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- Convenors:
-
Debolina Nath
(Kanchrapara College)
Projita Giri
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Short Abstract
From the fear of Nature, not only comes reverence but also the desire to conquer that fear. This panel will explore how nature is simultaneously worshipped and feared, examining how nature symbolizes both reverence and terror across cultural traditions and Folk Narratives.
Long Abstract
Folk narratives have always reflected the deep and complex relationship between humans and nature. In many cultures, nature is seen not only as a source of life—providing food, shelter, and safety—but also as a powerful, sometimes frightening force. In many folk narratives, nature is both worshipped and feared simultaneously. These narratives, whether myths, legends, folktales or fairy tales, often show landscapes that are both sacred and dangerous, places where spirits, gods, or supernatural powers live and living and non-living beings as fearful. Mountains, forests, rivers and oceans are seen as places of worship, fear and moral lessons, mixing the real world with the spiritual. This panel will explore how folk narratives connect nature worship with human fear. It will look at how these narratives use Nature as a symbol of both respect and fear of its power. By examining different cultural traditions, this panel will shed light on how humans have long understood the complex relationship between themselves and the natural world. The sub-themes may include, but are not limited to, the following:
Fear of living beings (Ophiolatory and others) in folk narratives
Fear of Supernatural beings as sources of fear (Black Magic and others) in Folk Narratives
Fear of the Other: Monstrous creatures, foreign invaders or outsiders in Folk Narratives
Fear of Death and the Afterlife in Folk Narratives
Fear of Transformation: Shape-shifters and Curses in Folk Narratives
Totem and Taboos and Fear in Folk Narratives
Gender and Fear: Women as Victims or Agents of Fear in Folk Narratives
Accepted papers
Session 1 Tuesday 16 June, 2026, -Paper short abstract
The forest is common motif in folk and fairy tale traditions, a space that encompasses the liberating possibilities and the real dangers of straying away from home. This paper considers how the ambiguity of “the forest” is invoked in contemporary narratives of gendered violence in true crime media.
Paper long abstract
The forest is common motif found in folk and fairy tale traditions, a space that simultaneously encompasses the liberating possibilities and the very real dangers of straying away from the familiarity of home. This paper examines this motif in the folk narrative tradition of murder ballads and related genres of storytelling in the United States. Specifically, it considers how the ambiguity of “the forest” is strategically invoked in contemporary narratives of gendered violence in true crime media. It examines how both literal and metaphorical references to “the forest” are used by narrators to call into question the contested terrain of experience shaping the stories women share about danger, blame, and potential victimhood. Attending to the natural landscape of the forest as a contested terrain itself within the discursive landscape of true crime storytelling, this paper builds on Amy Shuman’s important observation that “Stories rarely if ever belong to a single category of experience; more often, storytelling demonstrates an awareness of multiple possible categories, some compatible, some contested, some provocative or marked, and others assumed or naturalized” (2005:16). Ultimately, this paper’s focus on narrative engagement with “the forest” in true crime storytelling offers insight into the multiple discourses women must navigate as they recognize themselves as always already a potential victim of gendered violence in a dangerous world.
Paper short abstract
Why were children excluded during the ritual of the Piaroa Indians? Why did the Busó men harass women? How can we speak to children in an ethnographic museum? Two things are constant: the power of nature and the fear it evokes; the element that changes is our relationship to these two forces.
Paper long abstract
The masks still “work” today. At the center of our presentation is a museum education program that gives children space to reflect, express themselves, or to act out their opinions and feelings about the now-silent masks of a bygone era. In our dynamic, interactive presentation, we will introduce three masks from the vast collection of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest—which holds over 250,000 objects—that are most closely tied to nature and most deeply embody human fears.
Please don’t be startled by the sound of the rattle! —we will also include folk nursery rhymes and live storytelling, so that the audience, too, can be immersed in the experience of fear. We then resolve this by presenting the secret ritual of the South American Piaroas, once performed only by men but now “known” to women as well; the Oceanic malagan funeral masks, which we would never have encountered if an ethnographer had not picked them up from the ground; and the Hungarian Busó folk tradition, which once included insulting women but today is recognized as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage. Through these examples, we examine the problem of colonisation, the re-evaluation of historical value systems, the documentation of a people on the verge of assimilation, and the afterlife of these practices and their impact on both children and adults.
What mask do we hide behind today?
Paper short abstract
This paper will examine Pacific folklore where nature is sacred yet terrifying. It explores Polynesian deities, spirit guardians, dangerous taboos, and ancient curses, reflecting deep cultural fear and respect for natural power.
Paper long abstract
Folk narratives across Oceania depict the complex relationship between humans and nature, characterized by simultaneous worship and fear. This paper examines how deities, spirits, and taboos function as powerful symbols of nature's power and fury in Pasifika folklore.
In Hawaiian lore, Pele embodies the duality of creativity and destruction, with her volcanic fury devastating communities when she is angered. Her temper is respected and feared, leading to rituals and strict taboos, such as the prohibition against taking lava rocks, lest her wrath bring misfortune. Fear manifests through terrifying supernatural entities like the Night Marchers, ancient warriors whose ghostly processions require the living to show profound deference to avoid fatal consequences. Water guardian spirits, the Moʻo, also exemplify this duality, acting as protectors of freshwater bodies who may inflict harm if angered.
Chamorro lore features cautionary tales involving transformation and curses, such as the pagan curse that transforms the young girl Sirena into a mermaid, reflecting an indigenous belief in the powerful native word juxtaposed against colonial Christian elements.
In Samoa, respecting local custom and avoiding loud noises are crucial in sacred, spirit-inhabited areas like Toʻaga, which is reputed to be the home of malevolent spirits and legendary mysteries. Furthermore, modern Pacific narratives link this cultural framework of destruction to colonial and environmental fury, such as Marshallese accounts of women giving birth to "monsters" after nuclear testing, tying primal fears to contemporary trauma. These folk narratives ultimately demonstrate that reverence for nature, whether divine, ancestral, or physical, is crucial for survival.
Paper short abstract
Carpathian folklore portrays trees as agents of magic: they may house spirits, hold or transmit curses, or protect the living. Through rituals and stories, trees emerge as long-lived beings capable of absorbing, retaining, and redirecting supernatural power.
Paper long abstract
In folk narratives of East Slavic speakers in the Carpathian Mountains, trees on rare occasions house supernatural beings. For example, the povitrulia—a female entity that charms men or exchanges babies—is said to live in trees. Yet trees can be dangerous even without such inhabitants. A tree that has come into contact with water left after a healing ritual may become cursed and later transmit the curse to the household. Other accounts say this water should be poured onto trees in places where people rarely go, so the tree may contain the curse without letting it spread.
A developed mythology also surrounds trees used in magic. If an unknown person tries to cut down such a tree, the act can prove fatal unless cleansing rituals are performed. Trees may also hold cursed objects placed there by sorcerers; as long as the object remains, the curse continues. Cutting down the tree does not stop the magic but makes it permanent. Only removing the object would break the curse.
At the same time, some narratives describe trees as protective. After waking from a dream of the dead, one should look at green trees so the dead cannot harm or haunt the dreamer.
Taken together, these accounts portray the tree not as inert matter but as a long-living presence capable of absorbing, containing, and redirecting magical power across generations.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines how nature (environment and animal) becomes a source of fear in contemporary urban legends. While traditionally linked to rural folktales, similar patterns emerge in the city, where parks function as symbolic forests and urban animals (large birds or feral cats) evoke fear.
Paper long abstract
This paper explores the ways in which nature—both the physical environment and animals—operates as a source of fear in contemporary urban legends. While we are accustomed to seeing the natural environment and animals function as loci of fear primarily in folktales set within rural contexts, similar dynamics can also be observed in urban settings. The issue of adaptation is crucial: how the forest is reimagined within the city, how the urban park becomes a symbolic ‘other’ forest, and how and why urban animals (large birds, feral cats, or wild creatures released into peri-urban areas) may evoke fear among city inhabitants.
The study draws on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Athens, focusing both on the collection of legends and on the emotional responses of those who narrate and listen to them.