation and democratisation of originally agrarian cultures across the territories marked as modern nations. In view of this, what forms of self-determination were supported or undermined by found and described legal alterities, and how might these in turn shape ethnographic and folkloristic studies of law? 'Self-determination/sovereignty' can be traced in the ethnographic and folkloristic studies of 'legal otherness'— juristic folklore, non-state law, customs, and law-ways —within which scholars have entangled ethnography, history, and the archaeology of law with various political projects (democratisation, nationalisation, historicization).

Paper short abstract:

Svend Grundtvig's edition of Danish popular ballads brought on the so-called "Ballad War" ("Kæmpevisestriden"), a polemic in newspapers and journals involving Denmark's most prominent literati. At the heart of the Ballad War was the question of who was entitled to speak with the voice of the folk.

Paper long abstract:

Grundtvig's edition of Danish popular ballads (Danmarks gamle Folkeviser) brought on the so-called "Ballad War" ("Kæmpevisestriden"), a polemic in 1847-1848 in newspapers and journals, which involved Denmark's most prominent literati and several other European intellectuals. A comprehensive edition of all known texts and recordings of the Danish popular ballads, folklorist Svend Grundtvig began this megaproject in 1853 and the last volume was published in 1973.

The most contested aspect of Grundtvig's editorial policy was his unyielding (and as others saw it, bizarre and irrational) commitment to publishing verbatim all variants of every ballad, rather than a standardized and sanitized selection (as had been customary). Subsequently, Grundtvig's policy became the scientific standard in ballad editions in Europe and America.

The polemical writings of the "Ballad War" open up to scrutiny the relationship between authorship and its outside in the mid-19th century, and they provide unique testimony to the politics of voice involved in the making of the folk, the editor, and the author. At the heart of the "Ballad War" was the question of who was entitled to speak with the voice of the folk and in its name in a year (1848) that saw revolutions across Europe and the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the Finnish Kalevala, entwined various types of verses - epic motives, lyric themes, and generic verses - in his composition of what we commonly consider to be a collection of epic narratives, or a national epos.

Paper long abstract:

The Finnish epos Kalevala, compiled by Elias Lönnrot, was first published in 1935, and in 1849 in a complemented and rearranged form. Both editions were based on Lönnrot's and other folk poetry collectors' field work. Between the two publications, Lönnrot travelled in Southern Karelia, where he found a different singing culture: female singers and lyric themes, rather than long epic poems, which were sung by men in Northern Karelia. In the new edition of Kalevala, he inserted many of these lyric themes between the epic motives. In order to do this, he also stretched the use of verses that create structure: to explain, introduce a speaker, or maintain a dialogue.

Although it is commonly known by researchers that Kalevala also draws from lyric folk poetry, research has primarily focused on its mythic and narrative thematic, as well as its role as a national epos and an emblem of peoplehood. Kalevala is established as the "narratives of ancient Finnish people". While recent research has increasingly elaborated on the lyric themes appearing both in Kalevala and the folk poems, this common perception of Kalevala as narratives has not yet changed.

This paper presents an ongoing effort to exhibit the poems of Kalevala in a new light. The multitude of forms and expressive goals of folk poetry, which were also included by Lönnrot in the Kalevala, will be analyzed in a critical edition "Open Kalevala", a project of the Finnish Literature Society, to be published as an Open Access data base.

Paper short abstract:

There is a large number of obscene songs in the Estonian Folklore Archives. What was the meaning of these texts when they were created and performed? I will examine the history of collecting and publishing obscene songs, and discuss plausible options for contextualizing decontextualized songs.

Paper long abstract:

In the 19th century, pastor Jakob Hurt (1839-1907) inspired Estonians to collect their folk songs because he understood that "old songs" and other "antiquities" may be the source from which to gather knowledge about "the peoples' domestic life, their work, festivities, customs, wisdoms, follies, their faith and spiritual life, truth and humour". Hurt encouraged his correspondents to collect, among other things, the "ugliest folk memories and the most obscene superstitions," for he found that in addition to the "nice and beautiful" folklore, one should also be familiar with the "horrible, harmful, and obscene." Hurt's appeal to collect both the beautiful and the ugly follows the principle of scientific objectivity, which postulates that the research subject should not be selected or neglected on the basis of aesthetic values. It seems, however, that the more educated of Hurt's correspondents were internally conflicted when they found out that the collection of Estonian folklore needs "shameless" songs as well.

There is a large number of obscene songs in the Estonian Folklore Archives and they have been collected from both men and women. Some of these songs are connected with certain rituals, but in many cases, the context is completely unknown. What was the true meaning of these texts, seeming obscene today, when they were created and performed? In my presentation, I will examine the history of collecting and publishing obscene songs in Estonia, and discuss plausible options for contextualizing decontextualized songs.

Paper short abstract:

In my paper I will discuss how different groups and individuals use archived folklore materials in the context of environmental conflict to set their agendas. I will focus on conflict over Paluküla sacred hill, which is one of the most longest and most disputed environmental conflicts in Estonia.

Paper long abstract:

My paper is based on the on-going doctoral research dealing with ideological usages of place-related narratives in the context of environmental conflicts in Estonia. I connect folkloristic and ecosemiotic theories and concepts to consider both cultural and ecological effects of environmental conflicts.

Estonia folklorists have strong tradition to collect place-related folklore and (re)publish archived materials. Folklorists' work has been utilised in modern national mythology that undelines the importance of nature in Estonians' everyday life and the idea of Estonians as 'forest people'. Therefore it is logical that place-lore is also switched in discourses of nature-protection and environmental conflicts.

Different parties of discussion refer to place-lore as a basis of their argumentation and use folklore materials in their communication strategies. However, when folkloristic interpretation become a part of political or formal discourse the meanings and functions of place-lore are shifted, and also original context and agenda of collecting and archiving folklore are often left aside or ignored.

I will give examples from one of the longest and most disputed environmental conflicts in Estonia: conflict concerning the plan to build a ski resort on Paluküla sacred hill in North-Estonia. Illustrative material of my presentation will include earlier archive materials (from 19th and 20th century), reflections from media and interviews with conflict participants.

I will discuss how earlier folklore materials relate to locals' vernacular knowledge and how folklore materials are (de)contextualized during the conflict. Also I will discuss the role of Estonian folklorists (and archaeologists) as interpreters and agents in the conflict.

Paper short abstract:

The paper presents a new reading of two major ethnographic works regarding the Jews of Yemen, by the German Jewish scholar S. D. Goitein. The paper will address questions of Orientalism and Folklore research as they relate to "the most Arab among Jews".

Paper long abstract:

Two major ethnographic works regarding the Jews of Yemen were published in the first half of the 20th century by the renowned German-Jewish scholar S.D. Goitein. One work is Jemenica, a collection of Yemeni proverbs Goitein collected from the Yemeni community in Jerusalem, translated to German. The other work, Travels in Yemen Goitein published several years later. This book is the accounts of a Yemeni Jew who traveled in Yemen and is written in Judeo Arabic, translated to Hebrew. This book has been an important source of information about Yemen and its Jews until today. These two important works, along with many other publications in this field, made Goitein the founder of the field of research on Yemeni Jews.

The paper will interrogate Goitein's ethnographic methodology and his actions and interactions with Yemeni Jews in the process of writing these two works. I will address questions regarding Goitein's preconceptions, as a Zionist and as an Orientalist, regarding Yemeni Jews, and how those affected his research. Finally, reading Goitein's writings about Yemeni Jews, I will address the question of agency regarding the Yemeni informants, and their involvement in what was written about them.