1. Victor Turner Lists These Three Aspects of Culture As “Exception- Ally Well Endowed with Ritual Symbols and Beliefs of Non-Structural Type” ( Dramas 231)
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Notes Introduction 1. Victor Turner lists these three aspects of culture as “exception- ally well endowed with ritual symbols and beliefs of non-structural type” ( Dramas 231). 2. Coatlicue (“Lady of the Serpent Skirt”) is an Aztec Mother Goddess associated with death. 3. According to Turner, an example of the institutionalization of liminality may be found in the monastic and mendicant states in various world religions ( The Ritual 107). 4. Walker, Encyclopedia 1077. 5. All translations from Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Polish, Russian, and Latin in this book are by the author, unless otherwise indicated. 6. For further discussion on this issue, see Sarlo 32–33 and Franco 223. 7. For a discussion of the sweetening of Kā l ī , see chapter 2 of this book. 8. Erndl, “The Play of the Mother” 152, among others. 9. I use the word “cult” to mean “devotion,” in the same way that culto is used in Spanish. 10. In spite of the great similarities among these divinities, there is no cross-cultural book in English or in any other language that discusses and compares Baba Yaga, K ā l ī , Pombagira, and Santa Muerte in the United States or in any other country. In fact, there is not even a work that links any two of them. While there are studies that discuss the Hindu goddess Kā l ī , such as Encountering K ā l ī by McDermott and Kripal, eds., Oh Terrifying Mother by Sarah Caldwell, and Kali by Elizabeth U. Harding, one book on Baba Yaga (Baba Yaga by Andreas Johns), one on Pombagira (Holy Harlots by Kelly Hayes), and one on Santa Muerte ( Devoted to Death by Andrew Chesnut), they focus exclu- sively on the Indian subcontinent, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico, respectively. 144 NOTES Baba Yaga, the Witch from Slavic Fairy Tales 1. Among these scholars are Vladimir Propp and V. N. Toporov. 2. Propp identified seven main functions or roles in the magical Russian tales: the aggressor, the donor, the auxiliary, the princess and her father, the leader, the hero, and the false hero ( Morfolog í a 91). 3. For example, in the tale “Tsarevich Ivan and the Grey Wolf”: “The Grey Wolf sprinkled the dead water on Tsarevich Ivan’s wounds, and the wounds healed. Then he sprinkled him with Living water and Tsarevich Ivan came back to life” (Alexander 178). The healed wounds died, and the man became alive. Similarly, in the tales “Maria Morevna” and “The Flying Ship and the Marvelous Shirt,” wounded or dismembered beings become whole and then alive by being sprinkled first with Dead Water and later with Live Water ( Ba ś nie 73, 93, and 140). The Waters of Death serve to clean the dead from earthly elements in the Other World (Szyjewski 78). 4. (Hubbs 44). Although the turning spindle and the moon phases clearly belong to the feminine realm, they may be an example of later transformations of the tale, as suggested by Propp in “Las transformaciones de los cuentos maravillosos” (164–74). 5. Szafra ń ski 64, 87, 145, following S. Poniatowski, Etnografia Polski , Warsaw: Wiedza o Polsce, vol. 3, n.d.: 261, 300. 6. The Hittites occupied the region of Anatolia (today’s Turkey) in the second millennium BC. 7. In many ancient cultures dolls were considered receptacles of the souls of the dead. They were seated at the table, fed, and put to sleep. In fairy tales, they can be considered a borderline stage between guardian spirits and enchanted objects (Ra í ces 290–91). For example, in “Vasilisa the Fair,” the doll represents the defunct mother of the girl. In Poland, lale (pl. of lala —“doll”) were the wooden representations of the spirits of the dead. With time, lale or lalki were desemanticized, and today they mean “children’s dolls” (Szyjewski 200). In Guatemala, it is customary to keep tiny dolls, penitas (“little worries”), and tell them one’s penas or prob- lems. In ancient Egypt and Peru (Tawantinsuyu), among other cultures, there was a cult of the mummies—the “doubles” of the dead—and in Peru, there were specially designated persons called wauje (“brothers”) who enacted their movements during street processions. 8. For a discussion of the meaning of korowody , see Kohli 77, 156, and Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Black Madonna 25, 29. 9. Tale included in W osien 183–86. 10. “The Firebird and Vasilissa-Tsarevna” (Wosien 183–86). Other formulas include: “Once upon a time, in a certain tsardom, in a NOTES 145 certain land” (“The Three Tsardoms, Copper, Silver and Golden,” included in Wosien 171–82). 11. Tale #129, vol. 1, Afanasiev’s collection, included in Wosien 171– 82. Similarly, in Polish tales, the formula used is, “Ja też tam bylem, mi ó d i wino pi ł em” (“I too was there and drank mead and wine”). 12. V. Propp, Russkaia Skazka . Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Leningradskovo Universiteta, 1984, 33–34, qtd. in Johns 48. 13. In different Slavic countries and regions, she exists under slightly different names, such as: Baba Jaga, Baba Ję dza (Poland), Iezhibaba, Indzhibaba (Slovakia), Babaroga (Serbia), as well as Iagaia, Iagaba, Egibaba, Egibitsa, Egi-boba, Iagishna, Iagaia-Babitsa, Iaga, Babushka Liaga, Egishna, Indzhi-baba, among others, in Russia, Ukraine, and Byelarus (Johns 8). 14. “About the Girl Masha,” tale recorded in 1939 from E. A. Vasil’eva in Korelia, included in Johns 291–94. 15. Boris Uspienskij, Filologicheskije razyskanija v oblasti slavianskich drevnostej (1982), qtd. in Szyjewski 128. 16. See Marija Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods 135–37 and 144–45. According to Gimbutas, Old Europe was an autochthonous civili- zation dating from 7,000 to 3,500 BC , which encompassed mainly South-Central Europe ( Goddesses and Gods 16). 17. This is also true for the goddess Dhū m ā vat ī , discussed in chapter 2 . 18. Tale “Stepmother and Stepdaughter,” told by Anastasiia Gregorev’na Sotnikova and recorded in 1968 in the Niukhcha village of the Korelian coast, included in Johns 284–89. 19. With the advent of Christianity, the guardianship of cities was transferred to the God Birth-Giver, the Virgin Mary. An example is Our Lady of Ostra Brama (Matka Boska Ostrobramska), who still guards the gates of Vilnius, Lithuania, and people kneel to her in the middle of the street (my fieldwork, Vilnius, Lithuania, 1997). 20. This view was confirmed by my father, Eligiusz Oleszkiewicz, born and raised in Wilno (currently, Vilnius, capital of Lithuania). 21. Similarly, the yaxche or ceiba , sacred silk-cotton Tree of Life of the Mayans (kapok tree), venerated as iroko in Afro-Brazilian reli- gions, and as mapou in Haiti, produces fruits full of cotton-like substance. 22. It is interesting to note that the Spinosaurus, the largest known predator who lived on earth 95 million years ago, had a head of a crocodile and a long neck and feet like a bird; the creature spent most of its time in water (“Spinosaurus Was Part Duck Part Crocodile,” Journal , Link TV, September 12, 2014). 23. Nevertheless, there are still instances where Catholic saints are represented holding dragons, such as the statue of Saint Margaret in the church at Patzig, Germany (see Kohli, cover). 146 NOTES 24. The Mothers, À w ọ n Ì y à mi Òṣò r ò ng à , represent the À jẹ́ collective of the “Great and Mysterious Mothers.” For a detailed discussion, see chapter 3 of this book, and Washington 1–70; the “ Ì t à n-Or í k ì ” is qtd. in Washington 21. 25. For a detailed classification of colors, see Turner, The Forest of Symbols 59–111. 26. Swami Nikhilinananda, trans. Upanishads . New York: Harper & Row, 1963, qtd. in Turner, Forest 84–85. 27. Turner, Forest 85, following R. C. Zaehner, Hinduism . London: Oxford University Press, 1962: 91. 28 . I am grateful to Dr. Yanko A. Yankov for gifting me with a selec- tion of Bulgarian Martenitsas. 29. The frog, who undergoes a clear transformation during her life cycle, was a regenerative symbol of the goddess (Gimbutas, Living Goddesses 26). It was a fertility symbol related to Isis, Hecate, Hera, and Artemis (Kopaliń ski 503). 30. Aleksandr Potebnja, “O mificheskom znacheniinekotorykh obria- dov I poverii. II. Baba Yaga.” Chteniia v imperatorskom obshchest- vie istorii I drevnostei rossiiskikh pri moskovskom universitete 1865 (3): 85–232, qtd. in Shapiro 121–22. 31. Propp reports that in original myths the hut was an animal or had zoomorphic traits ( Ra í ces 83). 32. “Ivan Bykovich, the Cow’s Son” and “The Frog-Tsarevna,” included in Wosien 161 and 194 respectively. 33. V. F. Shevchenko, “Novye materialy po narodnoi pediatrii: ‘sukhaia sten’ I ‘sobach’ia starost.’” In Traditsionnaia kul’tura i mir det- stva. Traditional Culture and the World of Childhood. Ed. M. P. Cherednikova and V. F. Shevchenko. Ul’yanovsk: Laboratoriia kul’turologii, 1998: 112–20, qtd. in Johns 255. 34. My fieldwork, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 1996. 35. See Walker, Encyclopedia 819– 21. 36. Interestingly, in Afro-Brazilian religions, especially in the most tra- ditional Candombl é houses in Salvador, Bahia, these priestly func- tions are performed exclusively by women (iyalorix á s ), who form a kind of matriarchate. In less orthodox religious communities, there are male priests (babalorix á s ) as well, who nevertheless dress in women-like clothing and are frequently effeminate. In addi- tion, the African male function of the babalawo was lost in Brazil. Another example of a culture where female shamans persist is the matrilocal and matrilineal Gar í funa from northern Honduras. For Candombl é , see my book The Black Black Madonna 81–124; for the Garí funa, see Brondo 272–386 and Meza 250–77; and for other matriarchal societies around the world, see Goettner- Abendroth.