Naslov
'Reality' of Traditional beliefs in Supernatural Beings

Autori
Šešo, Luka

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Wild or Domesticated - Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind

Mjesto i datum
Helsinki, Finska, 20.09.2016. - 22.09.2016

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
Nadnaravna bića, tradicijska vjerovanja, unutrašnjost Dalmacije, suvremenost
(Supernatural beings, traditional beliefs, Dalmatian hinterland, modernity.)

Sažetak
For more than a hundred years, witches, mòras, werewolves, fairies and other creatures have been in the focus of Croatian ethnologists and folklorists who have collected numerous accounts about folk life mentioning these supernatural beings. My recent field work in Dalmatian hinterland (part of Croatia) has shown that today groups and individuals still tell vivid stories, and some even believe in supernatural beings. Thus, in this paper I will try to understand the role the belief in supernatural beings play in the community in which they appear. I will argue that even today the regulation of social norms is one of the main social roles of the “existence” of supernatural beings. The breaking of taboos, social, moral or religious values causes someone to become a werewolf or to encounter some other supernatural being that punishes the offender. Supernatural beings also serve as a means of social strain gauge. Dissatisfaction and the unwillingness to accept unfavorable condition presuppose the existence of witches and mòras in a community who take the responsibility for all the troubles. Supernatural beings, in which often real, undesirable members of the community can be recognized, become scapegoats responsible for the misfortune and thus clear the accused of the responsibility for the problem. Emphasizing personal beliefs in supernatural beings for some inhabitants of the Dalmatian hinterland also serves for expressing their own affiliation with a certain group. By having information, knowledge about certain events and occurrences, and finally by demonstrating their own involvement in the problem of supernatural beings, certain individuals in the Dalmatian hinterland show that they belong to the community and connect the belief in supernatural beings with their home. At the same time, supernatural beings have the purpose of indirect determination of the relationship toward other ethno-confessional groups. By attaching negative characteristics of supernatural beings to the Others or by comparing the members of other groups with particular supernatural beings, the differences between groups are emphasized. Today, from the interlocutors we can also learn that the beliefs in supernatural beings were used (and still are) in illegal gaining of profit as well as improving certain individual’s unfavorable status. The mechanism is the same. Witty individuals reach after supernatural characteristics and the symbolism of supernatural beings and use them in order to fool those who still strongly believe in them and their power.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA