Balkan Folklore Lecture Notes PDF

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Balkan Folklore Lecture Notes Spring 2018 Lecture 1 • • • •

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What is folklore: artistic communication in small groups When you take folklore out of the written context it serves a different purpose Narratives of national identity are grounded in these peasant folklores-> what is particularly peculiar about the region. The Balkan peninsula is heavily contested -> no clear cutoff o (Balkan mountains, include Hungary etc…) o Historically it was part of the Ottoman and the Habsburg empire The Ottoman Empire provided the grounds for communication, exchange of culture (produces opportunity of calling something “balkan folklore”) mostly because it was such a large territory There’s a pagan layer into which these monotheistic peasants converted (incorporated them when they could not get rid of them) Dvoeverie- what is defined/what is actually practiced by peasants is different A “sacred” energy that flows thru everything in the world Patriarchal social organization

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Folklore is provisional and malleable o Used to pass on cultural norms and educate For folklore, it is essential that it was curated by the masses and came from them Some stories have been written down and others continue to be oral Medieval monks often made changes and never took ownership o What could you classify as pure folklore? ▪ Oral/written? ▪ Source ▪ Have changes been made? Etc… • Others argue that you take something, make it your own and then solidify it by writing it down (different scholars will argue differently) • Authorship/ copyright Literary tale/ folktale For the purpose of this course we will stress the orality and the origin (from the masses) of the folklore tales Did culture or the norms come first? Sometimes there is a conscious and sometimes unconscious component to folklore Social rank vs intention of the folklores How does music provide a sense of attachment Hospitality was paramount in the region and not assigned specifically to religion

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Hospitality triumphs vengeance

Lecture 3 High theology and folk practice are very different in regions outside the Balkan as well Religions preceding Christianity: o Ancient Greece: Maisian civilization o Theracians (Sparticus)-> farther North o Ilireans (contemporary Albanians identify with) o Persian influences-> Zoroastrian o Indian influences o Roman influences o Egyptian influences o 3rd century Christianity entering in the region with the Byzantine Empire o 5th century: Slavic pagan tribes o 13th century: incursions of what will become the Ottoman Empire ▪ By the end of the 14th/15th century conquer the entire territory o Conversions: Romany/gypsies ▪ It is believed that they arrived from India o Islam becomes the primary religion with the beginning of the Ottoman Empire (Islam becomes the privileged religion) ▪ The peasants were not converting to a fundamentalist Islam religion ▪ The byktashi order-> mystic -> very open to personal connections with the God and many people were allowed to convert but also continue to believe in the saints from their previous beliefs ▪ Ottoman Empire provided territorial unity

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Two Neighbors story: one earned money and the other did not want to work for a low wage ▪ ethical vs communal values and personal/natural goodness ▪ for all of these people, working is extremely important ▪ “you should work for nothing but should not sit for nothing”-> there is no point in being lazy ▪ You can still be a good person even with setting up the death of the other (small moral ambiguity) Sun and Moon: to be a man means to overcome attachment Magic Tales o Finnish school of folklore attempting to systematize and trace transmission and influences-> Aarne (Types of the Tales,1910) and his edition was perfected by Thompson in 1960 (Motif (deals with little nuggets such as slaying of a dragon) and Type index (narrative plot)) o Uther (he published in 2004) o Every tale in scholarly editions will have AT or ATU at the end of it

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Types A, B, C of AT • Of these come the types of fairytales that we are familiar with ▪ Marchen (German) (tales of magic, magic tales, wonder tales) o What are magic tales? ▪ Vladimir Propp argued that it is not the use of magic but the particular type of narrative and its unfolding that makes it specifically a magic tale • it is very closely related to a myth/myth of the quest o Campbell’s plot: ▪ Certain things during birth signify the birth of a hero-> has a special birth • (twin birth, speaking before birth…) ▪ The hero is then called to adventure ▪ The moment you go out of the home, you are in a different world ▪ Preliminary test involved usually • The hero is usually tested by meeting a hero and save someone etc… • The hero moves to another level and possibly acquires • The hero starts off with smaller adventures ▪ The Shamen’s journey-> entry into another world is a myth and this is one of the differences when comparing with tales • They go deeper and deeper into this unknown and face a series of minor tales (enter the abyss) o The point of the final encounter is that It accomplishes the final objective in some sense ▪ It’s kind of like a symbol that you can return home • The final stage is the return o Acquired by trickery?-the owner pursues you o Acquired by strength?- the family pursues you ▪ The return can also be quite difficult o Ones you cross the threshold into your world, there is usually something that goes wrong ▪ A lot of these tales position the Romani as usurpers who come to acquire the place (they have their own counter stories in their culture) Ordering fashion of these texts

Greauceanu (Italian-ceanu means “goodbye”): • There was a call to adventure, action, change when he got back etc… • The magical helper (blacksmith-> seen as having magical knowledge in most stories because are transitioning one type of matter into another and can turn into devil (ironprotects from devil because has been through fire)) • The addition of the twin brother was a very interesting element in the magic story o He is treated with the same level of importance but later on fades into the background because does not have the same abilities Lecture 4 Vladimir Proff (1928-1950s)

Formalism-> French structuralism (Claude Levi-Strauss)

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Meanings are generated through context Elements in a structure produce meaning because of juxtaposition Do folktales have to follow the strict structure in order to be considered folktales? o Such as those that retell the story at the end The narrative arc must be completed (villainy, departure, quest, achievement, going back)

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Historic-tracing paths of transmission Propp-structure Campbell-on par with myth Max Luthi-descriptive POWERPOINT available on canvas

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Lecture 5 Consummation is the mark of marriage (transition) Transitions from wife to daughter-in-law when she gives birth (called a “bride” before that) Serving of sweet brandy, and if it is not served that means that things are not as should be (the bride is not a virgin) Northern region-> transition to even beats South eastern area-> primarily uneven beats Might sound oriental to someone trained in classical/ western music Lives of peasants in Europe are quite similar-> that is why we read about French weddings Peasants were very sanctified in the Balkans and so it is very difficult to read something that is not romanticized and this author of French weddings does not do so o Stress the patrilineal structure that is very similar to that of the Balkans, agricultural (economic) concerns etc… If you speak, evil forces will find you The bride refusing to speak is a way to protect herself Tradition of being silent for 9 months o It is harder for her to object when she is silent o She is the lowest rank in her new family hierarchy “love cannot be forced” was added by the American Translator she transforms into a swallow because they would then not know what to do with her too much of a good this is bad (such as beauty), it can attract the envy of supernatural forces Young women become marriageable when they get pass through puberty o 14-16 years of age Sun represented as a young deity-> part of the fertility cycle If there are no children in the family of the bride, the husband would move in with them because there is no one to care for them

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Lecture 6 Snakes were considered the guardian spirits Ancestors of the clan were also guardians and seeing a snake in the house meant you should not harm it because it could be the guardian spirits Snakes are connected to the spiritual world-> representation of something different o Part of peasant day life is to maintain appropriate relations

The Stirrup Moor: Albanian tale • The old woman is sort of performing the function of a matchmaker • Many tales that we have dealt with are precisely about crossing this boundary • Magic birth-> star on forehead-> embodiment of a supernatural force • A wife functions almost as how a gift functions-> binds and solidifies the men together o Women are considered property and an exchange between the men • Polygamy was practiced by the rich in Albania • A husband’s well-being is supposed to be over the wife’s own wellbeing • Tribal clan organization o Herdsmen, shepherds o Develop organizations in which the women are the lowest of the low o One of the daughters of the widow becomes to represent the family as a man ▪ It is very unthinkable that a woman can perform the functions of a man so she must dress as a man/ the story must imagine her in a male form ▪ For the female tasks she is in female form and for male tasks she is in male form ▪ Supernatural sexuality can be very dangerous because it cannot be controlled The Girl with two Husbands: • The wife’s job is to solidify her supernatural husband’s transition to a human o She needs to do “work” to bind them to the human world Sleep is about overcoming humaneness-> the task is to stay awake

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Lecture 7 Transition from modern to pre-modern consciousness History piece more so than an ethnographic piece o It makes an attempt to narrate the interactions between religious communities that to us may seem strange/different Pre-modern consciousness in agricultural/pastoral people that are not part of the aristocratic elite have similar attitudes… and many other similarities o Balkan peasants have a lot in common with other peasants of the time (since as French) Especially in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, the educated elites became extremely interested in folklore o Beginning of folklore studies as discipline

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History of the Balkans o Ilyris-> coincided with the Balkan region o Ottoman Empire ▪ Emergence of nation states emerge in the beginning of the 19th century ▪ Provided the basis of exchange ▪ End up with nation states as the norm after the first world war ▪ 2006- Montenegro independence ▪ 2008-> Kosovo declaration of independence ( not fully recognized yet) ▪ Albanian-> Indo-European language inn a group of its own ▪ Greek-> group of its own ▪ Turkish-related to a number of other languages in the Turkik language group ▪ Romani-> also spoken in the region Balkanism-> this linguistic term was first introduced to highlight the way in which different regions in the Balkans had influenced each other -> trace influence to contact rather than specificity to that language group Ideas about national identity started coming to the Balkans/Ottoman Empire Scholars debate on how far you can take the term “nationalism” o The groups retained some kind of separateness but ethnic lines were permeable Educate the nation of what the national folklore looks like/sounds like through festivals, radio… o Produces a “cannon” Arrangements are made more appropriate to Western tastes o Certain peculiarities are “smoothed over” o One piece becomes as the “way” you sing this song/dance this dance Balkan Folklore vs Serbian/Romanian/Bulgarian folklore Herder: o Cultural interaction helped refine individual national characteristics-> but must come from the “core” of the nation o You belong to a nation whether you realize it or not o You can claim dormant nations as your own Mazower: discussion of a populace with no notion of a national identity o Developed through schools and the army o Universal conscription ▪ They both solidify national consciousness All transitions mean that there is danger o Winter is associated with death and evil spirits o Customs of purification-> Mertenichi o Rebirth/new year Lecture 8 How does the narrative change with respect to the country Conducting fieldwork/ documentary director

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o Her goal is to expose-> she urges us to overcome this o Folklore is made identical to national essence-> this is what she is questioning ▪ She picks the most confrontational exposures She chooses to play the Muslim Bosnian version to the Serbians In all of these places to the locality that identifies with this song-> but it gets mapped onto a national level Cab driver Folklore performs some idealized form Lecture 10 These people had no other reason to remember these tales than simply for the fact that they are stuck in their memory Eliade-> tying to a creation story The cosmos and the human world are replicas of each other (repeats within itself) o Every building creation is a new beginning of sorts o Paradigm presented on a cosmic level is also presented on the micro level o The youth who understood animals ▪ Gives legitimacy to his knowledge For pre-monotheistic mind, the distribution of demon and divine is many times a matter of which side you can get them on Eliade: o Stoicheion-> ▪ Objects have connections to humans to spirit Establishing a relationship with the knife-> cutting oneself everything you get a new one o Blood tie-> make it an extension of one’s being o Done voluntarily o There is a danger inherent in any endeavor-> you are opening yourself up to danger ▪ Circumscribing it within yourself if a space that you can manage ▪ Humans become demigods by the process of creation, it is dangerous but also it is the claiming of aspects of divine activity Zimmerman-> a sacrificial contract between humans and natural sources Female dimension of that world Culture always claims itself to be natural o Women are conduits between culture and nature Wife is a “necessary evil” as she also has to take care of her husband’s family Lecture 11 The Walled-Up Wife o Some see it as a metaphor for marriage (walled up in their marriage) o Women ground as the solidifying element of order-> giving her a heroic meaning ▪ Nourishing function The Death Brother o The word is your honor o You lose your status in the community if you do not abide by your oath...