Paper short abstract:

My paper analyses the transformation of the concept ’sacred’ in a community and the transference of ritual traditions formerly connected with prehistoric sacred places to new sites. The analysis is based on evidence obtained during fieldwork on sacred natural places, conducted in 2012 in Estonia.

Paper long abstract:

In the summer and autumn of 2012, Estonian folklorists carried out fieldwork on historical natural sacred sites in the area covering three historical parishes in southern Estonia. The purpose of the fieldwork was to identify the natural sacred places or objects on landscape, relying on preliminary data, and both quantitative and qualitative description of the places for a systematic survey. The primary objective of exploring the historical sacred places is to map their current condition and develop criteria for placing these under protection.

Archive texts were of invaluable help in identifying and outlining the sacred sites on the landscape, while interviewing the local population to determine the truthfulness of written evidence and collecting additional lore about the sites proved to be even more important. The most problematic aspect of determining the location of the sacred sites was the changed natural landscape and knowledge of the lore. The locals no longer remembered the sacred sites which had been destroyed tens of years before, many existing objects were not considered sacred any more, and earlier lore about the sites had been forgotten.

Surprisingly for the researchers, some meaningful natural objects w hich traditionally did not have a historical or folkloric representation, had come to be considered sacred by a community or an individual. Some of these were single rocks that people had found and placed in their home yards, others included, for example, a spring that is believed to have curative properties, even though there was no prior information about it available.