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RMN Newsletter 4: Approaching Methodology 2012 Approaching Methodology Edited by Frog and Pauliina Latvala A Special Issue of RMN Newsletter № 4 May 2012 RMN Newsletter is edited by Frog Helen F. Leslie and Mathias Nordvig Published by Folklore Studies / Dept. of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies University of Helsinki, Helsinki ISSN/ISSN-L: 1799-4497 www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/Englis1 h/RMN/ CONTENTS APPROACHING METHODOLOGY Preface and Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 5 Opening Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue: A Virtual Workshop on Methodology .............................. 7 Frog in collaboration with Pauliina Latvala Part I: Method in Practice Method in Practice: An Introduction ............................................................................................. 20 Method and Fieldwork in a Hermeneutical Perspective ................................................................ 23 Espen Suenson Building a Visual Vocabulary: The Methodology of ‘Reading’ Images in Context ..................... 31 Jill Bradley The Parallax Approach: Situating Traditions in Long-Term Perspective ...................................... 40 Frog The Ghost of Methodologies Past: Untangling Methods, Methodologies, and Methodologists in Black Studies ............................................................................................................................. 59 Sonja Peterson-Lewis Part II: Constructing Data Constructing Data: An Introduction ............................................................................................... 72 Qualitative Research and the Study of Language Use and Attitudes ............................................ 75 Francisco Martínez Ibarra Dialogic Methodology and the Dialogic Space Created after an Interview .................................. 80 Venla Sykäri Editing Skaldic Verse and the Problem of Prosimetra ................................................................... 88 Erin Michelle Goeres Ethnographic Questionnaires: After Method, after Questions ....................................................... 97 Dani Schrire Part III: Culturally Sensitive Reading Culturally Sensitive Reading: An Introduction ............................................................................ 105 The Anglo-Saxon Charms: Texts in Context ............................................................................... 108 Rebecca M.C. Fisher The Sensitive Interpretation of Emotions: Methodological Perspectives on Studying Meanings in Written Life-Historical Narratives .......................................................................... 126 Pauliina Latvala and Kirsi Laurén Design Poiesis: An Inquiry on Outcomes in the Use of Method and Methodology ................... 136 Thelma Lazo-Flores Younger Icelandic Manuscripts and Old Norse Studies .............................................................. 148 Helen F. Leslie Ferocious Beast (óarga dýr) between North and East ................................................................. 162 Fjodor Uspenskij 2 Part IV: Function, Structure and Statistics Function, Structure and Statistics: An Introduction ..................................................................... 169 Categorising Christ within an Age-ǫld Paradigm: The ‘Kenning System’ and Shifting Cultural Referents ........................................................................................................................ 172 Emily Osborne Poetic Formulas in Late Medieval Icelandic Folk Poetry: The Case of Vambarljóð .................. 181 Haukur Þorgeirsson A Method for Analyzing World-Models in Scandinavian Mythology ........................................ 196 Mathias Nordvig A System of Techniques and Stratagems for Outlining a Traditional Ethnic Identity ................ 209 † Vladimir Glukhov and Natalia Glukhova COMMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS Conferences and Seminars Conference Report: Old Norse Folklorist Network Meeting ....................................................... 217 Triin Laidoner Conference Announcement: VAF III: Identity and Identification and the Viking Age in Finland (with Special Emphasis on the Åland Islands) ............................................................... 219 Joonas Ahola and Frog Meeting of the Retrospective Methods Network’s Old Norse Scholars ...................................... 221 Helen F. Leslie PEOPLE Research Reports Frog Shamans, Christians, and Things in Between: Riddles of Cultural Transition in Medieval Karelia .................................................................................................................. 222 Natalia Glukhova Systemic Reconstruction of Mari Ethnic Identity ................................................................ 223 Mart Kuldkepp Travel and Holy Islands in Eireks saga víðförla and Eiríks saga rauða ............................. 223 Ilkka Leskelä Within and between Languages: Spheres and Functions of Different Languages in Written and Oral Practical Communication in the Late Medieval Baltic Sea Region ......... 224 Sonja Petrović The Battle of Kosovo (1389) in Oral Epic Tradition: Story Models, Forms, Ideologies..... 225 Published Articles Frog Circum-Baltic Mythology? – The Curious Case of the Theft of the Thunder Instrument (AT 1148b) ........................................................................................................................... 226 3 Triin Laidoner The Flying Noaidi of the North: Sámi Tradition Reflected in the Figure Loki Laufeyjarson in Old Norse Mythology ................................................................................ 227 Helen F. Leslie ‘The Matter of Hrafnista’ ..................................................................................................... 227 Eila Stepanova Reflections of Belief Systems in Karelian and Lithuanian Laments: Shared Systems of Traditional Referentiality? ................................................................................................... 228 PhD Projects Leszek Gardeła Entangled Worlds: Archaeologies of Ambivalence in the Viking Age ............................... 229 Svetlana Tsonkova Charms, Prayers, Amulets: Verbal Magic and Daily Life in Medieval and Early Modern Bulgaria ................................................................................................................................ 234 CALLS FOR PAPERS Would You Like to Submit to RMN Newsletter? ........................................................................ 236 4 APPROACHING METHODOLOGY Preface and Acknowledgements Approaching Methodology is the first special to considering some aspect of culture in one issue of RMN Newsletter. RMN Newsletter period through evidence from another, later appeared in response to the need for a period: ‘retrospective’ methods. Such medium of contact and communication for comparisons range from investigating members of the Retrospective Methods historical relationships to the utility of Network (RMN). The test of the interest in analogical parallels, and from comparisons and viability of this publication resulted in a across centuries to developing working remarkable and unexpected response from models for the more immediate traditions scholars around the world – from places as behind limited sources. Nevertheless, methods diverse as India, Australia, North America and methodology received surprisingly little and South Africa. This revealed that the focused attention: they tended to be more publication not only filled an immediate need implicit than explicit; scholars exhibited a for the RMN, but that it simultaneously met a general inclination to emphasize results rather much broader international interest. than means. A special issue provided an RMN Newsletter is published by Folklore excellent strategy for stimulating discussion Studies, University of Helsinki, and on in this problematic area. Pauliina Latvala February 1st, 2011, a session of the (University of Helsinki) was invited to be a department’s research seminar was devoted to guest editor of the special issue with Frog a discussion of this publication, its potential (University of Helsinki), and together they as a resource, the direction it was headed and immediately set about organizing the how to negotiate that direction with publication project. contributors and the readership. At this For making the Approaching Methodology seminar, Professor Emerita Annikki Kaivola- publication project possible, we would like to Bregenhøj (University of Turku) emphasized thank the contributing participants: Jill that, however important they are, method and Bradley (Radboud University, Nijmegen), methodology have always been challenging Rebecca M.C. Fisher (University of for researchers. Kaivola-Bregenhøj suggested Sheffield), Vladimir Glukhov† & Natalia that these challenges should be directly Glukhova (Mari State University), Erin addressed in RMN Newsletter by preparing a Michelle Goeres (Oxford University), Haukur special issue devoted to methods and Þorgeirsson (University of Iceland), Kirsi methodology, a suggestion complemented by Laurén (University of Eastern Finland), Helen Carsten Bregenhøj’s contribution to the F. Leslie (University of Bergen), Thelma discussion. This was the seed of Approaching Lazo-Flores (Ball State University), Francisco Methodology. Martinez Ibarra (Towson University), Mathias The editorial staff of RMN Newsletter had Nordvig (University of Aarhus), Emily observed the challenges described by Osborne (Cambridge University),
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