Mythic Images and Shamanism: A Perspective on Kalevala Poetry by Anna-Leena s> Siikala (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 5I9 the funerarytraditionsof Seto culture. The text is certain to prove of interest to scholars interested in the rich Orthodox wedding traditions of Eastern Europe or the equally fascinating lament traditions of the region. For the scholar of Estonian or more particularlySeto culture, this fascinating volume stands as a document of a remarkablewoman, one who ably earned the epithet lauluimd, 'motherof song'. Department ofScandinavian Studies THOMAS A. DUBOIS University of Wisconsin-Madison Siikala,Anna-Leena.Mythic Images andShamanism: APerspective onKalevala Poety. FF Communications, vol. I30, no. 280. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki, 2002. 423 PP. Illustrations.Notes. Bibliography. Person and SubjectIndexes. ?32.00 (paperback). QUOTINGthe fieldwork report of Kai Donner from his I9II- 1 3 work among Samoyed people along the Ket River, Anna-Leena Siikalabegins her studyof shamanic images within Finnish and Karelian folkpoetry with a reminderof the profound influence of Finnish scholars on the study of North Eurasian religionsin general.It is a traditionof scholarshipthatincludesnames of great importance to the study of religion and essential reference works, such as Siikala's own classic compendium of ethnographic information The Rite Technique oftheSiberian Shaman (Helsinki, I978). Underlying thislong tradition, Siikalasuggests,is a sense that the worldviewand ritualrepertoireof Siberian peoples isnot so unfamiliarto Finnsat allbut, rather,isreflectedunmistakably in the oraltraditionof Finnsand Karelians. The notion of shamanic elements in the narrative and rituals songs of Finland and Karelia is by no means new. The Italian folkloristDomenico Comparetti discussed such elements in detail already in I89I, and Siikala suggeststhat traces of the idea can be found even earlierin the I853 lectures of M. A. Castren, another early exemplar of the peripatetic Finnish ethnographer. Yet the task which Siikala sets before herself in the present studyis valuable and timely:to update and extend the observationsof earlier scholarsso as to takeadvantageof advancesmade in the fieldsof archaeology and historyof religion that have occurred over the last half century. Siikala's updatingoffersnew andconvincingwaysofrecognizinga shamanicworldview within the songs collected primarilyfrom Orthodox Karelian singersover the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It synthesizes these observationsinto an overview that standsas powerfulevidence for the notion of continuityin the historyof mentalities. Siikala'sexamination seeks to shed light particularlyon the figure of the tietaja,a variety of folkhealer common in ruralFinland and Karelia from the medieval period into the early twentieth century. The tietdjdcombined ritualizedhealing actslikesauna, salve applicationand massagewith complex recited incantations, many of which were eventually recorded by folklorists, especially during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Sporadic court records of witch trials contain further examples, pushing the time frame of observationsback to as early as the seventeenth century. By examining these 520 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 incantations, related epic songs, and ethnographic or court records of tietdjd activities, Siikala is able to reconstruct an overview of the worldview and methods of the tradition's practitioners. Her chapters explore the ways in which healingwas conceptualized,views of the otherworldand itsinhabitants, and the ritual procedures employed. At every point, Siikala draws parallels with both ethnographic records of shamanism in other cultures and parallel traditionsin medieval Scandinavia. While seeking to present these traditions as a unified 'institution', Siikala also is careful to stress the differinglayers or ages of elements that seem to have combined in it over time. Some of the tradition'soldest featuresappear to derive from a Finno-Ugric substratumand find parallels in other FinnoUgric peoples. Other features clearly derive from the medieval period and folk traditionsthat spread throughout Europe as part of Christian tradition. Thus, appeals to the Christian deity or saints co-occur with references to apparently older pre-Christian mythological figures, sometimes even within the same incantation. Likewise, shamanic methods of trance co-occur with healing techniques that may have diffusedfrom the officialmedical cultureof the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Such dynamic fusion is a fascinating and characteristic feature of folk healing traditions in general, and Siikala explores it perceptively in her study. Abundantly illustrated and carefully argued, this work is certain to serve the needs of the scholar or generalist readeralike. Department ofScandinavian Studies THOMASA. DUBOIS University of Wisconsin-Madison Grelz, Karin. Beyond theNoiseof Time:Readings ofMarinaTsvetaeva's Memoirs of Childhood. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature, 35. University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 2004. I84 pp. Notes...