Welcome!
You are visiting the Estonian folklorists' server Haldjas (fairy, guardian spirit), which was set up in 1995 by the folk belief research group of the Institute of the Estonian Language. Presently, the group and the server have been incorporated under the Estonian Literary Museum. The majority of electronic publications and data corpora in the server are in the Estonian language, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family. Estonia is a small country with ca one million people, who speak the Estonian language as their mother tongue.
The server offers a wide range of information on oral heritage, folklore and folk belief, on the institutions actively engaged in folkloristic research in Estonia as well as researchers and research projects. The covered aspects of folklore also include the heritage of other peoples of the Uralic language group. The server features two journals that have been published online and in print since 1996: Mäetagused and Folklore: An electronic Journal of Folklore.
Only parts of the material are currently available in English and/or German; in time the proportion of material in foreign language will grow.
Our news!
In memoriam Kailash Dutta (1976–2012) and Parag Moni Sarma (1967–2012)
Indian folkloristics suffered a great loss on April 28, 2012, when two young Assam folklorists were killed in a traffic accident on Guwahati – Tezpur road. Kailash Dutta worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University, and Parag Moni Sarma was Professor at the same department.
Kailash defended his doctoral degree at the Department of Folklore Research at Gauhati University in 2011, his thesis providing an overview of the relations between ethnicity and folklore on the example of Thengal Kachari community. As in 2009 and 2010 Kailash was a visiting doctoral student within the DoRa programme (Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme) at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu, his thesis also comprises a comparative chapter on Seto folk culture.
Parag’s doctoral thesis completed at Gauhati University in 2000 is an ethnopoetic comparative analysis of the folk songs of Assam tribes and Native Americans in the United States. Later on Parag delved into social and cultural theories, becoming one of the leading Indian folklorists in this area of research.
We have lost two good friends, who maintained close connections with Estonia and were willing to cooperate with us. They were both dedicated to their research and their students. Unfortunately, their lives ended prematurely, but we will cherish their memory and highly value everything they accomplished and were able to initiate.
Kalevipoeg 150. Traditional and Literary Epics of the World: Textuality, Authorship, Identity
The International Symposium Traditional and Literary Epics of the World: Textuality, Authorship, Identity" is organised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg (1857-1861). Papers will be welcomed on oral and literary epics of the world, covering a range of subtopics.
Programme and more information:
http://www.folklore.ee/events/epics2011/
Interdisciplinary Conference Medica VIII. Medical Pluralism.Tartu, 28. November 2011
Dear colleagues, we kindly invite you to participate in the 8th interdisciplinary Conference Medica, dealing this time with pluralism in medical context(s). The general aim of our annual meetings has been to analyze public and self-referential representations of health and illness problems in different contexts.
Programme and information you can find in the page: http://http://www.folklore.ee/events/epics2011/kava.htm/
MEDICA VIII. Interdisciplinary Conference
Medical Pluralism in the Era of Digimodernism
Time: 28. November 2011
Place: Estonian Literary Museum, Vanemuise 42, Tartu
The conference working language is English.
14.oo Medicine in Tartu before the Foundation of the University and during the Academia Gustaviana Period.
Kaarina Rein, Tartu University
14.30 The Academics and the Recording of Folk Medicine . During the first Estonian Republic (1918-1940).
Ave Tupits, Estonian Literary Museum
15.00 Is it possible to identify healing instruments in archaeological material?
Kristiina Johanson,Tartu University
15.30 Unintentional prevention of diseases: historical study on Estonian tea-plants
Raivo Kalle and Renata Sõukand, Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian University of Life Science
16.00 Last Man Standing? Charmers, Illnesses and Healing in Bulgarian Early Modern Daily Life
Svetlana Tsonkova, Central European University , Budapest; University of Tartu
16.30-16.50 coffee break
16.50 Russian (neo)Shamanism in the Last Quarter of XX Century: Religion, Creativity and Healing
Valentina Kharitonova, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS
17.30 Shamanistik healing in the transpersonal Anthropology.
Tatjana Bulgakova, St. Peterburg
18.00 Constructive alternativism and the Healers.
Mare Kõiva, Estoninan Literary Museum
18.30 Experiences with Shamanistic Healers
Mihály Hoppál, European Folklore Institute, Ethnographic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
19.00 Keila hooldushaiglast, hoolimisest ja palliatiivsest hoolekandest
Piret Paal, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Klinikum Großshadern (poster)
Organizing committee: Mare Kõiva, Renata Sõukand, Liisa Vesik.
Phone: 372-7377740
From Language to Mind IV
Conference in memory of Oskar Loorits (1900-1961) and in occasion of Pille Kippar 75
Academician, multitalented researcher of Estonian language, folklore and culture, an explorer and experimenter, establisher of the Estonian Folklore Archives and its series of publications, researcher of mythology, religion and many traditional genres, always ready to explore new folklore, linguist and doctor of folklore, nationalist and national ideologist, founding member of the student society Veljesto, member of Learned Estonian Society, foreign member of the Royal Gustav Adolf National Academy, collector and publisher of Livonian heritage, a passionate man. Oskar Loorits has left a deep mark upon past Estonian religion research. Having folkloristic background, Loorits was first of all interested in folklore-related topics. Although mostly involved with timeless religio motifs, Loorits was nevertheless the first to study on an academic level prehistoric religion, attempting to define different periods therein. Oskar Loorits is a person that carried on academic research tradition in Estonian folkloristics, who laid the ground for many fields, who set the trends of study and methodics for several decades. The list of his accomplishments could go on. The fourth seminar in the series “From Langauge to Mind” is dedicated to Oskar Loorits and takes place September 15.-17., 2010.
Conferences dedicated to Oskar Loorits have been held once in a decade (1990, 2000), and have contributed to establishing new contacts and professional approaches. This time, the conference is united with the series of international conferences “From Language to Mind”. In the case of Oskar Loorits, just as previously with Ülo Tedre and Arvo Krikmann, the motto is justified by the wide range of accomplishments and erudition displayed by the scholar.
Abstracts available on the conference web page http://www.folklore.ee/rl/fo/konve/2010/loorits/
Tsässons and churches of Setomaa in the 17th to 21st century
From September 15 unitl October 6, Vanemuise 42, main hall
The photography exhibition includes 80 photos of all the 23 tsässons and 6 Orthodox churches located within the Estonian territory of Setomaa (Setoland). All photos were taken by architecture photographer Arne Maasik (in 2008-2010) and all texts (in Estonian, Russian and English) are written by Jaanus Plaat, professor of Folk Art and Cultural Anthropology at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
This exhibition is part of the research and photography project “The Orthodox Churches and Chapels in Estonia” conducted by the Chair of Folk Art and Cultural Anthropology at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and supported by the Estonian Science Foundation and Cultural Endowment of Estonia. The project includes several scientific publications and online and photographic exhibitions of Orthodox sacred buildings in Estonia, which are associated
with the compilation of the two-volume scientifically commented photo album “The Orthodox Churches and Chapels in Estonia” in Estonian, Russian and English.
The exhibitions, exhibition texts as well as the album are based on the photos taken during the fieldwork in 2007-2010, interviews with Orthodox people and other sources. During this project, almost all the currently
known Orthodox churches, their ruins, chapels (including the Seto tsässons) and monasteries in Estonia and within the Russian territory of Pechory County as well as all the churches and prayer houses of Old Believers in Estonia were photographically recorded. The project managers and authors of the exhibitions are the architecture photographer Arne Maasik (all photos) and Jaanus Plaat (all texts).
The designer of the exhibitions is Martin Siplane, translators are from Avatar Translation Bureau. Jane Kalajärv and Tanel Tsirgu, Master's students of art and cultural anthropology at the Estonian Academy of Arts, were also involved in the exhibition project.
Folklore. EJF 45
We kindly ask you to read the new issue, Vol. 45 of Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore (available at http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol45/.
Staffan Mjönes, in his article Shaman, Psychoanalyst or Obstetrician: A Critical Reading of Claude Lévi-Strauss’ Essay “The Efficiency of Symbols”, intends to clarify the obstetric, medical-psychological and ethnological credibility of the well-known essay in structural anthropology, indicating that Lévi-Strauss’ reasoning is based on an incomplete source as well as on a grave anatomical misunderstanding.
Anu Korb writes about healers and healing skills in the Ryzhkovo Vironian community in Siberia, founded as a mixed Lutheran settlement in Western Siberia around 1803.
Sarita Sahay focuses on Gai-Goheri, the festival of ceremonial torture, a popular ritual among the people of the Bhil tribe of Western India. Manolis G. Sergis presents and discusses the custom of kynomartyrion (dog torture) which took place in the Greek lands until the 1980s.
Tomi S. Melka investigates the Moche Lima beans recording system, bringing together structural, iconographic and cultural aspects, and indicating that we might be dealing with an original form of mnemotechnology, contrived to solve the problems of medium and long-distance communication among the once thriving Moche principalities. Tarmo Kulmar provides a contrastive overview of the Inca state (1438–1532) in Peru, a highly centralised empire, and the Aztec state (1427–1519) in Mexico, a confederation with weak central authority, retaining many features of a military democracy.
Terry Gunnell analyses the past and present of Sagnagrunnur – a new database of Icelandic folk legends in print. L. Madan Mohan’s article presents a description of magico-religious healers and herbalists among the Savaras, enumerating the various categories of specialists and their diagnostic methods.
In addition, the readers of the new issue can obtain a brief coverage of the more relevant events and enjoy a book review.
Mäetagused 45
We kindly ask you to read the new issue, Vol. 45 of Mäetagused. Electronic Journal of Folklore in Estonian(available at http://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr45/
BA and MA thesis on folklore studies
On May 7, at 2.15 pm, Ülikooli 16-215 defence of a BA and MA thesis on folklore studies:
1. Helen Kästik, Regilaul kontserdirepresentatsioonis: pärand ja kultuurikirjeldus (juhendaja: Kristin Kuutma, oponent: Janika Oras)
kell/at 15.15
2. Siim Sorokin, Jutustaja - kas hääle andja või hääle kandja? (juhendaja: Ülo Valk, oponent: Taisto-Kalevi Raudalainen)
On June 8, Ülikooli 16-102, at 9.30
1. Maarika Kaldmäe, Kodupaik jutupärimuses: Orava ja Hanikase kooli lood (juhendaja: Ülo Valk, oponent: Ergo-Hart Västrik)
kell/at 10.15
2. Viola Ristisaar, Meleski küla minevik ja tänapäev kohalike elanike pilgu läbi (juhendaja: Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, oponent: Pihla Siim)
kell/at 11.00
3. Mari Suits, Kusagil struktuurides on kallutatud jõud ehk vandenõuteooriate rahvapärane mõtestamine Eesti noorte hulgas (juhendaja: Ülo Valk, oponent: Merili Metsvahi)
kell/at 11.45
4. Marti Mereäär, Muhu olustikulised külalaulud "Muhu lauluvara aktsiooni" materjali põhjal (juhendajad: Janika Oras, Ergo-Hart Västrik, oponent: Tiiu Jaago)
kell/at 15.15
5. Kaisa Kulasalu, Uhkus ajab upakile: Kalamehe ja ta naise (ATU 555) soovidemaailm (juhendaja: Risto Järv, oponent: Kärri Toomeos-Orglaan)
kell/at 16. 00
6. Ingra Küngas, Satanistikujutelmad tänases Eestis (juhendaja: Ülo Valk, oponent: Ringo Ringvee)
SIEF working group The Ritual Year, 6th conference
On June 4-7, Tallinn, Pühavaimu 6
The Societé Internationale d´Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF) Ritual Year Working Group has a conference "The Inner and the Outer"
Programme, abstracts and photos http://www.folklore.ee/rl/fo/konve/ritualyear6/
Additional information: Mare Kõiva (mare@folklore.ee)
The conference is organized by the Estonian Literary Museum and Estonian Folklore Institute.
Annual conference of the Estonian Society for Study of Religions
On May 28, Ülikooli 16-212 will take place an annual conference of the Estonian Society for Study of Religions
Programme
10.00 Alexander Panchenko "Communists against Superstitions: The Soviet State and 'Popular Religion'" (key-note)
11.00 Pejman Bijan "The Philosophy and Religion of Zoroaster: from Ancient Persia to Contemporary Iran" (key-note)
12.00 Kohvipaus / Coffee break
12.15 Faguna Barmahalia "Changing Socio-Religious Practices and Ethnic Identity: A Folkloric Study of the Bodos in Assam"
12.45 Margaret Lyngdoh "The Role of the Seng Khasi in the Preservation of the Khasi Indigenous Religion"
13.15 Lõunapaus / Lunch break
14.15 Enn Ernits "Aleksander Nevski pühakulugu Vene riikliku ideoloogia alustalana"
14.45 Art Leete "Memmede mäss: komi rahvaliku õigeusu liikumine bursõlõsjas"
15.15 Vladimir Sazonov "Behitsuni raidkiri: mõningad märkused Ahhemeniidide kuningavõimust ja riiklikust propagandast"
15.45 Märt Läänemets "Ülevaade 23.-25. mail Tais toimunud ülemaailmsest ÜRO vesaki tähistamise foorumist üldteemal "Maailma parandamine budistlikus perspektiivis""
16.15 Kohvipaus / Coffee break
16.30 Ümarlaud loengusarja "Religioonid ja ühiskonnad" kokkuvõtteks (osalevad Madis Arukask, Märt Läänemets, Ringo Ringvee, Ülo Valk, Marko Veisson)
17.30 EAUS-i aastakoosolek
NB! Hommikupoolse istungi töökeel on inglise keel, pärastlõunane istung toimub eestikeelsena. / During the morning session the conference will be held in English; after the lunch break the working language will be Estonian.
Conference is supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory).
