Stella Martsoo
Key words: remedies, Estonian calendar literature, almanacs, medicine, drugs and medicines, curing, 18th and 19th century
How could "pharmaceuticals" like elecampane root, asaphoetida resin, nitric, etc. be used as remedies in folk medicine? One route was the local manor lords and their wives, who disseminated the knowledge they had acquired both from the literature published in Germany as well as from personal experimentation. Another weighty source may have been the late 18th-century almanacs that were published in the Estonian language and the popular medical literature, the publication of which escalated in the late 19th century and which introduced recent news on medicine. The almanacs were the first literary sources for peasants to acquire medical wisdom from. Since their popularity, the almanacs had a profound influence on the population. This paper discusses the advices on medicines and treatment published in medical texts in the almanacs of the period. Since drugs used for treatment were not medicines in the contemporary sense of the word, the term “medicament” should be defined more generally.
The most common food products used as remedies were salt, milk, and meal. A subtopic of the paper concerns various herbs, whereas a closer look is taken at herbs for home remedy and the possible usages. The most common herbs were camomile, blackcurrant and tobacco. Another subtopic discusses major drugs – water, vinegar and alcohol. The third subtopic explores the bestial remedies in calendar medicine, the most popular of which were fat, dung, and honey.
Kelli Arusaar-Tamming
Key words: alcohol policy, alcohol consumption, healthcare, social politics, injury fatality
The issue of reducing the consumption of alcohol became a topical issue among the Soviet authorities in 1982, but as a result of the following frequent substitutions in the organs of power the planned measures could not be applied. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, being appointed secretary general, once again raised the issue, and began to carry out a considerably stricter alcohol policy. The new and unprecedentedly strict alcohol strategy was being carried out according to the guidelines sent from Moscow in all the Union Republics, including Estonia.
The alcohol strategy implemented in 1985-1987 covered different fields and was not only about restrictions on the sale. Attention was also paid to preventive methods - propagating abstinence as well as offering new choices to spend free time. The availability of alcoholic drinks was aggravated by setting stricter limits on the sale, increasing the prices of alcoholic beverages and also by increasing the penalty for illegal sale and use of alcohol. Several changes were made to provide better availability of narcological aid. The new administration would not have withdrawn from the once started policy, but economical difficulties brought it to halt as early as in 1987. The significantly reduced production of alcohol lead to the slumping of profits from the sale and the treasury could no longer afford to continue the experiment.
The purpose of this paper was to give a thorough survey of the methods of the 1985-87 alcohol strategy and to look into the consequences of developing a stricter official alcohol strategy in Estonia, especially the effects on consumption habits. The descriptions of the official alcohol strategy are based on the decrees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, also the official documents issued by local authorities, legislative and executive bodies. To evaluate alcohol consumption, the author has basically relied on the statistics of the sale of alcohol. The source of the data is the departmental reports of the Central Statistical Office of the ESSR to the USSR Federal Statistical office on the sales of alcohol in Soviet Estonia. The data of the reports must be reliable as these were confidential documents intended only for official use.
It may be concluded from the estimations of the amount of the alcohol sold that as a result of the new alcohol strategy, alcohol consumption in Estonia decreased considerably: from 10.8 litres of absolute alcohol per capita in 1984 to 7.5 litres in 1986, and 6.4 litres in 1987. There was also a change in the different types of alcoholic drinks consumed. The consumption of strong alcohol, especially different types of wine, decreased to some extent, while the relative proportion of beer consumption increased. In addition to the decreased figures of legal alcohol sale the decrease in alcohol consumption is confirmed by the drastic fall in the rate of alcohol poisoning fatalities and cases of alcoholic psychosis in 1985 and 1986; during the period of 1985-1986 the rate of alcohol poisoning fatalities was reduced by half. The similarity of changes in the frequency of alcohol poisoning fatalities and tendencies in legal alcohol sales allows us to conclude that under the circumstances of restricted sale of legal alcohol the consumption of illegal alcohol and surrogates did not considerably increase. The temperance campaign and contingent fall in alcohol consumption was effective in decreasing the number of fatalities in injuries and suicides.
Ken Kalling
Key words: the temperance movement, eugenics, solidarism, national movement
Estonia between the two world wars was among the few societies in Europe to have a strong eugenics movement (eugenics society was established in 1924) and to accept eugenic legislation (Sterilisation Law from the year 1936). The roots of the eugenics ideology reach into the pre-independence era, when, in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the Estonian national discourse was notoriously biologized owing to the so-called small nation’s self perception, highlighting, and both the quality and quantity issues of the "national body".
The birth of the eugenics ideology in Estonia can be linked to the developments in the local abstinence movement. The latter, which emerged in the 1880s, became by the early 20th century medically oriented and dominated by the leaders of the national movement who tried to use the initiative for political goals. The latter aspect gave the movement a paternalist accent, alienating the national elites from the masses involved in the movement.
There was also a gap within the ideological framework of the movement itself, taking place between the proponents of the so-called direct and indirect anti-alcohol work. The first, representing mainly the modest and liberal section of the national elites, stressed the people’s free will and personal choice. The second wing, deriving from radical intellectuals, many of which later turned to solidarism, favoured the imposing of limitations and regulations by the society to keep people away from alcohol. This approach was criticized by the liberals for the paternalist approach it was containing, rendering human beings to plainly biological entities. This also played an important role in the increasing significance of the anti-alcohol movement in supporting the emergence of a eugenic society.
The Estonian eugenics movement and the ideology it was carrying reached its peak in 1934 when the state followed an autocratic/totalitarian path of development. The concept supporting antidemocratic developments was “national entirety”, the latter containing a notorious degree of solidarist (biologized) approach. It was the era when the parallel histories of eugenics and the temperance movement started to move apart - the eugenics ideology being preferred by the state as it placed its own interests, rather than the interests of individual citizens, to the fore.
Renata Sõukand
Key words: arnica, Estonian folk medicine, camomile, foreign and own, herbal medicine
In order to become relevant in a given culture, the imported phenomena (e.g. medicinal plants) have to be integrated into own, while also remaining ‘foreign’ in some respect (which, in the case of medicinal plants, gives additional potency to their healing power). The paper takes as examples two imported species of herbs introduced into Estonian ethnomedicine before the 19th century: arnica and camomile. Camomile was already described as a medicinal plant in the first medicinal magazine in Estonian (in 1776), whereas arnica emerged in the popular medicinal literature in the middle of the 19th century. In the folklore collection of Jakob Hurt arnica seems to be more popular than camomile and is described there as a local plant. Indeed, according to the information of Gustav Vilbaste, the first Estonian ethnobotanist, there where altogether 19 local plants known by the phytonym. Arnica montana (the prototype of arnica name) did not get acclimatized in the Estonian climate and thus became ‘own’ by extending its name to locally grown plants, a process that could be called cultural acclimatization; Matricaria sp. acclimatized here, shifted from the cultural sphere to natural and from there into the medical use of the common people. In the more recent tradition, camomile exceeded arnica in popularity; this might have been influenced by its popularity in the 20th-century medical literature.
Raivo Kalle
Key words: history, medicinal plants, cultivated plants, plant names, phytonyms, naturalization, ethnobotany
The paper gives an overview of six plants, naturalized in Estonia: butterbur (Petasites hybridus), chicory (Cichorium intubus), elecampane inula (Inula helenium), horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) and sweet violet (Viola odorata).The approach to their naturalization is based on ethnobotanical rather than biological qualities. The first disseminators of foreign plants were merchants. The earliest cultivators may have also been monasteries, although it is not known what exactly was grown in these gardens. The most important plants cultivated in monasteries were herbs, which were planted in 4-12 beds, vegetables in 9-18 beds, whereas the rest of the garden was reserved for an orchard. The establishing of the first pharmacies in Estonian towns introduced the planting of new species in gardens for sale (the earliest pharmacy, the Tallinn Town Hall Pharmacy, dates back to 1422, with a herb garden founded in 1452). The oldest preserved list of plants growing in pharmacy garden originating from Narva pharmacy from the year 1677 contains already following herbs: chicory, elecampane inula, butterbur and sweet violet. Next to pharmacies, foreign species were also disseminated by grocers and drugstores. A century later, in 1777, the list of tracheophytes found in Estonia and Livonia was compiled; this list has been considered the first written source in the field of botany. In the list all the six plants were noted as natural species. The spread of the plants was speeded by their versatile usage - all these plants were used as medicines; chicory, horseradish and elecampane inula were also vegetable plants; elecampane inula, sweet violet, soapwort and butterbur were popular landscape plants; soapwort was used to clean silk and wool. Various legal acts, which have been applied to the plants, have also influenced their spread. Elecampane inula was listed in the first Estonian dictionary in 1660. Translated literature became an important factor in introducing herbs into broader use. Already the first journal (published in 1766-1767) and the earliest popular medical book (1771) in Estonian describe the use of horseradish, butterbur, elecampane inula and sweet violet. The plants, especially garden horseradish, are repeatedly mentioned in almanacs and books published since. The use of chicory is described only once in 1895, and soapwort once in 1870. The paper describes in more detail the formation of new ethnic names. The plant names were mostly derived from adaptations of German names (e.g. aland, pestilens-wurtsel, wiola, sigur, etc.), later from German translations (e.g. katkujuur for butterbur) and in some cases, the name of the local plant was used to mark a similar new plant (e.g. sinilill, or hepatica, for sweet violet and põierohi, or campion, for soapwort). In conclusion it has to be said that the important factors in distributing those plants were changes in landscape gardening and eating habits as well as the fact that the plants were eventually abandoned from use and thus, lost the most powerful natural enemy - the man.
Mare Kõiva
Key words: temporal parameter, style of performance, dialogue incantations, communication patterns of chanting, incantation structure, rituals, space in healing rituals
In folklore genres, dialogue is a widely used artistic and expressive means, its length, content and functions defined by the genre it is used. Short dialogues are found in fictional folk narratives from fairy tales to anecdotes. A fairy tale or joke can be based solely on dialogue while dialogues in legends are only a phrase or some phrases long, just as the dialogue incantations under observation here. The goal of the article is first to observe relations between text and presentation based on Estonian material with comparative material from Baltic Finnic, Baltic and Slavic tradition.
Dialogue incantations are distinguished from other types of verbal magic by their performing and distribution styles as well as structure - the text of the ritual is made up of only dialogue. Primarily, attention is focused on the structure of dialogue. Dialogue incantation is a peripheral type of short dialogue - a form of either convincing, discussing or informing dialogue that supports the symbolic ritual.
In written records, the dialogue is performed in direct speech. The clearly structured dialogical communication between healer and patient or healer and helper indicates that this is an older layer of folk healing and magical influencing.
Secondly, attention is focused on the accompanying ritual institution and participants of magical ritual, its requirements to room, space and objects and their inter-relations. Dialogue incantations are also compared to legend-based incantations that contain dialogue.
Dialogue incantations are based on old beliefs, models of communicating with the surrounding environment and are a reflection of these. Their attractive but simple form has helped the old-fashioned methods and beliefs to remain alive. The stereotypical form of dialogue is easily adaptable to new presentation situations. Since we are dealing with a heritage genre, sensitive to objects, space and time, the process-mediating narrative allows for modelling of mental maps and to determine areas important, liminal or peripheral to the tradition.
The third party of the ritual - an undefined higher power, holiness, patron or lord, a being, sickness (demon), warded animal or illness gotten from one were the receivers or addressees of the dialogue. Significantly, during preparing the ritual or the ritual itself, the conductor and sender of the message taught his helper his role and verbal part. All this gives the impression of an act, a ritual composed on the spot following the instructions of the traditional canon, with symbols and symbolic acts playing a major role in the ritual. The dialogue and ritual were fixed in structure, temporal consecution, repetitions and certain space characteristics. It was canon that kept dialogue incantations from great changes.
Although the structure of the healing procedure, including the objects involved, acts performed and verbal uttering are simple in character and could easily be performed by any knowing parties or witnesses, records indicate that not just anybody took the responsibility to conduct a dialogue incantation. Thus, while many dialogues were performed within the family circle, the ritual for a serious illness was not taken on. This called for deeper knowledge, knowing the symbols and an acceptance of the healer by the community.
News, overviews
Every article written about Olli Kõiva has touched upon her great fondness for the Kihnu folk songs. This is only logical, since when Olli made her first field trips to the Kihnu Island, the song tradition was still alive.
Olli’s school years coincided with the period when the entire nation also entered completely different political realities - it was the period of alternating occupations and wars. The other reality stabilised for a longer period of time: Olli attended secondary school at the end of the 1940s, and entered the university in the first half of the 1950s, a period of great oppression. In addition to the Soviet rule, the situation was difficult owing to the leading figures of institutions involved in folklore at the time and their conflicting - often even hostile - relations. Owing to her talent and devotion, Olli Kõiva defended her PhD degree already in 1965 with a thesis The Tradition of Kalevala-Metric Folk Song on the Island of Kihnu. The bulky manuscript (about 500 pp + extra material), however, never appeared in print, as was often the case in those days. Fortunately, the important articles of the thesis about the function and performing of Kihnu folk songs did appear in print. Most noteworthy here is the longer treatment about Kihnu folk singers published in issue 159 of the Tartu University Proceedings.
In those days very little material was published on folklore studies. Also, the level of research was not always very high during the Soviet time. But the few articles published by Olli Kõiva are very thorough and are based on a vast amount of material and intense thought. As to the topic of Kihnu songs, it is a pleasure to see that the years since the last article about Olli Kõiva have been very active for her and have resulted in the final publication of Kihnu songs (co-authored by Ingrid Rüütel) with volume 2 of the anthology.
In retrospect, many of her works may seem as if outdated and rendered pointless in the course of time - such as the typewritten copies of Kalevala-metric folk songs. Yet, even these have immensely facilitated the ongoing digitisation of folklore collections. The usefulness of indexes the compilation of which Olli Kõiva effectively improved during her work as head of the Folklore Department of the Estonian Literary Museum is undeniable. Olli has been and is a good child, a good wife, a good mother and grandmother, a good leader and employee, a dear colleague and friend. It may seem that she has always given more than has been given, not to speak of having taken. Nowadays there are few people of this kind. Overview of Olli Kõiva’s scholarly career by Kristi Salve
For an awe-inspiring number of years, Igor Tõnurist has been active in building a bridge between folklorists and people, and embodies for people more aware about ethnology everything associated with “the legacy of our forefathers”. Igor Tõnurist’s personality is a fortunate symbiosis of a scholar/ethnologist on the one hand and the promoter and fosterer of folk culture on the other. While he might not be the most popular folklorist in the international academic circles, Tõnurist’s name and voice, heard in the radio programmes twenty or so years ago, are very well known among the Estonians. The clear voicing of his opinion and a very straightforward vision of how things are supposed to be is still characteristic of Igor Tõnurist, as it was, reportedly, during the Soviet period. He is the shifter of boundaries - always present when something was not quite right. Perhaps his “grandest” project has been the establishing of folk music group Leegajus in 1970. In 1973 he formed the Setu choir Sõsarõ, with an additional group of Setu singers, Siidisõsarõ formed alongside. With Maia Muldma, he has published the textbook about Estonian folk instruments in Russian language (2002, second edition in 2004). Igor is the member of the art committee of the International Folklore Festival BALTICA, has also staged the main concerts of the festival, and is thus very influential in the folklore movement. In-between the festivals he is active in supervising, counselling and instructing folklore groups and their leaders. In addition, he has been the head of the Estonian Folklore Society for many years. While Igor’s name is mostly associated with folk music, its popularisation and research, he is also expert in Estonian national costumes.
Igor Tõnurist has also been awarded the letter of recognition by CIOFF Estonia (2001), the Prize of Cultural Heritage (2002), the CIOFF Estonia medal (2002), and the fourth class Order of the White Star (2003). He has given and still gives lectures on Estonian folklore in the Viljandi Culture Academy, Music Academy, Tallinn University, as well as at courses and seminars organised by the Estonian Folk Culture Development and Training Centre. Igor Tõnurist is a reputed scholar, who has been the first to thoroughly introduce and study Estonian folk instruments and instrumental music.
As a scholar, Igor has been both critical and self-critical, which has probably hindered him in being too prolific in research. At the same time, his printed articles and publications are outstanding in their thoroughness and good structure, and are remarkably well written.
In 1996, Igor gathered several of his articles on folk music instruments in a book Pillid ja pillimäng Eesti külaelus (‘Instruments and instrumental music in Estonian villages’). This was an extensive and thematically solid collection, after which many colleagues tried to convince Igor to defend it as an MA thesis. But Igor’s virtually allergic reaction to academic red tape and demands postponed it until 2001. “A cat that walks alone,” has Igor commented on himself whenever he feels the pressure of academic bureaucratic burden. Overview of Igor Tõnurist’s scholarly career by Aivar Jürgenson.
On November 22-23, 2006, the fourth conference entitled Regilaulu müüdid ja ideoloogiad (‘Myths and Ideologies of regilaul, Estonian Kalevala-Metric Folk Songs’) on Kalevala-metric folk song was held in the Estonian Literary Museum. For the first time, the conference, which is held in every two years and brings together researchers of older folk song, had attracted international participants - in addition to Estonian folklorists, ethnomusicologists, and literary theorists, scholars from the Finnish Literary Society, University of Turku and University of Helsinki. As previously, the conference was supported by the Estonian Science Foundation (grant no. 6085, grant holder A. Lintrop).
The call for papers invited participants to discuss the influence of governing ideologies on the creation, performance, and interpretation of regilaul, and how different persons (singers, ethnomusicologists, etc.) or institutions have used the songs for achieving their goals. The proposed theme, however, did not guide the participants to interpret the concepts myth and ideology in a specific way, resulting in a relatively broad theoretical and methodological framework of the papers.
Most of the papers focused on the research tradition of Estonian Kalevala-metric folk songs: the internal transformation of the academic tradition and the changes in scholarly views over the time, on the one hand, and the opposition of science and society, and the participation of the scholars of regilaul, on the other hand. Several papers represented the person-centred approach in folk song research.
One may agree that while the conceptualisation of the relationships of regilaul, myths and ideologies varied considerably in the theoretical papers presented at the conference, the general tendency was to treat older folk song as the point of convergence of different interest groups, which lacks a superorganic existence, untouched by human activity. In most papers, the analysis of material and written and recorded folk songs were introduced in a clear temporal and historical context that enabled to focus on the role of the collectors, scholars and performers of folk song in shaping and conceptualising the analysed material. Overview of the event by E.-H. Seljamaa, E.H. Västrik.
The conference program and abstracts are available at http://www.folklore.ee/rl/era/uudis/regikava2006.htm.
On January 15-16, 2007 the international symposium Post-Socialist Jokelore (Linnniöcaecnncöånzcé akåzäin) was held in the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu. The international cooperation project brought together leading scholars from Bulgaria, Russia, Rumania, Poland and Estonia.
In two symposium days, nine presentations were held. The topics ranging from literary approaches to sociological brought together a considerably large audience and inspired lively discussion. The papers given at the symposium could be largely divided in two thematic units: the more general presentations discussing the joke creation of a specific country or period and more folkloristic treatments of the past, present and future of the genre. The humour of post-socialist countries was analysed by Stanoy Stanoev, Dorota Brzozowska, Liisi Laineste and Arvo Krikmann; the issues of genre evolution were handled by Elena Shmeleva and Aleksei Shmelev, Aleksandra Arkhipova, Aleksander Belousov and Mikhail Lurye, and Sergei Nekliudov.
The contacts with East-European colleagues established on the symposium and their enthusiasm for a future cooperation project suggest that we are on the right track. The cooperation entails a plan to publish cross-cultural studies on post-socialist jokelore, in order to offer a long anticipated addition and competition for the articles so far based on the analysis of mainly western joke material. Hopefully it will invite more countries in the project, since it is high time to analyse the changes that the politically, economically and in other ways tumultuous times have introduced in the joke tradition of post-socialist countries. Overview of the symposium by Liisi Laineste.
On February 1-2, 2007, the second winter conference of folklorists, Time and Space in Folklore, was held in Torupillitalu, Valga County. This conference was dedicated to the celebration of the 70th birthday of Mall Hiiemäe, senior researcher at the Estonian Folklore Archives. Presentations had been asked from Mall Hiiemäe’s colleagues and students from the Estonian Literary Museum, the University of Tartu, the Finnish Literary Society and other research institutions. The presentations primarily touched upon topics that Mall Hiiemäe has pursued throughout her scholarly career: calendar rituals, folk tales and beliefs, relationship of nature and folklore, local lore, historiography of folkloristics. Next to folklorists, several scholars of nature participated in the conference as speakers and among the audience.
The conference opened with bagpipe music by Ants Taul, the host at the tourist farm. The first session of papers focused on (folk) calendar, with detours to other folklore genres and arriving at present day, and the ritual marking of the significance of holidays. The afternoon session continued with presentations about animal and plant kingdom. The first conference day concluded with a versatile cultural program: the presentation of the recently published collection Regilaul - esitus ja tõlgendus (ed. A. Lintrop), the concert of more contemporary folk music by Anu, Triinu and Tõnis Taul, discussions, sauna, a festive dinner, and a manly singing. The second day of the winter conference opened with papers on folk belief and the last papers of the conference were dedicated to the studies of specific persons (Jakob Ploom, Setu storyteller Ksenia Müürsepp).
In the concluding discussion, Ülo Valk pointed out that Estonian folkloristics is currently enjoying a good run. The successful conference was certainly a worthy event to celebrate the birthday of Mall Hiiemäe, who actively participated in the commenting and discussions herself. Other participants of the winter conference shared their experience of the concentrated event and express their gratitude to the organisers - Astrid Tuisk, Eda Kalmre, Ergo-Hart Västrik and the Taul family at Torupillitalu. Overview of the conference by Madis Arukask.
Before the Estonian Independence Day, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, handed over the Folklore Prizes to the best folklore collectors of 2006.
One of the prize winners was former school master Kaleph Jõulu from Viljandi County. Jõulu has contributed material to the Estonian Folklore Archives since 1990, and the contributions have been nominated for the highest folklore collection prize for the fourth time. In the past 10 years, Jõulu’s contributions have acquired an additional folkloristic value as they represent a subjective view and interpretation of folklore. He has been highly prolific and versatile collector with an amazing breadth of knowledge and cultural interests and a wide circle of communication. The expressions recorded from a Gypsy in Kallaste, authentic tales of a village tailor in Viljandi, children’s lore, legends heard from his grandparents, the song repertoire of those deported in Siberia, recollections about his teacher Paul Ariste and comprehensive responses to questionnaires about Christmas in the Soviet time and flower lore have proved positively surprising.
Risto Järv, the other prize winner of this year, has been the main organiser and supervisor of student collection work. In the past five years, he has drawn a number of young people from the University of Tartu but also from several other higher education schools in Estonia through folklore collection to our ethnic cultural heritage. Not all of these have been folklore students, and not all of them will become ones, but they will all get an insight into the folklorist’s work and broaden their horizons by the contact with the rural living and people of Estonia. In the past years, Risto Järv has focused on recording the living storytelling tradition and has been very successful in his work. There were other interesting contributions sent to the Estonian Folklore Archives in 2006.
Since the very beginning, the folklore archives have been the result of planned and organised collection work in the form of collection competitions and campaigns. In 2006, the Estonian Folklore Archives, the Department of Folkloristics, and the folklorists at the University of Tartu, once again attempted to find out what kind of lore is shared by schoolchildren. Greatly owing to teachers and children at the Jäneda Basic School, Antsla Secondary School, Tallinn Old Town Educational College, Mart Reiniku School, Vormsi Basic School and Noarootsi School, the pilot project of the collection campaign resulted in a large amount of interesting manuscript material, which enabled folklorists to specifically outline the topics and prepare for the collection planned for Spring 2007.
Another collection project was the joint project of the folklore archives and the florist marketing company Interflora to collect flower lore.
A continuously successful project is the recording of Ingrian-Finnish lore in Estonia. The material (more than 20 hours of recorded material in 2006) has been collected and organised by Liilia Laanemann.
In the framework of the project of South-Estonian regional lore, Valdo Valper and Katrina Kink have handed over more than 20 hours of sound-recordings about the local lore in Urvaste parish. Heiki Valk from the University of Tartu has recorded Setu religion. The project on local lore and sacred places of the Muhu Island has been launched by the Estonian Literary Museum, Maavalla Koda, Tihuse tourist farm, Muhu museum and the Dept. of Archaeology at the University of Tartu, resulting in recorded material on 20 disks. The local partner of the project on the Muhu Island was Martin Kivisoo.
Sound material has been submitted to the archives also by Anna Moro from Tartu County (a family party in Pokoldovo, Setu County, instrumental music, singing) and Vaike Hang from Tartu (religious material recorded in Setu County).
On the festive event on February 16, 2007, the Estonian Folklore Archives expressed their gratitude to all the collectors with books and CDs and wished that the good cooperation in creating the shared culture-historical narrative of the people of Estonia will continue. Overview by Eda Kalmre.
Twelve articles in Gesunde Ansichten [Healthy Views] analyse the relationships between patients and doctors, info searching on illnesses, self help groups and preventive action. (Gisela Welz et al. (eds.)). Kulturanthropologie Notizen 74. Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität 2005, 253 pp. Review by Ave Tupits.
Anu Korb. Rõžkovo virulased pärimuskultuuri kandjana. Tartu 2007.
Anu Korb, who has in the past dozen of years published a number of articles about Estonian diaspora in Russia, commented anthologies and a monograph on the methods of folkloristic fieldwork, has now completed a book, in which she observes the development history of a highly unique community and old lore material survived up to the present day. The community, who refer to themselves as Virulased, inhabit the settlement of Ryzhkovo, the earliest known Lutheran village (founded in about 1803), in the Krutinka district (about 220 km northwest from Omsk).
The monograph ‘Virulased in Ryzhkovo village as transmitters of lore culture’, published as issue 24 of the series Estonian Folklore Archive Proceedings, consists of five articles, the four latter of which are folkloristic studies of the community’s song repertoire, folk calendar, popular healing tradition and funeral tradition, while the opening article focuses on the general introduction and background of the community. The author has provided a preface introducing the Estonian diaspora and studies in the diaspora; the book concludes with a general conclusion, the explication of terms, a thorough list of sources and references, and summaries in English and Russian. Review by Kadri Tamm.
Regilaul - esitus ja tõlgendus. Aado Lintrop (ed.). Tartu. Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum. 2006.
It is the fourth and the most recent book in the series of article collections on research in Estonian Kalevala-metric folk songs after Kust tulid lood minule… (published in 2000), Regilaul - keel, muusika, poeetika (2001), and Regilaul - loodud või saadud? (2004). The book represents the continuity in regilaul research in the past fifteen years both with the articles included in the collections, as well as the list of authors, characterised by the coming of the new generation of scholars and the alteration of research style and methods.
The editor and author of the introductory chapter of this book is Aado Lintrop, who has presented his conception in the form of a question: "Is Estonian regilaul dead?" This question may be interpreted as a challenge to speaking about folklore as a thing of a past, but at the same time it represents an eternal question about the age of regilaul, and, more specifically, what is meant by saying that regilaul is old. Since there is no single answer to this question, it is all the more interesting to observe the interpretations of this topic from one aspect or another in the articles of the collection. The central issues in the collection are where the changes occur (either in regilaul, the tradition, the living environment of the lore group, or in the views of researchers), what has prompted on change or the other, and in which ways are the single moments in changes related to each other.
The editor and author of the introductory chapter of this book is Aado Lintrop, who has presented his conception in the form of a question: "Is Estonian regilaul dead?" This question may be interpreted as a challenge to speaking about folklore as a thing of a past, but at the same time it represents an eternal question about the age of regilaul, and, more specifically, what is meant by saying that regilaul is old. Since there is no single answer to this question, it is all the more interesting to observe the interpretations of this topic from one aspect or another in the articles of the collection. The central issues in the collection are where the changes occur (either in regilaul, the tradition, the living environment of the lore group, or in the views of researchers), what has prompted on change or the other, and in which ways are the single moments in changes related to each other.