CHAPTER 7 the Dead
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CHAPTER 7 The Dead. 259. 1. Introduction In this chapter three related concepts are d.is cussed - life after death, 'reveriants', and 'poltergeists'. The women of the Ga.tley study group all hold conventional religious views and are churchgoers (a sub- stantial majority are Methodists, and smaller numbers are Roman Catholics and Jews). It is hardly surprising, therefore, to find that seventy per- cent of them believe that after death we qill "meet again" those we loved in life. When the results of the survey of belief were calculated, how- ever, it as rather more unexpected to find. that significant numbers (sixty percent) believe that dead relatives can return, or/and. that houses can be haunted by poltergeists (forty-one percent). The nature of those beliefs dll be explored below, principally through an examination of the memorates and. personal legends the women tell on these subjects. Memorates are particularly valuable in the exploration of beliefs because they are the genre of narrative used in this context to demonstrate the speaker's understanding of the subject matter, and to explain, illus- trate and justify points of view. Memorates and personal legends may also, of course, be told even in a serious context for social reasons - because storytelling is fun, because it facilitates ease and friendliness in social gatherings, because it is an outlet for artistic self-expression. Even in these stories, however, in this context cultural belief patterns lie close to the surface. Memorates, for example, transmute raw experience into narrative - a personal and private happening becomes, in a sense, public property, shaped. both by and for public opinion. The language of memorates will therefore reveal cultural patterns and the experience itself will be shaped. by cultural expectations. So, if raw experience is trans- muted into narrative, and in so doing a report of a visual hallucination becomes a story about the returning dead, then the patterns of action 260. accorded to the dead in the story will not be idiosyncratic invention but those accorded to the dead in the narrator' s community. Personal legend, of course, has already been transformed into a culturally acceptable product - if it had. not been, it would not have continued to be transmitted. In this and. the foflowing two chapters therefore the texts of memorates and personal legends told by the study group will be examined, as a direct and relevant way of approaching their beliefs. The emphasis will be pre- dominantly textual, and will examine belief as text • Four points perhaps need stressing and reiterating. First, these texts were collected in the context of discussions of belief. A majority of them were given as direct responses to ques-Lions; a minority, though not so immediately question- orientated, were obviously considered both helpful and relevant in the discussion. Secondly, none of these narratives was requested: all were spontaneously volunteered. One may therefore assume that they were designed to be topic-related rather than to display the narrator's skill or familiarity with 'ghost stories' as a genre. Thirdly, they are pre- dominantly memorates. None of them, so far as I am aware, is a traditional legend. They are therefore less affected by literary and historical supernatural stereotypes and more influenced by the concepts current in the teller's and hearer's community. Fourthly, the discourse surrounding the narratives will also be analysed so that texts may be set in context. If non-narrative and narrative accord to present a single, cohesive account of belief patterns, then together they offer strong evidence for the accuracy of that account. Any discussion of the spirits of the dead and their possible in- fluence on, or activity in,the world of the living must be seen in the context of the study group's ideas about life after death. During field- work the cjuestion used as an initial general introduction to the topic of the dead was a composite one: "Do you think that we might meet the dead 261. again in another world, or is it possible that they may return in this one?" Most respondents took up the latter part of the question, ignoring the first or implying an answer to it through their discussion 0±' the second part. As a consequence there are only thirty-one direct replies on which to base a description of their views about life after death. Of the thirty-one women who answer, twenty-two express some measure of belief, four are not sure, and. five express convinced disbelief. The rhetoric of both negative and affirmative answers is very consistent, revealing that these are matters quite frequently discussed among women of this age and class • The five negative answers are all couched in terms of an analogy with plant and animal life: (a) "I have a theory that you're put on this earth for so long, and that's your span of life. It's like a flower. A flower dies, another one doesn't grow in its place: you've got to plant something else, haven' t you? I don' t believe in reincarnation or meeting the dead." (Paula) (b) "No, as far s I'm concerned, once you're dead, you're dead. Look at the animals for that." (Rita) (c) "I think our bodies die like the plants and flowers do." (Phyllis) Others comment on the lack of evidence or the implausibility of the idea: (d) "No', Because nobody's come back, have they? I think once you've gone, you've gone. That's it. That's the end of it." (Evelyn) (e) "No, because you must go back thousands of years for things like that, mustn't you? Well, I mean if people are going to come back to me or somebody for all those years, I don't see how it can be. That's my opinion, anyhow, and I think once you're dead. that' s the end of you." (Gwen) The recurring linguistic pattern in these replies is the "once you're dead, you're dead" formula and its variants. The 'don't knows' in no case give that answer as an easy or evasive one. All the answers show that long and. careful consideration has been given but no conclusion reached. Geraldine's answer below epitomises the 262. attitude and its customary expression: (f) "Well, that is something I've pondered. on and. I don'-b know. I think, yes - but I don't know if there's something. We'll have to wait and see." Just as the "once you're dead you're dead" maxim recurs as a theme in negative answers, so the "We'll have to wait and see" formula dominates the 'don't knows', Affirmative answers, being more common, show greater variety of form, but once again there is an underlying logic common to all, indicative of oft-repeated argument. In this case, two formulae pattern the replies: (g) "Faith is a great thing." (h) "It would be very disappointing to go through life and not have a feeling that there is something there." Basically, then, the affirmative answers are based on the assumption of life's futility without the notion of an afterlife. After that, the answers take the form of either looking for scriptural evidence or of puzzling out the nature of a future life and the form in which we dll "meet again". Though specific response to the first part of the initiating question ("Do you think that we might meet the dead again in another world, or is it possible that they might return in this one?") is limited, and hence there is little direct discussion of life after death, it is impossible to understand answers to the second part of the question except in the context of this belief. The attitude which informs their philosophy is: (i) I think they're here. I don't believe that there's a deadline, and above, that's Heaven: and below, that' s Farth underneath it, I don' t believe that - [G.B.: They have to be around us somewhere?] YesL That's why you suddenly sense a presence, isn't it?" (Mary) It is n the context of this sort of world view that women say, "the dead never leave me" and expect to be understood at both metaphorical and literal level • It is in this climate too that Dorothy' s poignant little 263. statement below is made: (j) "So many - I'm speaking about ddows now - find comfort. They say, 'My husband is walking beside me.' 'It's a very good. thing to have', I say, 'what a help it must be.' 'But,' I've said, 'I've tried. I've tried - I don't say to contact him - but - - - to feel he's around. But, no. No.'" The world of the dead is a protective and genial one as the women' s faith paints it. The concept of life after death reinforces the notion of the creation' s knowability and renders it safe, and these are very important functions of supernatural belief in the Gatley women's worldview.1 It is in this context that the d.isparity between belief in 'polter- geists' and belief in 'revenants' has to be considered. During fieldwork the intention was to follow up clues to belief which the women themselves let fall rather than to initiate discussion along preplanned lines. Thus the data reveals the two poles of belief extant in the community rather than a complete and comprehensive pattern. At one pole, there is the collection of malevolent phenomena for which the shorthand term 'polter-.