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In my paper, I explore how Finnish traditional belief legends delineated deathscapes and emphasised the danger of places belonging to the dead. I analyse the pursuit to keep the dead and the living strictly apart and briefly compare it with the more porous deathscapes of our time.

Paper long abstract

In 19th century Finnish belief legends, spaces and places associated with the dead were depicted as inhabited and guarded by the dead. Visits to the church and graveyards required ritual precautions, and places where someone had died or where the body had been kept were feared and avoided. According to the Lutheran church, the dead remained in their graves until the Judgement Day, and therefore, the presence of the dead was interpreted as relatively concrete. Communication with them was deemed as forbidden and dangerous, and spaces belonging to the dead were carefully kept apart from the everyday sphere of the living. Legends discussed these norms in various ways: they warned about violating the boundary between the dead and the living but also related numerous ways to do it. Today, spaces for the living and the dead are more intertwined. Graveyards are popular for recreation, and the dead dwell in spiritual and imaginary realms and are even felt to accompany the living in their everyday life. I will discuss the main factors which contributed to this change.

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This paper compares ghost narratives in rural Bosnia before and after the war, arguing that since the war new categories of the dead and new sites for their agentive power have emerged, reflecting changing spatial and social practices, with the dead participating as agents of (changing) morality.

Paper long abstract

Based on ethnographic research in central Bosnia, this presentation examines the narratives of the dead in the context of changing spatial and social practices in rural communities, affected by the general post-war economic and social changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By comparing first- and second-hand personal accounts of encounters with the dead as spirits / ghosts (emic: 'apparitions') before and after the 1992-1995 war, I will demonstrate that these changes have produced new dominant categories of the dead and sites for their agentive power, reflecting the diminishing importance of the neighbourhood as a social institution on the one hand, and the increasing importance of individuals’ private lives and families on the other. Furthermore, I will argue that the dead have been actively involved in these processes and participated in them as agents of (changing) morality.

[Funded by the ERC Adv. grant project № 101095729 (DEAGENCY)]

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Ethnographic accounts from northeastern Slovenia describe encounters with unknown dead in forests and borderlands. Sudden stillness, unusual sounds, and environmental shifts trigger a sensed presence that shapes local moral geographies and perceptions of danger and place.

Paper long abstract

Cemeteries are commonly understood as primary deathscapes – material and symbolic spaces where the living encounter and remember their dead. However, ethnographic research in rural northeastern Slovenia reveals that some experiences of the dead occur far beyond the cemetery, particularly in liminal spaces such as forests, border paths, and remote village edges. In these places, people report sensing the presence of unknown dead – figures without biographical ties to the experiencer, whose presence is felt rather than recognised. Interlocutors describe sudden forest stillness, unusual sounds or shifting winds as moments when the unknown dead are experienced. These encounters are often unsettling and interpreted as warnings, reminders, or signs associated with the morally ambiguous character of borderlands – historically shaped by the Iron Curtain, dangerous crossings, military patrols, violence, and unmarked deaths. In such moments, natural environments become affective deathscapes: symbolic terrains where the boundary between the living and the dead becomes perceptible through sensory and atmospheric cues. Drawing on Maddrell and Sidaway’s (2010) conceptualisation of deathscapes as material and symbolic geographies, this paper examines how forests and border spaces in northeastern Slovenia are imbued with the presence of the unknown dead. These encounters reshape local narratives of place, danger, and memory, revealing a distinct moral geography in which the dead remain active presences that orient people’s emotions, behaviour, and spatial practices.

Maddrell, Avril, & Sidaway, James D. (Eds.). (2010). Deathscapes: Spaces for Death, Dying, Mourning and Remembrance. Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate.

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With disappointing results many of my Danish interviewees attempt to understand their strange experiences through rationality and logic, furthermore the Danish land- and cityscape is highly domesticated and spatially out of sync with such sensations which might add to the difficulties.

Paper long abstract

In my fieldwork concerning unexplainable experiences in today’s Denmark, my interviewees are troubled by the lack of plausible explanations. Expecting all occurrences to have natural causes makes it difficult to navigate in contexts beyond the realm of science; as ghosts, spirits, elves, revenants and goblins are not part of modern cosmologies, dilemmas arise concerning their ordinary explanatory practices and the possible disbelief in personal sensations. The incidents are isolated, unexpected, momentary, and seemingly devoid of meaning. Resembling glitches, they seem to occur without pattern and out of sync with time and space.

The incidents have no favourite sceneries, no gothic or romantic taste. They happen everywhere and links between site and occurrence are seldom seen. However, the controlled, domesticated landscapes and the structured cities in nowadays Denmark create a scenery that so to speak denies unexplainability; the surroundings represent rationality, whereas the experiences are of another kind of uncommon sense.

The experiences leave the interviewees in an isolated state, afraid to be ridiculed, they have difficulties telling their stories to others and of imagining what is happening. This challenges moral norms of explanatory logics and gives rise to dilemmas concerning how to act, when experiencing something out of the ordinary. These dilemmas, spatial sceneries, tabooed situations and missing imaginaries are investigated through the concepts other-than-human and other-than-natural. What happens, when other-than-natural experiences are suspected to be also other-than-human, and thereby also other-than-rational and other-than-understandable?

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If we consider the dead to be humans, either former humans or humans in a different plane of existence, what does that mean for our interactions with the dead? In this paper, I will explore ethical interactions with the dead in various spaces, including ghost hunting and ghost tourism.

Paper long abstract

If we consider the dead to be humans, either former humans or humans in a different plane of existence, what does that mean for our interactions with the dead? Do we use the same ethics that we would use with humans or do we need a different ethical framework? Regardless of our beliefs in the supernatural, thinking about ethics and the dead (and non-human or other forms) is an interesting ethical practice that we can use in our own research and in teaching. In this presentation, I will explore ethical interactions with the dead in various spaces, including ghost hunting and ghost tourism. In many environments in North America and Europe, the dead are often still subjected to stereotypes and thoughtless interactions, even though they often represent complex social issues and histories. How, instead, can we address these issues via ghosts and other non-human entities? Can we have deeper, more complex, conversations about ghosts than living people? And, if we do believe them to be sentient, how can create ethical interactions both between us and the dead and about the dead?

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Based on personal narratives collected in a Northern Hungarian village, this paper explores the values, afterlife beliefs and conceptualisations of relations between the living and the dead that are linked to covered stone graves and ‘greener’ graves covered and surrounded by lush vegetation.

Paper long abstract

The idea of being laid to rest close to nature, in a forest, in a body of natural water, or at a scenic site has become increasingly popular. While some park-like cemeteries with their rich vegetation imitate the natural environment, most cemeteries in Hungary are rather unpoetic places with regulations on what could be planted on and between the graves. This is the case in the cemetery of a village in Northern Hungary, where most graves take the shape of covered concrete blocks, with stone headstones. The neat rows of these tombs, many of which have two-storied vaults beyond the ground, are only occasionally interrupted by the green spots of trees, bushes or tombs that are covered or surrounded by living flowers. The differences between the ‘greener’ graves and stone tombs are not only aesthetic. Based on personal narratives of local people, this paper explores the values, afterlife beliefs and conceptualisations of relations between the living and the dead that are linked to different types of graves.

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Drawing on narratives of ash scattering at sea, this paper explores how mourners create maritime memory landscapes, and how storytelling mediates the relationship between the living, the dead, and the sea.

Paper long abstract

Scattering ashes at sea is a rapidly growing practice in Sweden, often chosen for the sea's symbolic connection to the deceased. Based on interviews with relatives who have carried out sea scatterings, this paper explores how the sites of scattering are remembered, narrated, and invested with significance, as they construct at once biographical and maritime deathscapes.

In the relative's stories, the sea emerges as an ambiguous resting place. It is at once specific and diffuse: anchored in particular bays, cliffs, or sailing routes tied to the life history of the deceased, yet also imagined as “everywhere water flows.” Through stories told afterwards, scattering sites crystallize into highly meaningful places in the maritime landscape, simultaneously personal and expansive. Mourners describe them as right, beautiful, or even fated, and find comfort in imagining the dead in their right element, in their right place.

The narratives reveal how individualized burial rituals are shaped through improvisation in relation to nature, inspiration from established funerary traditions, and the biographical ties of the deceased to water. They also show how memory work transforms large, anonymous seascapes into intimate deathscapes and places for commemorative practices.

By focusing on how scattering sites are made meaningful in narrative, the paper contributes to wider discussions about how natural environments become spaces of memory, and how storytelling mediates the relationship between the living, the dead, and the sea.

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The presentation explores narratives from Hungary in which natural signs—like leaves, clouds, or feathers—are seen as messages from the dead. These stories reshape landscapes into deathscapes, spaces where nature mediates between the living and the dead, redefining remembrance beyond cemeteries.

Paper long abstract

My presentation examines how the presence of the dead becomes embedded in physical landscapes through the narratives of the bereaved, using the concept of the deathscape. Based on one and a half years of ethnographic fieldwork in Hungary, I explore how mourners interpret natural signs—such as leaves, cloud formations, feathers, or heart-shaped natural patterns—as messages from the deceased. These signs are not perceived as random natural phenomena but as spiritual points of connection that reframe the everyday environment.

The research investigates how such nature-based messages become active tools in the mourning process and how they transform physical spaces into sites of remembrance. In these narratives, the landscape functions not as a passive backdrop but as an active mediator between the dead and the living—a liminal zone where the spiritual and physical worlds intersect.

These momentary natural deathscapes stand in stark contrast to cemeteries, which in most narratives appear as increasingly marginal spaces. Many participants expressed a sense of disconnection from cemeteries, stating that “the dead are not really there.” Yet, paradoxically, it seems as if the dead are present everywhere else, but most profoundly in nature.

The analysis highlights how natural signs reaffirm the continuity of bonds, reorganize the spatial dimensions of grief, and provide opportunities for the living to sustain a dialogue with the dead through nature. Thus, the deathscape emerges not only as a site of memory but also as a space for the processing of loss and the spiritual re-creation of connection.

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Paper short abstract

The paper explores the connection between nature and the spirits of the dead in narratives of people practicing neo-shamanism and Wicca – spiritual currents that adapt old ancestral traditions. It pays attention to a reciprocal relationship between the living, the dead, and the natural world.

Paper long abstract

The paper explores the connection between nature and the spirits of the dead or ancestors in narratives of people practicing neo-shamanism and Wicca – spiritual currents that reconstruct and adapt old traditions, fostering a holistic worldview where ancestors continue to influence the lives of the living. It examines how natural elements such as forests, mountains, rivers, and animals are reflected in these narratives as conduits or sacred spaces for communication with ancestors, paying attention to ideas that emphasize a reciprocal relationship between the living, the dead, and the natural world. In neo-shamanism, power places – sacred sites in nature – serve as energetic nodes in which communication between the dead and the living becomes the most potent; and power animals function as spiritual allies embodying strength, protection, and intuitive knowledge. In Wicca, a neo-pagan movement, worship of nature is a central idea, which is reflected in narratives, collective rituals and daily practices. The paper argues that reconstruction of old traditions in neo-shamanism and neo-paganism is linked to a reaffirmation of nature’s sacredness and a renewed cultural engagement with lineage, memory, and identity.

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Paper short abstract

Artificial intelligence enters the digital folklore world as a mediator between the living and the dead. Much like radio or television once did, it now opens virtual deathscape, where technology, memory, and narratives of liminal experiences intersect.

Paper long abstract

The term artificial intelligence has become a commonly used expression in contemporary discourse, but it is rarely given a precise definition. In everyday use, it refers to a wide range of technologies and tools, algorithms, and even social practices. This often blurs the line between technical reality and the ideas that accompany artificial intelligence. It is precisely this vagueness that allows artificial intelligence to enter the world of folklore in the digital environment.

Internet and other contemporary folklore material shows that AI appears as a liminal field through which contact is established with the spiritual world – with spirits, souls of the dead, and stories about their influence on the living.

Just as radio, television, and other technical inventions have served as media for communication with the dead in the past, AI plays a similar role today. New forms of the deathscapes are emerging in the digital environment, where natural landscapes are being replaced by virtual spaces.

A particularly interesting phenomenon in this context is the so-called AI psychosis, where intense interaction with intelligent computer systems triggers experiences in individuals that they interpret as contact with the dead or other non-human beings. These examples reveal how technology is becoming a mediator in processes where death, memory, and narratives intersect. The analysis of these narratives raises methodological questions about the study of the intertwining of the technological, social, and symbolic, and enables a new understanding of AI as a cultural phenomenon in the context of the living and the dead.

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In folklore about nåloupers (Eng: revenants) in 19th-20th century Groningen (NL), the location of their hauntings determine how people deal (or not) with them. This suggests a connection between the natural and social order: healing a breach in the social order heals the natural order.

Paper long abstract

When examining mythological and folkloric systems around the world, it becomes apparent that ‘supernatural’ beings are embodied within a specific environment (like humans are). A question that it raises, however, is what both parties (the locality and the ‘supernatural’ species) do to alter the significance of the other. In what way do the ‘supernatural’ entities change the perception of the environment which they inhabit, and vice versa? Clues to this can be gleaned from studying the Dutch-Saxon nåloupers (English: revenants), people who return after death. In folkloric narratives from 19th and 20th century Groningen, the Netherlands, there is an intricate connection between the dead and their haunted localities. Studying some 120 narratives, a pattern can be discerned that is active in a majority of the stories. Nåloupers are generally unwelcome when living near human settlements or in inhabited houses, and people need to deal with them by opting for one of the several mechanisms in place: resolving the issue for which the nålouper returns, reconstruction of the living place, or banishment. When inhabiting areas which humans do not frequent, nåloupers are however left in peace. In this, another general pattern becomes apparent. Nåloupers create a tangible connection between the natural and the social order. Through breaking the natural order (the nålouper returns from death), the nålouper signifies a breach in the social order (a broken promise, an unsolved murder etc.). Restoring said social breach will heal the natural breach: the nålouper can rest in peace again.

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This paper explores death, the afterlife, and encounters with souls in Baltic folktales. It examines where the dead dwell, how they appear to the living, and what these narratives reveal about cultural beliefs surrounding mortality and the spiritual world.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines representations of death, the afterlife, and encounters with the dead in Baltic folktales, highlighting the cultural meanings attached to mortality and the fate of the soul. Folktales, from the Latvian and Lithuanian traditions frequently explore what happens beyond death, offering insights into beliefs that blend mythological, religious, and folk elements. At the core of these narratives is the question of the soul’s journey: where it travels, how it is received, and whether it remains connected to the world of the living. The tales often portray souls as inhabiting specific realms, ranging from distant mythical landscapes to locations close to home, such as graveyards, crossroads, or even domestic spaces. These entities may manifest to the living in dreams, visions, or unexpected encounters, acting as intermediaries, assistants, or cautionary symbols. At times, the dead assume forms of restless spirits or revenants, underscoring unresolved tensions between the living and the departed. These motifs reveal not only attitudes toward death but also communal attempts to maintain bonds with ancestors and to safeguard the boundaries between worlds. By analysing these stories, the paper seeks to illuminate how Baltic folktales reflect and shape conceptions of mortality, continuity, and spiritual presence. This underscores the role of folktales as both narrative entertainment and cultural repositories, encompassing themes of life, death, and the enduring mysteries of the unknown.

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This paper traces a broader canon of Chicago ghost stories centered on climate awareness. Shifting focus to the ecological aspects of touristic ghost narratives is a way of closely analyzing how urban transformation creates ghosts in the forms of pollution, land degradation, and social disruption.

Paper long abstract

This paper does the work of tracing out a broader canon of Chicago ghost stories centered on climate awareness which could be drawn into the popular lexicon. Shifting focus to the ecological aspects of touristic ghost narratives is a way of closely analyzing how urban transformation creates ghosts in the forms of pollution, land degradation, and social disruption. Ghost stories mesh soul and space, creating an invitation to pull back the veil and look for that which has been concealed behind it. It is a uniquely well-suited medium for investigating how narrative acts as a construction material to build spatial awareness, providing blueprints for tenancy. Inhabiting a city is a tenuous thing, change is always in progress and daily existence is rarely static. The physical city consists of specific, constructed spaces where pollution can be seen. These curated channels keep out the permeating feeling of larger scale emergency. The Chicago River is a place where the failings of this concealment become evident and the source of ghost stories read from popular documentations and from resident interviews.

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This paper examines natural vernacular features in Tibetan delok (“returners from the afterlife”) narratives, showing how the uncanny character of their descriptions of deathscapes sheds light on both their rhetorical dimensions and the coexistence of plural conceptions of the afterlife.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how natural features appear in a distinctive genre of Tibetan popular religious narratives, that of delok (’das log), the “returners from the afterlife,” and how the notion of the “uncanny” can serve as a hermeneutically relevant tool for understanding their rhetorical dimensions. In these narratives, individuals – often women of humble background – recount their experiences of dying, journeying through the afterlife (most frequently to the hell realms), and returning to the world of the living. While these accounts are strongly didactic and oftentimes stereotypically Buddhist, they nonetheless diverge in a few important ways from doctrinal ideas of the afterlife. Among these, the most immediately striking is the appearance of distinctive natural features, such as valleys, rivers, and mountains, within descriptions of the “intermediate space” (bar do), elements largely absent from scholastic tantric sources. These deathscapes, described as being uncannily similar to those of the living, contribute to the confusion and dysphoria the death-traveller experiences. Drawing on both edited and unedited sources, this paper examines the uncanny as an object of inquiry within Tibetan religious literature, with particular attention to its rhetorical dimensions. More broadly, it argues that the uncanny — and the place it occupies within narrative — offers a useful conceptual lens for the study of deathscapes, in folkloristics and beyond.

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This paper examines the narratives of the Ixil Maya of Guatemala, focusing on oral tradition, historical memory, and contemporary testimonies. The study explores how Ixil relationships with sacred landscapes are cultivated through ritual, ceremony, and communication with earth-beings.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the narratives of the Ixil Maya of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, which continue to be woven into the landscapes of sacred mountains and caves, coffee plantations, and hydroelectric projects despite histories of war and genocide. Focusing on oral tradition, historical memory, and contemporary testimonies, the study explores how Ixil relationships with sacred landscapes are cultivated through ritual, ceremony, and communication with earth-beings—practices often described as Maya spirituality or costumbre. Particular attention is given to the role of women Ancestral Authorities in sustaining ecological knowledge and articulating the Ixil philosophy of tiichajil (“good life”). By foregrounding these voices, the paper highlights Indigenous perspectives on spirituality, ecology, and resilience in the face of extractivist pressures, while reflecting on the renown, ontological attention to animism and analogism within Maya studies. The paper is based on my recently published monograph, Dreaming with the Mountains: Maya Spirituality and Sacred Landscapes in the Ixil Region of Guatemala (2024).