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- Convenors:
-
Merili Metsvahi
(University of Tartu)
Andreas Kalkun (Estonian Folklore Archives)
Send message to Convenors
- Chairs:
-
Merili Metsvahi
(University of Tartu)
Andreas Kalkun (Estonian Folklore Archives)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Intersectionality
- Sessions:
- Thursday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
In the societies with strong hegemonic power relations there can be a huge distance between beliefs, ways of life and value orientations of different classes. We invite scholars to discuss cases when peasant subaltern agency or elements of counterculture emerge in such societies.
Long Abstract:
In some societies there are more social tensions between different social strata than in other ones. One of the reasons for this is that the ruling class - having not much information about the habits, beliefs, customs, world view and values of the people - does not consider their interests and needs. If the distance between the law-makers and lower classes whom the law is applied is huge and the mediators between the lowest and highest strata (local representors of state power, pastors etc.) are neither well aware of the vernacular ways of life and perception of the world, unwished confrontations can take place. In order to maintain the dignity in the eyes of the fellow members of their community, people do not follow the rules and start to behave in the ways that are unexpected from the point of view of the ruling classes. E. g. they begin to laugh in the church while the new regulations are announced or make sarcastic remarks while defending themselves in court (examples from the 17th and 18th century Estonia).
We invite scholars of different backgrounds and locations mainly dealing with the past to introduce historical sources, ethnographic data and folklore that reflect social tensions based on the rules that do not consider local ways of life. What were the ways of coping with the situation in such hegemonic power relations? Was the peasant subaltern agency so significant that one can speak about the counterculture?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 24 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Gramsci and de Martino were popular scholars in Italy, both involved with the study of subalternity in the 20th century. Starting from their theories and ethnographic cases of the past (e.g. tarantism), this work explores the current relevance and applicability of de Martino and Gramsci’s ideas.
Paper long abstract:
The ideas of hegemony and subalternity have become popular in folklore studies and Marxist philosophy due to the contribution of Antonio Gramsci. Icon of the anti-fascism in Italy and imprisoned during Mussolini’s regime, Gramsci explained the absence of a communist revolution in Italy and many European countries as the product of the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie over the lower and subaltern classes. The anthropologist Ernesto de Martino received Gramsci’s influence as he decided to study the religious history of South Italy during the 1950s, documenting the forms of resistance of subaltern classes against the established and hegemonic religious and moral norms. This is the case of tarantism, a cultural phenomenon of the past spread among peasants and lower classes in the South-Eastern part of the Italian peninsula. Behind the façade of a culture-bound syndrome, tarantism hid the necessity of women’s liberation against the oppression of the working and gender rules, as well as the expression of a freer relationship with the religion and the supernatural.
After the 1960s, lower classes have started to be integrated into the economic niche of the bourgeoisie in Italy. Peasantry and its cultural heritage have thus been perceived as cultural relics of the past, leading to the need for re-thinking Gramsci and de Martino’s reflections in current times. Is hence the idea of subalternity applicable to the current forms of cultural and social resistance of lower classes in Italy? A possible answer to these questions will be provided here.
Paper short abstract:
In 1691-92 a Livonian peasant Thiess stated in the court that he was a good werewolf who brought prosperity for his community. It was an act of resistance. In my paper I am going to explain it, including important details (Thiess being a folk healer) that have been neglected by precious research.
Paper long abstract:
In 2020 Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln published the book „Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf. A Classic Case in Comparative Perspective“ that tells about the famous court case against the elderly peasant Thiess. In 1691 Thiess was accused of being a werewolf, and he didn’t deny it. He tried to persuade the judges that he was a good werewolf and his activities were beneficial for the community, because they brought prosperity. While interpreting the case Ginzburg and Lincoln fail to include an important aspect to their explanation – that Thiess was also a folk healer. Incorporating this aspect however would strengthen the statement proposed by Lincoln about Thiess’s defense as an act of religious, legal, cultural and political resistance against the upper classes of his society. In my presentation I am going to explain it in more detail.
Paper short abstract:
Baltic manors provided treatment for the sick peasants, gave them medicines and summoned a doctor if needed. What did the serfs think about the treatments that they were subjected to? Were there any commonalities in the peasants' and their masters' views regarding health and diseases?
Paper long abstract:
A rather popular idea in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Baltic manors was paternalism, according to which the relationship between the landlord and his serfs was analogous to that between a father and his children. In paternalistic literature, one of the most recurrent pieces of evidence of such fatherly care provided by manor owners was their role in mediating medical care to the serfs. Manors provided treatment for the sick peasants, gave them medicines and summoned a doctor if needed. Not only acting as healthcare providers for the serfs, manors clearly proceeded from the principle of paternalism, regarding the serfs as children who did not know what was good and beneficial to them.
Marten Seppel has studied what historical sources from manors tell us about the healthcare of peasantry. In these fascinating and informative sources, however, the voice of peasants themselves is not heard. What did the serfs think about the treatments that they were subjected to? Was it a pleasant or a horrible experience? Were there any commonalities in the peasants' and their masters' views regarding health and diseases? Folklore sources reveal the ambiguity in how this fatherly care could have been perceived by the serfs. While peasants learned about treatments and received medicines from the manor, they also suspected that people living at the manor spread diseases. Furthermore, various methods of treatment known in Western medicine were interpreted as dark magic.