memorates and the study of folk belief

8/10/2019 Memorates and the Study of Folk Belief

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Memorates and the Study of Folk BeliefsAuthor(s): Lauri HonkoReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 1, No. 1/2 (1964), pp. 5-19Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814027 .Accessed: 22/05/2012 09:50

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LAURI HONKO

emora tes n d t h e S t u d y o o l k e l i e f N

When it comes to fblk beliefs, anthropologically nd sociologicallyoriented nvestigators f primitive religion and folklorists nvestigatingfolk narratives become involved with the same material Both partieswould undoubtedly rofit rom an exchange f ideasS rom knowing eachother's methods and research results. Yet there is alnple evidence toshow that such an excllange does not occur. [n this respect, scholarlycommunication unctions very poorly. It might be justiflable o consider

what deficiencies nd errors a one-sided raining an lead to in practicalresearch work.

Let me illustrate he situation with a fictional xa1nple. Let us supposethat more than thirty years ago two scholars, one an anthropologist, heother a folklorist, arrived n the Finnish village Saaskela n the Spankkovadistrict of Ingria (the area around Leningrad). Without meeting oneanother they interviewed he same informant, WIaria avolainen, whowas born n 1882. Tllis woinan told thenz about a supernatural eing, a

';barn pirit" or ;'hobgoblin," who lives n the barn. In t}leautumn, grainis dried n the barn n an intense heatr after which t is threshed by hand.Each scholar recorded he followng informatiorl n his notebook:

A. Sometimes, f the barn spirit was in a bad moodn e helped o burnthe barn down; if he was in a good mood, he helped extinguish he fire.

B. The old man of Taakeli, my mother's ather, told this. When hewas sleeping n the barn, someone came and moved his leg and said,"Go away frown here; t's your Aunt Annl's place " The old man said,

';Did Aunt Anni have this barn built?" The old man fell asleep again andstraightened is leg. Again his leg was moved o another place. He askedthe boy who was with him, ;'Did you lift my leg?Ss The boy answeredS"I didnt lift it; I was sleeping." The old man said, "Well, guess I'll have


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6 LAURX HONKO

to move from here; I seem to be in someone's way here." Then when hemoved to another place, he was left in peace.

C. The barn was warmed ate in the evening. The master of the housewas baking turnips on the oven stones. FIe sat in the threshold of thebarn, ooking out from the door. At his side appeared omeone who hada black face but whose nose was as red as fire. The master asked "Whoare you?" tI:e answeredS I'm the spirit of this building." The mastersaid, "If you are the spirit of this building? hen why do you amuse me somuch?" The master ook a stick used for stirring he fire, gave it to thespirit, and ordered him to squeeze t. When he squeezed tS sparks lew.

The master ook a baked urnip, queezed t until water rickled out, andsaid, ;'Look, I am even stronger; squeeze water rom a rock.5' The spiritsaid, ';Give t to me too " He squeezed, but no water came; only sparksflew. The master was smarter, as he tricked even the barn spirit. Thebaked urnip was as black as rock; the spirit didn't notice the diSerence.l

In his report he anthropologist ould probably ell how "Ingrian Finnsbelieve" hat the barn spirit s a capricious eing who can do either goodor bad. He can help extinguish burning barn; bllt when he is in a bad

mood, he can burn down the barn, disturb he sleep of those spending henight there and so on. Because he creature s cruel and feared, thelllgrians augment their courage with certain anti-stories n which theintelligence nd skill of the barn-warmer re idealized. Only the anthro-pologist is capable of dealing with tllat creature properly. He would-perhaps ontinue by delineating he social context of the beliefs, endeav-oring to learn what role and function the barn spilit has in the Ingrian

. .

re SglOUS system.

-lnother words, he anthropologist would handle his inaterial s a bodyin which different pieces of information have about the same value asevidence. In this respect a well trained olklorist would be more cautious,First of all, he would notice that each of the three pieces of infornrationrepresents different enre of tradition A is a belief (he could also callit a dite). 3 is a memorate. n respect o C, he would remember hat thistheme appears n the Aarne-Thompson olktale ndex under the heading'sContest between Man and Ogre"2 perhaps he would consider whether

1 This information s from M. Virolainen's ollection (Nos. 1070, 976, 1034) in theFolklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society. It was recorded n 1945 fromMaria Savolainen who had been evacuated o Finland because of the war.2 Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale = FF ommllnicationJ7,184) (Helsink , 1 96 ), Type l 060.


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7EMORATES AND THE STUDY OF FOLK BELIEFS

or not C, in this case, could be listed as a legend). Realizing hat vanantsof C are found throughout Europe, he might be tempted to begill a

comparative nvestigation. Or he might attempt to exhaust MariaSavolainen's tory repertoire and publish a study, "An Ingrian Story-teller," n which he would depict the narrator's ersonality nd her po-sition as a bearer of tradition n the village community. The barn spiritproblem, or the examining f memorates, ossibly would not interest himbecause he was better rained o operate with the stereotyped roducts ofpopular verbal art than with structurally oose memorates and belieEs.

From the point of view of folk belief study, the analysis of traditional

genres s above all an auxiliary means of source criticism. Before anygeneralizations bout what "Ingrians believe" can be made, one mustknow which traditional genre provides he most valuable evidence, andwhich one, on the other hand, is more or less secondary. As C. W. vonSydow emphasized n 1936 in his essay, "Kategorien der Prosauber-lieferung," he character, unction, and changes o survive and spread ofseparate raditional genres are different; hey "are subject to differentlaws."3 In his article "Comparative Religion and Popular Tradition,"

von Sydow, n his polerIlical manner, criticized he scholarship f pnmi-. . .tlve re lglon:

The school of Comparative Religion is thus incapable of seeing independentlywhich categories of tradition are of importance or the study of religion andwhich have nothing to do with religion at all; they have contented hemselves,in good faith, with the material prepared by former scholarship, nd have nowand then added some detail which might seem relevant. Reliable scientificwork in the field of primitive religion presupposes broadly based studies ofpopulal tradition and a thorough knowledge of its several categories4.

Slightly modified, his criticism still holds true. Another matter s thatnot even folklorists have been able unanimously o accept van Sydowvssystem of traditional enres. In the abundance f terms he has proposed,there is room both for pruning and for changing and adjusting. In thelack of progress made n this work there s a circumstance or which onlythe folklorists can be blamed. Works appear continually n which the

3 C. W. von Sydow, Selected Papers on Folklore Copenhagexl, 948), p. 60.4 Von Sydow, op. cit., p. 169. Von Sydow did not know that in 1926, in his essay'iMyth in Primitive Psychology," B. Malinowski had emphasized he same aspects andhad made a modest effort to classify tradition as tales, legends, myths, etc. See B.Malinowski, Magic, Scienceand Religion, and OtherEssays New York, 1954), pp. 100108. It is regrettable hat cultural anthropologists have not continued n this direction.


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8 LAURI HONKO

concept of legend s handled ust as though categories f the legend did 110texist.4 ln the papers given at the congress held in 1959 n Kiel the termmemorate ppeared nly once.6 This does not result rom the term's nothaving been sufficiently ublicized, or example, n the German anguagearea.7 It just reflects he concentration f the interest of folklorists ntraditional genres with fixed forms, such as international olktalesmigratory egends, ballads, and proverbs. The life and social dimensionsof a tradition are studied primarily rom the point of view of the story-telling situation, he narrative echnique, and the narrator's ersonalityand repertoxr.8 For the i1lvestigation f folk beliefs, this type of study

. . .

1S not very proznlslng.C. W. vo-n Sydow never applied his ideas about memorates, egendst

and the source criticis1n f belief material o a broaders more positivestudy. This remained lle task of other scholars, primarily f Finns andSwedes. In 1935 Gun1lar Granberg ublished n exemplary tudy of theScandinavian orest-spirit radition9 nd a short 1nethodological xam-ination of memorate and legends concepts.lo Albert Eskerod formerlyNilsson) significantly urthered he study of folk beliefs vith his article

" Interessedominanz nd Volksuberlieferung" 3936)1l and with llis} See, for example, Leopold Schmidt, Dze Volkserzahlung: archen, Sage, Legrenale,Schwank Berlin, 1963), pp. 107-112. Scllolars ike von der Leyen, Vesselski, Peuckert;,and Rohrich, who have, nevertheless, ealt with questions concerning he classificationof legends, have not arrived at a satisfactory system. See, for example, Fr. von derLeyen's and A. Wesselski's essays in A. Spamer, Die deutsche VolksrtczJnde LeipzigS1934), pp. 203-248; Will-Erich Peuckert, Deutsches Volkstum n MdsSchen nd Sage.SchwazzJc nd Ratsel (Berlin, 1938), pp. 95-150; Lutz Rohrich, "Die deutsche VolkssagetFin methodischer Abriss," Stledium Generale, 11:11 (Berlin, 1958), pp. 664-691.si "Internationaler Kongress der Volkserzahlungsforscher n Kiel und Kopenhagvn.

Vortrage und Referate," Fabula B:2 (Berlin, 1961), p. 3.7 Ste Peuckert, op. cit., pp. 112-125; and W.-E. Peuckert and O. Lauffer, "tfolks-kunde, Quellerl und Forschungen eit 1930," Wissenschaftliche orschungsberichte, 4(Bern, 1951), pp. 181-182. I do not know if the term memofate has in some way passedinto English terminology; at least Funk & Wagnalls, Standard Dictionary f FolkloreMythology and Legend, I-II (New York, l949, 1950) does not mention it.8 Many essays in the above mentioned publication of the Kiel Congress eflect thisorientation. C. H. Tillhagen's recent ecture "Traditionsbararen," hich appeared asa publication of the Nordisk Seminar Folkedigtning Copenhagen, 1962) follows thesame line of literary histoly and individual psychology.9 G. Granberg, Skogsraet yngl e nosdisk olktradition -Skri3ter atgivnrz v GastalZAdolfs Akademien or folklivsforskning, ) (Uppsala, 1935).10 G. Granberg, "Memorat und Sages Einige methodische Gesichtspunkte," Sagcoch sed (Uppsala, 1935), pp. 120-127.11 A. Nilsson, i;Interessedominanz nd Volksuberlieferung, Einige uberlieferungs-psychologische Gesichtspunkte," Acta Ethnotogica, 936:3 (Copenhagen), p. 165-186.


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9EMORATES AND THE STUDY OF FOLK BELEFS

dissertation Arets aring" 1947).12 n Fialand, during he Second WorldWar, Martti Haavio published a comprehensive work about Finnisl

household spirits.l3 Unfortunately, he achievements f these scholarsdid not effectively nfluence nternational esearch, or only short abstractsof Granberg's nd Eskerod's dissertations were translatedS nd Haavio'swork was published only in Finnish. When I began to prepare a studyabout Ingrian pirit beliefs,-4 appreciated his Swedish-Finnish radition-al, psychological chool. I'he results of its work formed a good startingpoint for the developnlenl; f method. Many problems were alreadysatisfactorily olved, but at the same time t was apparent hat an analysis

could be deepened n the idirection f social psychology and sociology.As noted above, in the analysis of traditional genres the attempt is

uade to define concepts and to identify catet,ories or the source criticisnof the material. What, for example, s a folk belief ? This much used andvaguely defined erm has been applied o quite diSerent raditional te-nls.i:norder hat it might have a practical alue one should be able to defineit on the basis of some formal criterion. This criterion an be found n thefact that a belief normally states a matter n the form of a direct and

general tatement text A above). "The barrL pirit does not let you sleepin the barn; he dries you away" is a belief. Because sucll stateneIltscontain a generalization, hey canIlot be accepted as they are llntil theirvalidity has been investigated with a frequency nalysis. l:n his instanceone must ask: Do Ingrians generally believe that the barn spirit drivesout those sleeping n the barn? On the basis of a broader body of eviderlce,it can be demonstrated hat this is the case. This belief belongs to theso-called "collective' tradir;ion.la ut quite often the result s negative.

Such is the case with the belief expressed n text A. This belief is notgenerally known in Ingria; it obviously belongs only to an individualtradition. [n this instance the origin of the belief can be traced; theinforma-nt as abstracted her statement ronl two or three memorates heknows. Quite often the belief is the creation of the collector. What heheard was a memorate, but he recorded he information n his notebookin a generalized orm. And finally he investigator nters he picture who

12 A. Eskerod, Arets ring, Etnologiska tudier skordens ch ulens ro och sed(Nordiska {useets andlingar, 6) Stockholm, 1947).13 M. Haavio, Suomalaiset odinhaltiatPorvoo, 1942).14 L. Honko, GeisterglaubenIngesflmanland,(=FFC, 85) (Helsinki, 1962).15 For the relationship of individual and collective tradition, ee Eskerod, Xrers s iBtg,pp. 74-79; and Honko, op. cit., pp. 125-129.


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10LAURIONKO

wouldather treat his material as "beliefs" hanas exact memorate-

quotations. orks concerning rimitive eligonare illedwith statements

whichegin, "The Vog-uls elieve ..." just asthough the belief were the

possessionf a broad society.l6 The diSerencesbetween ndividual and

collectiveraditions are generally iven rlo heed.

According o von SydowSmemorates re "Erzahlungener Leute uber

eigene ein personliche Erlebnisse.''l. Throughthem we grasp the

livingssence of folk belief, the supernaturalxperiences f the people.

Beliefn the existence of spirits s founded notupon loose speculation,

butpon concrete, personal xperiences, he realityof which s reinforced

byensory perceptions. ln this respectspirits are empitical beings.l8

Althoughhe investigator himself s unable tosee the spirits, he must

admithat his informant really saw them. Ingeneral, nformants eact

criticallyo supernatural xperiences. Thewant to consider rue only

that hich hey themselves aw or which SOllltacq-uaintance xperienced.

If,or example, he collector asks: "Are thereany spirits n the barn??'

thenhe informant normally keeps away froma generalized resentatiorl

inwhich he wollld describe what a spirit ookslike and what it usually

does. nstead he begins to relate:"Last fall when 1 went to put more

wood n the barn's stove, then (such and suchhappened).' i:n other

words, he reports a menzorate. The overwhelmingmajority of my

material, which was gathered by careful collectorsxs comprised of

memorates.Memorates re a valuable ource or the study of

folk religion primarily

because hey reveal hose situations n whichsupernatural radition was

actualized nd began directly o influence behavior.On the basis of the

l'; As one of the hundreds of available examples, I can nention Godfrey Liellhardt'ssocial anthropological study, Divinity cl:nd

Experience, the Religion of the Dinka

(Oxford, 961). The pattern of "the Dinka believe'?ominates he entire work. Among

the bearers of traditions here seems to be noindividual variation. Thus the picture of

the culture becomes extraordinarily niform.But does it conform to reality? Marky

anthropologists would certainly profit from thelast chapter of the study published by

Malinowski n 1916, "Baloma, Spirits of the Deadin the Trobriand slands" Malinow-

ski, op. cit., pp. 237-254).17 Vo.n Sydow, op. cit., p. 73. It should be ob3erved

hat a memorate s not a type of

the legend but forms its own category. Also,the concept of the memorate has no

conllectiotl with Andre30lles' peculiar meneorabile. See Einfache

Fovmen (Halle,

1929), pp. 200-217.18 On the basis of whether hey can be seen or

not, supernatural eillgs can be divided

empirically for example, spirits and the dead)or aetiologically for example, giants and

mythical heroes). Some beings (for example, hedevil) can appear n both groups.


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MEMORATES AND THE STUDY OF FOLK BELIEFSll

memorates we can form a picture of the social context of beliefs, theconsideration f which s the fundamental emand of the functionalistic

approach. We can learn who had the experience nd n what circumstances(time, place, situation, and so on), how it was interpreted, nd how itinfluenced behavior. From case to case we can draw conclusions aboutthe functional prerequisites nd the consequences of the actualizationof a certain belief. Because memorates ive in narrative radition, wemust consider the possibility that this "after-life" has caused somesecondary changes n the contents of the memorates. The investigatormust attempt to make clear how authentically a memorate reflects

original supernormal xperience. When one must decide if the kind ofexperience which the memorate relates is, on the whole, possible orprobable, he problem s primarily one of perception psychology. Theinvestigator has to consider the modality of an experience: are weconcerned with a vision, an auditory perception, touch sensation, or acombination of these? Further, was the experience erhaps a dream, anhallucination, n illusion, an eidetic perception, r a hypnagogic mage?What was the duration of the experience? Was the spirit's appearance

lifelike or vague? What were the perceptual onditions? For example,was it dark, was it possible o test the perception?) What was the psycho-physical condition of the person who had the experience was he sick,tiredS drunk or under the power of some strong expectation, desire orfear)? In different ways it is possible o appraise memorate's egree ofauthenticity.l9 Perceptual eatures which are psychologically mprobableare often secondary, dded n connection with the narration. There arememorates n which there are ample ndividual, unique features and, in

certain espects, "unnecessary" etails. There are others which are poorerand more schematic n content. There are also those which, along withauthentic xperiences, ontain motifs earned, or example, rom egends.From the point of view of the analysis of supernatural xperiences, hefirst group is most valuable. But from the point of view of folk belief,those which contain econdary lterations re also valuable. For memor-ates told many times tend to become codified and approach a collectivetradition, particularly f that tradition includes suitable parallels and

patterns. Such adapted memorates ell not what kind of supernaturalexperience ctually was, but rather what should have been, according o

19 Honko, op. cit. pp. 103-108.


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the bearers of the tradition. The knowledge f tlais s also socio-psyello-logieally mportant.C. W.

von Sydow and Gunnar Granberg were inclined to stressindividual, nique lements s the principal haracteristies fmemorates.20S4artti Haavio came to a slightly diSerent view: "Those memorates nwhieh the individ-ual iemellt s dominant are noticeably arer han tllosein which the :rnotifs re connected with general folk tl adition."2l Thisis true and quite naturall or it is newly learned supernatural raditionthat gives those rnodels of experience wllich form the basis for newexperiences. Also the degree to whicll diSerent memoiate features aretraditional anand must be deterJrlined ith frequency analysis. Forinstarlce, n text B the owotio} hat a spirit drives a sleeping person rom aplace which belongs to the building's uperIlatural wner is traditional.On he other hand, tlle feature hat the owner s a deceased person s rarein Ingria; however, parallels o it can be found in Finland.22in general, diSererltiating etween memorates ith individual eaturesand stereotyped, rlternational egends gives little dfficulty. However,between llese genres there is room for a number of transitional orms.This esults, arnong other

things, from the fact tlrat a memorate an intimedevelop into a legend. S/hen an exciting description of a supe-natural xperience spreads frona one distric-t o another, it becolnesschematic un}zecessary etais are dropped and new motifs added), andthe pirits' activities, for example, becolne concrete and gratohic. A1-thougll his product s no Tonger lose to the original experience t maynevertheless e}nain n harmony with the memorate raditiorl nd belieftradition f a iocality. Ttzen t can be called a belief iegend (Gl(lubens-sage);ts value as a reflector ffolk belief s quite considerable. Generallyspeaking, owever, egends, compared o memolats, are a secondarysource. here are egends which cannot be used, for instance, as evideIlcefor elief n some spirit. ln an area where he fire spirit s not to be foundinmemorate radition, a legend about conversing ire spirtts can never-thelessxist (one spirit complains hat he is treated poorly in his house,peoplepit into the fireS and so on, whereupon another urges that lleburnhe house in revenge). 1:twould be a mistake to suppose that thefirepirit belongs to the locality's

supernatural eings. The matter in2tVon Sydow, op. Cit.* p. 73,; Granberg, "Memorat und Sage," p. 121.21 aavio, op. cit., p. 9."Honko, op. cit., pp. 344-345.


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13EMORATES AND THE STUDY OF FOLK BELlEFS

question is a migratory egend whose task -is not to testify to the firespirit's existence, but to the fact that fire is sacred and that it must behandled properly. Many egends are preserved y means of their drasticfantasy motifs and their narrative alue (their humor, and their excitingnature). These can sometimes be called fabulates, ometimes entertain-ment legends (Unterhaltungssage).23 n respect o source criticisln, t isimportant o prune from the materials hose fabulates, entertainmentlegends and international migratory egends which do not have a basis na region's actual folk beliefs. However, one should remernber hat thesame egend can in one area appear n the function of a fabulate and in

some other n that of a belief egend.That tales cannot be used as the primary material or the study of folk

beliefs needs no further demonstration. But there are still two traditionalforms which have sometimes led to misconceptions. These are fictsand metaphors. C. W. von Sydow readily demonstrated ow "Roggen-muhme," "Kornmutter" and certain other lN


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14 LAUR1 HONKO

central problem of the investigation s: where, when, and why did super-natural experiences riginate and how do people act in a supernaturalsituation? n what ollows I shall ry to present ome deas about how onemight proceed n an analysis.

First, one must establish who are the bearers f a tradition, or example,of beliefs in spirits. I would oppose the notion that these beliefs areprimarily he possession of "gifted narrators." Actually, tradition ismaintained not by certain ndividuals, but by social roles. A traditionknown by a fisherman s different rom one known by a cattle breeder; nlearning certain profession or role, a person also learns he supernaturaltradition connected with it. Of course, the same individual an possessseveral ocial positions and roles, but of these only one at a time s actualand active while the others remain atent. Similarly person can knowvarious kinds of supernatural raditions, but that tradition which comesto his mind in a given behavioral ituation s determined n the basis ofhis active status at the moment. Role behavior can best be depicted bymeans of concepts of social value and norm. In my study I was able toprove that spirit images can be brought nto dependence with certain

social roles, values, and norms. Primarily hose individuals who functionin the role of a house's master or mistress maintain he tradition of thehouse spirit. The value which governs behavior an briefly be called the"fortune of the house"; it includes the protection of the house frommishap, he agreeable nd orderly onduct of the family which ives therethe family7s well-being, prosperity, and its protection rom destructiveoutside influences. In this case, in-group attitudes dominate the value.Expected behavior s expressed as norms. Appearances of the house

spirit are usually experienced when some norm has been broken (forexample, disorderliness, uarreling, drunkenness) r when some mis-fortunethreatensthe ouseorthe family such as fire, deatll, eaving home).The house spirit s also actualized n connection with such great changesof life as the building of a new home and the moving rites. Similarly, tcan be shown hat those functioning n the role of cattle breeder maintainthe belief in the stable spirit; that the preservation f the barn spirittradition is supported by the role of the barn warmer; and that the

women, who bathe last on Saturday vening, believe n the bath-housespirit.25

Because onsideration f space will not allow the presentation f many2; For more detailst see Honko, op. cit., pp. 243-248, 13-3l7.


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examples, I shall present, as a diagram, he basic model of only oneanalysis. A simple and often-repeated upernatural xperience would, forinstance, be the following. In the evening a man goes to heat the barn.He is rather ired, for the heating has continued or two days withoutinterruption. The responsibility or drying he grain s his alone; he mustsupervise he placement of the sheaves be able to keep the temperatureat the correct evel and take care of the ventilation. But the stove mustnot get too hot, for the danger of fire is obvious. He must see to it thatplaying children, or example, do not trample n the grain or that thievesdo not get hold of the threshed rain. As he sits by the fire, he decides o

stretch out for a moment. Against his will he dozes off. Suddenly hehears he barn door squeak and looks toward t: there an old man with agray beard and a white suit stands and looks at him disapprovingly. Atthe same nstant he being disappears. The man goes to the door; outsidein the snow there are no tracks. The man looks into the barn's tove; thefire s about to go out. He puts n more wood and leaves n a moment orthe house. There he tells the event to others. They ponder over themeaning of the experience nd conclude n the end that the barn spirit

came o wake the barn warmer because he fire was about o go out.Those factors which, n this instance, affect he actualization f a given

frame of reference nd in the end lead to the rise of the vision are easilydiscernible. The value governing he role of barn warmer, "the successof the grain drying," had been put in danger because a certain norm "youmust not sleep") had been violated. The demand of the norm and thebarn warmer's eed for sleep created a conflict; he man's sleep was notpeaceful but was marked by stress and feelings of guilt.

These factors can be called "primary" timuli n the process of actual-izing a frame of reference. On the other hand, the "releasing" timulus26was the door's creaking, an ordinary noise to which the man ordinarilywould have paid no heed, but which now seemed "strange" nd awakenedhim. Fear that the spirit would punish him for his mistake began o arisein the man's consciousness, or in tradition hat violated norm had beenstrengthened y just such a sanction. In the poor perceptual ircumstances(it was half dark; the borders of light and shadow and the outlines of

objects were unclear) he tired man's "creative ye" began o act; he sawin the doorway a pale figure. Perhaps he had seen or heard earlier hatthe barn spirit has a gray beard. And so this feature became part of the2t; Forconceptsof"primary" and "releasing" timuli, see Honko, op. cit., pp. 96-g9.


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VALUE (SUCCESS OF THE WORK)

NORM ("YOU MUST NOT SLEEP )

VIOLATION OF NORM

SANCTION (';THE SPIRIT BECOMES

ANGRY")

/THE INDIVIDUAL S PSYCHOPHYSICAL

CONDITION (TIREDNESS, ETC.)

LEARND TRADlTION (LEGENDS,

MBIORATES, ONE'S EARLIER

SUPEItNORMAL EXPERIENCES)

16LAURI HONKO

RELEASING SNMULUS

(A ' STRANGE SOUND)

CONFLICT STRESS

PRIMARY STIMULI

VISION

v7r t (THE SPT IS SEN)

CULTURAL E2ERIENCE MODEB

PERCBPTUAL CONDMONS

(DARKNBS, ETC.)

hypnagogic mage which s born on the border of sleep and wakefulness.When he looked at the door a second time, the perceptual material wasstructured ifferently: he being had disappeared. The rapid

disappear-ance and the lack of tracks n the snow were supernormal riteria whichprecluded he possibility hat the creature n question might have beensome passer-by. To the man's mind came the explanatory models oXeredby tradition. It must be noted that during he experience tself a personoften does not yet know what the creature e sees is. He might already beconvinced of the supernormal ature of the vision, but the interpretationdoes not yet occur. This kind of supernatural eing, which as yet has noexact mage attached o it, can be called a namen.27 AIllong other things,

97 I have borrowed he te from Rudolf Otto, who, in his work Das Heilige (2W30ed., Munchen, 1936), p. 225, defines "numen ubernaturliches Wesen noch ohne genauereVvrstellung."


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VALUE-STRENGTHENING BE-

HAVIOR ELIMINATES STRE SS

t

ADAPTATION OF BEHAVIOR

(PIJNISHMENT, REWARD, ETC.)

SUPIRNORMALITY S TESTED3 INTERPRETATION MEMORATE > > > LEGE

NUMEN > BARN-SPIRIT

SOCIAL CONTROL NARRATIONS BECOME TYPIFIED

COLLECTIVE RADITION

+ CULTURAL EXPLANATORY MODELS

the term s necessary because, or one reason or another, an explanatorynzodel rom tradition annot be fo-und or Inany upernatural xperiencesand they remain at the nusnen stage.28 The interpretation requentlyarises only as the res-ult f later deliberation. A person's storehouse ofmemories can accumulate supernatural xperierlces, he meaniIlg ofwhich becomes evident only after weeks or even months. In this wayomen-memorates re formed; an unexplaillable vent experienced arlieris later nterpreted etrospectively, or example, n connection with a fireas an omen of the catastrophe. A person who has experienced super-

28 ln just this way came about the er7er resh tradition which tells of indeterminatespecters and ghosts. -\/Vith dmirable ease it has passed through those cultural changes

which cause weakening and death to belief n spirits. In the indexes of legend, arrangedaccording to the name of the supernorulal being, a place must be reserved for thenumen. See, for example, L. Simonsuuri, Typen- zmd Motivverzeichnis er finnischerzm.ythischen Sagen = FEC, 182) (Helsinki, 961), Chapter B: Gespensterspuk, p. 45-48.

K)RM OF PERCEPTUAL

STIH IS RRANGED

(THE SPIRIT DISAPPEARS)


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18LAURI HONKO

natural event by no means always makes the interpretation imself; thesocial group hat surrounds im may also participate n the interpretation.Tn heir midstmay be spirit belief specialistsS nfluential uthorities, whoseopinion, by virtue of their social prestige, becomes decisive. The readinessto have experiences and the ability to interpret hem are not alwaysequally developed; one may be prone to experxence he s-upernaturalwhile another may be better able to explain he reasons or the experience.The group controls tlae experiences of its members, and if the mostauthoritative nd influential person happens o be a skeptic, the super-normal character f the experience an afterwards e refuted.

This scheme ofanalysis applies o those experiences wlaich begin withthe violation of a norm. This type of experience s characterized y thesupernatural world's actualizing tself unexpectedly and by surprise.Subconscious xpectations are, by their nature, negative; contact withthe spirit s neither sought for nor hoped for, but nevertheless he spiritappears. The attitude of the person s marked by fear; the spirit s thesubject f the action, the moralist, while the person, on the other hand,is the object, the one punished. Sudden, surprising appearances f aspirit re generally very

graphic events n which, for example, he spiritis een very clearly and its activity s experienced s a concrete act. Butthere re also other types of experiences. In ritual behavior he basicsituation s different; ontact with the spirit s sought by means of ritual;the erson s the subject of the action the spirit the object. The expec-tations irected oward he spirit are positive, it is hoped hat he will helpand eward. Behavior which was contrary o the norm and which en-dangered value gave rise to surprising ppearances. In ritual, on theother and, the behaviortrengthens value and conforms o the norm.Itmust be noted that graphic, lear appearances f a spirit do not usuallyoccurn connection with ritual. The spirit's "answer' s read frona omequiterifling igns, and, above all, from the success of those endeavors orwhich urpose he ritual was organized.29

The purpose of this short survey has been o call attention o a neglectedtraditional enre, he memorate, nd to its central position n the function-alnalysis of folk belief. For the investigation f primitive eligion, hefollowinguggestions might be worthconsideration.1.Recognizing and defining different traditional genres is necessarybecause heir source value varies.

29Honko, op. clt., pp. 110-1 3.


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MEMORATES ND THE STY OP FOLK BELIEFS 19

2. Every generalization needs the support of a frequency-analyticalexamination. One must be able to make the distinction between he

individual and collective radition.3. One must appraise he degree of probability nd authenticity f claimed

supernatural xperiences by means of perception psychology.4. When one studies the life of a supernatural radition in narrative

tradition, t is worth while to take notice of the coexistence nd inter-action of memorates nd egends and particularly f that social controlwhich is directed oward the traidition and which modifies t.

5. Relating supernatural radition o social roles, values, and norms is

necessary before we can say anything about the function of folkbeliefs.

University of TurkuTurku, Finland

memorates and the study of folk belief

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