Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

‘More Inclined to Pity Than Love’: Matthias Alexander Castrén’s Published Letters About the Nenets

Karina Lukin — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article reads Finnish linguist and ethnographer Matthias Alexander Castrén’s published letters as travel writing influenced both by imperialist discourses and the tradition of Finnish travel writing. The article examines the letter formulae and the creation of a readership community, explores the ways in which Castrén builds involved and informative and emotional stances vis-à-vis the Nenets, and discusses the ways in which the imperial and nationalistic currents come together in the emotional economy of Castrén’s travel writing.

The article argues that the role of emotion is vital in order to understand how Castrén persuades his readers to see his point of view, and to see how he seeks to expand his readership. Castrén produces emotional stances in alignment with conventions that make the genre and its nationalist meanings readily apparent to his readers. Finally, the way Castrén’s travel writing produces a gaze that legitimates the process of othering is discussed. Concentrating on descriptions of the Nenets, the article argues that these accounts create an emotional relationship that indexes imperialism.

Deconstructing Narratives of Belonging and Otherness among Steppe Ukraine Villagers: Place, Space, Language, and Historical Consciousness

Oleksandr Pankieiev — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The image of Steppe Ukraine as a historical region has mainly been constructed based on narratives originating from urban centres that are often perceived as alien to this territory and people. Being one of the most industrial and urbanised parts of Ukraine during the period of the Soviet Union, the region witnessed a significant alteration in its peasant culture. Collectivisation, Holodomor, and the Second World War are the leading causes of the alteration in the social composition of Steppe Ukraine’s rural populations. The article deals with the complex question of identity formation among the villagers of Steppe Ukraine. There is particularly focus on the strategies of narrating feelings of belonging and otherness used by local villagers based on their understanding of the history of the places they inhabit. The article also looks at the inhabitants’ relationships with the people with whom they used to coexist in the same space, although these peoples were often wiped out amid the changing circumstances of the region.

Beyond Coming of Age: The Genderless Hero in Ukrainian Wonder Tale ATU 312D

Alina Oprelianska — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article aims to unsettle the meaning of gender assignment for Ukrainian variants of the dragonslayer wonder tale of ATU 312D, “Kotyhoroshko”, which is represented by a child hero through a post-structural deconstruction on four levels: language, job, body, and belief, of which the last level, belief, is crucial for folklore studies and definitive for my understanding of gender in folk narratives. Drawing on the interpretative framework, the article explores customary law and belief from Ukrainian ethnographic collections of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The article hypothesises that the child hero in fairy tales is genderless since the nonmodern ethnographic evidence of customary law, belief narrative, and historical material on childhood in the early modern and modern eras suggest that children up to seven years old are beyond the gendered system as it is irrelevant for them, and, consequently, the fairy tale hero Kotyhoroshko is genderless.

Money and Wealth in Qing Texts on Fox Spirits

Konstantin Tertitski — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study analyses the rules of circulation of money (and wealth in general) in Qing-era (1644–1911) Chinese texts on the supernatural. It is based on the popular collections of stories by writers Pu Songling, Ji Yun and Yuan Mei.

Ever since the 19th century, when sinologists started field studies on Chinese religions, there was much discussion about the extent to which literary texts can be used as sources on Chinese religions. Indeed, in each instance it is difficult to separate the product of the literary imagination from its possible folklore basis. However, as this study shows, literary texts were usually created within the framework of a certain system of ideas, which determines the nature of the characters and their modes of interaction with each other, including the financial aspects of these relations. Given the large scale of the Chinese pantheon, the object of study was limited to one class of supernatural being, fox spirits.

It appears that in Qing texts on supernatural world and associated folk beliefs of that time, silver, which served as currency in China, as well as property, was found, lost, borrowed, stolen, sold and bought by fox-spirits according to a changing system of rules inherent in the worldview of the period. Objects (including silver) can have their own predetermined fate which can influence the fate of characters interacting with them. The boundaries of possibilities in such interaction are often set by cultural norms and can’t be broken even by supernatural beings. In many respects tales of the supernatural from the Qing period, despite the specifics of the subject, promote traditional ethics and social order.

Forest, Folk, and Fiction: Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man as a Site for Ecoculture among the Nagas

Debajyoti Biswas, Paddaja Roy — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Forests are one of the most commonly recurring settings of folktales and oratures. In the popular imagination, forests are often seen as the site of the unknown, the non-human, enchanting and, mystifying, however, in the northeastern cultures of India, especially in Naga folklore, the forest provides a liminal space to the human and non-human through the confluence of spirits inhabiting all forms of body. Easterine Kire’s collection of short stories The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man (2021), essentially dealing with the life and culture of the Nagas, encapsulates a multifaceted representation of forests, orature and folklore juxtaposed with narratives that broach upon socio-cultural, supernatural, and ecological entanglements. This paper aims to read the representation of the spirits, forest and folk as portrayed in The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man as a strategy that blurs the human–nonhuman, human–environment distinctions vis-à-vis socio-ecological representations. Highlighting the prevalence of a sustainable life during the contemporary ecological crisis, this paper will take an ecocultural approach to show how certain traditions interact with their surroundings. Juxtaposing this with lifestyle changes brought about by modernity, this paper will rely extensively on the idea of eco-narrative. The framework of eco-narrative would trace the interaction of humans within the scope of nature thereby negotiating how narratives situate the discourse of folk culture.

Negotiating with Tides and Tigers: Life on the Boundaries of Bangladesh’s Flooded Forest

Jane Orton — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Sundarbans, which stretches from the Bay of Bengal over parts of India and Bangladesh, is the largest mangrove forest in the world, constantly in flux due to the erosion and cyclones that can drastically reshape the land. This article explores how Muslims, Hindus and the Indigenous Munda must negotiate the precarity of life and work on the forest boundaries, and the constant fluctuation of institutions and geography. These communities depend on the forest, negotiating dangers such as tigers, crocodiles, snakes, cyclones and the strict limitations imposed by the Forest Department. This article will explore boundaries, erosion and forest predators in turn, culminating in the argument that the roots developed by the Sundarbans’ communities incorporate spiritual collaboration as a form of syncretism. This article argues that, like the mangroves that characterise the Sundarbans, the communities that live on its boundaries have developed a distinctive system of roots that negotiates the unique demands of life in the region.

The Workroom: The Vernacular Practice and Theorising of a Religious Group in Contemporary Northeast China

Haozhen Li — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article investigates a religious group in contemporary northeast China. The group is formed by ritual experts and adherents of a traditional folk belief in animal spirits. The group runs as an institution providing aid to those who need psychological treatment, mainly using unorthodox psychological methods and therapies. Most members of this group identify themselves as devout Buddhists. They have developed a series of innovative rituals and generated syncretic teachings combining folk beliefs, vernacular Buddhism, Chinese traditional medicine, and unorthodox psychology.

Based on primary fieldwork materials, this research regards this group as a unique religious phenomenon rooted in the particular sociocultural context of contemporary China. The structure and nature of the group is analysed from a folkloristic perspective, according to which the communicative process is highlighted. Two paradigms of the constitution of the group are examined: the network of interaction, and the community of intra-action. This research finds that the group is constituted in the dialogue of the two paradigms, which are unified by the coherence of the vernacular religion experienced by the members in everyday life.

Applying Mythical Belief to Product Marketing in Thailand

Sansanee Krajangchom, Thitinadda Chinachan, Pachernwaat Srichai — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores the cultural significance of the Phaya Luang, a mythical creature worshipped by the Tai Lue people in Thailand, aiming to harness these beliefs to innovate and market new cultural products for heritage tourism. Employing qualitative methods, including document analysis, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and workshops, this research investigates the ancestral transmission of Phaya Luang beliefs through oral literature. It reveals the potential for these beliefs to inspire the creation of culturally relevant products, specifically satchel bags and yarn lanterns adorned with Phaya Luang motifs. These products cater to the community’s needs, attract tourists and appeal to younger generations through contemporary design. The integration of traditional beliefs preserves cultural heritage and imbues the items with new meanings, particularly the promise of prosperity associated with Phaya Luang. This strategic use of traditional motifs in product development offers insights into effective heritage marketing, significantly enhancing both the cultural and economic value of community products and presenting a successful model for the revitalisation of traditional beliefs in contemporary tourism and product design.

Witnessing the Big Grey Man on the Scottish Peaks: Interpretations and Engagement with the Environment of the Mountain Summits

Michele Tita — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Cairngorms are a mountainous area in the north-east of Scotland, with some of the highest peaks in Great Britain. The summits of these mountains are inhospitable to humans due to low temperature, intense winds, and other adverse weather conditions, but nevertheless they have been a common destination for mountaineers for more than a century. While on the summits of the Cairngorms, especially on the highest peak Ben MacDhui, some mountaineers have experienced uncanny and frightening sightings and sounds of a ghost-like human-like entity called the Big Grey Man.

How have mountaineers interpreted their alleged encounters with the Big Grey Man? What role does the environment of mountain summits have in the explanations and interpretations of th ese sightings? The present work addresses these questions, relying on archival materials about alleged encounters with the Big Grey Man and the author’s ethnographic research and interviews.

Book Review: Paganism Persisting: A History of European Paganisms since Antiquity

Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Douglas, Robin and Francis Young. 2024. Paganism Persisting: A History of European Paganisms since Antiquity. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. 228 pp.

Book Review: Conspiracy/Theory

Zuzana Panczová — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Masco, Joseph and Lisa Wedeen, eds. 2024. Conspiracy/Theory. Durham; London: Duke University Press. 512 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478027676.

Editorial Impressions: Rural Rebellion and Reclaiming Dreams

Art Leete — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Editorial