Paper short abstract:

The paper explores epistemological uncertainties relative to geopolitical and cultural borders in Finnish folklore. Folk belief and vernacular knowledge on living with the border spirits are discussed here with the recurring folk narrative schemas in different border situations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses folklore and epistemological uncertainties relative to geopolitical and cultural borders. The multiple ways of knowing borders have been acknowledged in the field of borders studies since its early days. Nowadays, the diversity of borders regularly serves as a point of departure in border research. Border un/certainties are approached here from the viewpoint of vernacular knowledge and folk belief. The research materials are limited to the 20th century folklore descriptions of the border folk beliefs in Finland and its borderlands. Methodically, the study links to a critical-creative folkloristic perspective so that its symmetrical lenses draw also from the narrative methodology and border theory. The paper illustrates that the borders between farmhouses, villages, regions, and states serve as source for a vivid place-lore, and that these borderlands are regularly inhabited by dwellers other-than-human beings. It is argued that the un/certainties of living with the border spirits in these contexts link to the un/certain knowledge of the site of the border. Moreover, the epistemological un/certainty of borders refers also to the question of how folk belief schemas, for instance the racket of the border spirits, are vividly narrated and varied in different kinds of border situations, not only in the farm, but also in the state border contexts. In addition, it is pondered how these findings and this kind of approach more generally contributes to the contemporary border studies discussions of border un/certainties, for instance, in terms of the research on/with/for empowering border knowledge and sociocultural inclusion.