Madis Arukask

Some Observations about Boundaries in Vepsian Folk

Culture

Communality as one of the most characteristic features of traditional culture

cannot get by without the conceptions of boundaries and boundedness. Folk
belief is characterised by the fact that boundaries are perceived not only
between individuals and groups of individuals, but also in non-material life, in
relations with otherworld. Whereas in this world, boundaries form the basis of
ethno-cultural or communal identity, the boundaries between this and the
other world enable to identify oneself as human, as opposed to (although
occasionally also in cooperation with) the world of the dead, nature spirits, high
religion and other anomalies. As far as the study of Balto-Finnic popular beliefs
is concerned, Veikko Anttonens discussions of the holy (1996, 2003) are of
importance here, as well as Laura Starks studies of 19 th-century Karelian
popular beliefs (2002, 2006) inspired by them, and also research by other
scholars utilising similar ideas to a greater or lesser degree. In the present
essay, I focus on the role of boundaries and boundedness in contemporary
Vepsian folk belief, on the collective as well as individual plane.
In traditional societies, popular belief and world view are unwittingly
connected with natural environment. A lot depends on natural environment,
but ways of subsistence are important, too, since nature can be utilised in
different ways. The same environment can be seen and made sense of,
semiotically, in very diverse ways, and all that is reflected also in the belief
systems of various peoples. The Central Vepsian landscape articulated by
forests, marshes, rivers and lakes which was used for practising not only
hunting, fishing and gathering, but also for cattle-breeding and, up to the
middle of the 20th century, slash-and-burn agriculture, has organised people
into bigger communities. As Irma Mullonen (1994, 2005) has demonstrated,
Vepsian settlement history goes back to tribes moving along waterways who
laid the foundations for tribe-based villages. The names of one-time Vepsian
big families are often echoed in the toponyms of modern Vepsian settlement
groups, indicating that vast expanses of nature have not isolated people over
10 Some Observations about Bounderies in Vepsian Folk Culture

the centuries but, on the contrary, have held them together. This is unlike
anything we can find in South Estonia or the peripheral areas of Finland, where
not very different natural conditions have instead led to dispersed population
and thus also a different self-identification in relation both to the human and to
the supernatural.
Central Vepsian settlement patterns have been characterised by the
relatively unlimited amount of forest resources, which means that humans
have not had to compete for it too much. In its relations with the forest, the
human society has been mentally united, having to mark its identity primarily
in communication with animistic spiritual beings as ambivalent partners. Due to
the relatively small importance of agriculture, the problem of land property has
not been topical among the people 1. Therefore, the opposition of man and
nature is also less acute than in societies engaged only or mainly in agriculture
as was the case in Estonian popular culture under the serfdom system of
manorialism up to the 19th century, and later. Livestock breeding has, however,
played a more important part in the Vepsian popular culture, making the
tensions both in interrelations between humans, and between humans and the
forest/nature more notable.
The human collective has traditionally been bounded in relation to the
supernatural and/or the otherworldly both collectively and individually. On the
collective level, there are the calendric village feasts 2, nowadays especially such
where the organising lead is often taken by local inhabitants, not orthodox
clerics. The main emphasis during such feasts is still on the taking of zavets
(vows), although instead of communal prayers said together, personal
promises made to the place or to (semi-)Christian spirits seem to have become
more and more dominant.
The local and collective general pattern of holding such feasts, however,
leaves no doubt that they constitute an old form of collective religious activity.
Things may be different when outlying natural sacred places are involved,
where people have gone to make the same kinds of zavets either individually
or in smaller groups, such as a family, when faced with a common problem. In
such cases, individual interests rise to the foreground instead of communal
ones; yet (obviously) no-one can completely shake off his belonging into a
human community at least not while staying in a natural sacred site.
Here I would like to describe some possibilities how that kind of animistic,
close-to-the-nature type of relationship can be applied practically. I will briefly

1
Another (administrative) reason for that has been the collective rural zemstvo- governments based
organisation, established in the Russian Empire in 1864.
2
More about that topic in Vinokurova 1998, 2005.
 Madis Arukask 11

examine (1) a local community feast, and (2) natural holy places and objects
(like stones) in the forest.
(1) The praznik at Vougedjrv (White Lake) is the feast of the Nem village
taking place on the last Sunday of July, when an estimated hundred people or
so gather at the lake situated a little way off the village, but relatively well
accessible. If possible, such kinsmen as are native to the village but currently
live elsewhere come, too, thus manifesting that they still belong to the
community (cf. Siikala 2004: 149 150). An icon popularly associated with
precisely this feast is brought from the village, although there does not seem to
be any official connexion between the icon and the feast. 3 The icon is placed on
a rustic pedestal already present, and prayers are read and candles lit in front
of it, led by a person fulfilling the relevant role in the community. After that,
the participants pass through under the icon which has been lifted up, kissing
or touching it as they go, thus receiving their share of the collective blessing,
and then walk down the wooded bank to the lake. Then they bathe in the lake
water blessed by the icon. Everyone must dip into the water three times. A
typical part of the zavet made at the Vougedjrv feast is a promise to
participate, without fail, in the next three feasts, whereupon they believe to
receive help with their problem. This kind of a zavet is rather associated with
the sorting out of some personal, palpable difficulty than a collective or more
extensive wish. According to hearsay, an Orthodox cleric has been seen at the
feast just once in its history (or not at all); neither is the feast temporally
related to the Church calendar. Yet none of the participants has any doubts
about the Christianity or due propriety of all the proceedings 4.
Except for the feast day, Vougedjrv as a body of water is a common place
for fishing and its surroundings provide a harvesting ground to berry and
mushroom pickers. Yet there is no doubt that at least for community members
aware of the relevant ritual and participating in it, the lake remains in a way
special at all times. Whats peculiar, however, is the perceived line between the
feasts collective / Christian / organizing aspect and ones personal experiential
world which may remain hidden from the outside. According to Yi-Fu Tuan
there are two kinds of mythical space: in the one, mythical space is a fuzzy area
of defective knowledge surrounding the empirically known; it frames pragmatic
3
The healing miracle performed by the icon used at the feast, Our Lady of All Sorrowful (Vseh
skorbjashhih radost'), happened in Moscow, on October 24, 1648 according to the Julian calendar
(November 6 according to the Gregorian one) (Skazanie 679 680). So far, no integral connexion has
been found between the icon and the feast.
4
Still, that kind of ritual relationship cannot be handled as Christian in the ordinary sense. Studying
Karelian beliefs about forest Laura Stark has stressed that Christianity was not a category used to
classify or organize the relations between this world and the other side, but was rather an attribute to
forge strategic and situation-specific equivalences between two spheres plotted as opposites (2002:
128).
12 Some Observations about Bounderies in Vepsian Folk Culture

space. In the other it is the spatial component of a world view, a conception of

localized values within which people carry on their practical activities (1989: 86,
cited via Siikala 2004). Since the icon, the Virgin depicted on it, and the legend
told about it dont seem to possess, in the peoples consciousness, an active
meaning associated with this place, it can be surmised that the icon is playing
here the role of an obligatory supernatural element later affixed to an old site
of worship. Those who wish to believe can always compose a role for the
Virgin, according to their knowledge, imagination or wishes. This is a situation
where new popular interpretations may arise, offered by the more
authoritative members of the community if they feel them to be justified or
attractive. So far, however, it has not proven possible to hear any closer textual
interpretation of the connexion between the icon and the lake feast.
(2) While the Vougedjrv feast is a clearly communal praznik fixed to a
calendar date by the people themselves, taking place at just a few kilometres
from the village and easily accessible to strangers in case of need, there are
also other places and objects known only to community members, and
nowadays not even to all of them. Im referring here primarily to sacred stones
hidden in the forest. One of these is the Ris(t)kivi in the forest surrounding
Nem. The journey there requires good orientation and knowledge of the
forest and would certainly not be feasible for a stranger on his/her own. I
visited that stone in the summer of 2007, accompanied by three local women
and two other members of the expedition. The place is not associated with any
Christian calendar feast or saint. When asked who is worshipped there, the
women answered after some thought, simply god (bog)5. Still, the place is
obviously sacral. The stone is outstandingly peculiar, with a cross-like figure of
geological origin on its surface. At some time in the past, a spring has risen
from under the stone, too, thus enhancing the sacral complexity of the place.
During the Soviet era, visiting the stone fell into neglect, becoming an
observance of the knowledgeable few. But even today one can still see coins on
the stone, left there over the previous decades and testifying to the continuity
of visits to this sacred place. Next to the stone, there is a wooden construction
which at one time has obviously served as a stand for an icon and on which
worshippers nowadays can lay the towels brought for zavet6.

5
In vernacular Orthodoxy, the concept of God is related to Christian God, as was to be expected; on
closer inspection, however, it seems also to include other, more substratal layers of pre-Christian
notions. Similar syncretistic examples can be found in many cultures. So, among Tuamotus mana in
vernacular use may denote both Christian miracle and witchcraft at the same time (cf. Petruhin &
Polinskaja 1994: 166), etc.
6
Towels are a very ancient form of offering, known among many peoples. Instead of beautifully
embroidered labour-intensive towels one can nowadays make do with the production of modern
textile industry.
 Madis Arukask 13

Indeed, what made this visit interesting was the wish of one of the women to
offer zavet to the stone. A grandchild of hers had been stricken with paralysis
after an accident at logging work, so she took two towels to the stone, recited
some prayers and served the stone in other ways. On our way back from the
stone (it may have been at a distance of four to five kilometers from the
village), we soon stopped by a small rivulet. A fire was made, tea was prepared
and some food that had been taken along was eaten. This seemed to be a
routinely performed ritual related to visiting the site. The rivulets function may
have been more extensive than just providing water it may have also marked
a natural border line separating areas of different quality. As we left, the
women put some food at the foot of a nearby fir-tree for the masters and the
mistresses, at the same time thanking them for having been allowed to use
the place.
The Vepsian habitat, swathed in the greenery of massive forests and
sparsely populated, is an example of space that man must continually mark
with his visits in order for it not to change its visual appearance too quickly or
dissolve back into nature. Man treads his paths and marks ways or places. In
order to overcome that anguish caused by nature as Other, a modern person
will leave behind his rubbish or try to destroy nature. From the latter activity,
nature protection arises. In a traditional culture, however, mans behaviour is
controlled not by the belief in ecological balance and the dangers arising from
upsetting it, but by the fact that nature is animated. Nature-related spirits
(both Christian and pre-Christian) can be partners as well as evil-doers. Man
may himself, with his ill considered behaviour, bring about an accident that
happens in the forest/ nature. Besides, there seems to exist some category of
coincidence (there simply are bad places and times), against which one indeed
can do nothing.
Even when sharing in a sacred communication situation as a member of a
collective, the central place is occupied by the individual a person fulfilling in
that situation the role of the mediator, pleader or negotiator. A vivid example is
the relationship with the dead via lamenting, which is performatively always
individual, yet never quite free from collective connotations. On a broader
level, the lamenter demarcates the living communitys as well as her own
relationship and/or problems possibly associated with the deceased. In
communication with nature, an ambivalent partner, the central role is
doubtlessly played by the seer of the community (in Vepsian tedai) who must
solve communal problems, such as lost people or animals, by establishing
communication with the spirit(s) of the forest. In essence, this ritual again deals
primarily with (re)drawing the boundaries and thus engaging in the necessary
diplomacy. My informant, tedai T. E. described to me her method of finding lost
14 Some Observations about Bounderies in Vepsian Folk Culture

animals, but she was also capable of describing various nature spirits that had
appeared to her in different situations during her life (more in Arukask 2009).
Probably it is the amount of collective responsibility borne by the individual
that either makes him/her an accepted and esteemed religious specialist in a
traditional society or fails to do it. Numerous informants may possess both the
technical and the spiritual qualities (for instance the knowledge of and ability to
use spells) necessary for magically influencing the otherworld, but this doesnt
mean that they all should take up the role of a spokesperson for the collective
and solve problems on the boundaries between the human society and the
otherworld, or engage in defining the corresponding identities. Besides the
institution of lamenter and seer, the herdsmans role as a mediator between
human society and the forest must be mentioned.
In traditional society, the village herdsman used to enjoy a special role
during the grazing period. This was marked both by peoples attitude towards
the herdsman and by the herdsmans own behaviour. This is what might be
expected, keeping in mind that it was the herdsmans behaviour that the
welfare and survival of one of the communitys most important resources its
livestock depended on during the grazing season. It must be emphasized here
that according to traditional texts and beliefs, the greatest importance was not
attached to the herdsmans visible skills but his hidden qualities.
In the summer of 2010, the lifelong herdsman, 82-year old V. V. from Ladv
village told me quite unambiguously that the herdsmans job was to keep
mum and not blab too much. Thus, the herdsman was regarded as possessing
certain esoteric knowledge, wherein lay the essence of his role and task.
Communally the nature of that essence has found expression in a certain
complex of more or less visible taboos. My long-term informant V. L. has
described his childhood memories of her herdsman father as follows:

Herdsman, see, cannot... goes to the forest, sees berries everywhere, (he)
cannot pick berries. Our father took us with my younger sister to the
forest, we went and picked blueberries and cloudberries. Our father could
not pick berries. Father also was not allowed to cut trees at all. Nothing...
While going just go. With whip, shepherd all the time keeps his whip close
to him. The whip for him is as important as the charm. And when he takes
this (---) mbardus (encircling), he does not go, no other work makes.
Nothing. Only herding. And..., his cattle could get endangered, bear
comes or wolf takes or cow itself gets lost; and, see, earlier too, the milk
of particular cow disappeared (?), this one was promised to the master of
the forest by shepherd, for not to cause any harm, let him take milk, see,
this way it was. But in general no other work was allowed to do. Touch
 Madis Arukask 15

something, make some work make bad to yourself, later farm

mistresses do not hire you.

The following taboos governing the herdsmans behaviour can be listed: steal
something, break branches in the forest, cut hair, destroy birds nests, kill
snakes, fish, touch anthills, creep through the hole in a fence, eat in the forest,
pick black berries, give away whip or staff from his hands, (?) go to the
church/service, (?) be in sexual intercourse (authors field records in 2008
2011; Mishurinskaja 2000: 58)
Nevertheless, the herdsmans role cannot quite be identified with that of
a lamenter or seer. While in the behaviour of the latter two specialists one can
see rather dynamic action on the boundary between two communities, that is,
invention of strategies, diplomacy and negotiating ability, the herdsmans
profession seems more static which doesnt mean that he should be unaware
of constantly staying on the boundary. On the contrary, during the grazing
season the herdsman can be seen as a static keeper and protector of secrets
who must see to it, primarily by behaving properly, that the pacts made on the
border between the forest and human society be honoured. Any breach of the
agreement, consisting in the herdsmans improper behaviour, was thought to
cause the destruction of livestock by the elemental forces of the forest
(predators). In the pact between the forest and the community, the tedai was
the dynamic party (representing human society), whereas the herdsman acted
as the static custodian.
The contents of the grazing seasons pact, embodied in some kind of
material and sometimes apparently even in written form, were given to the
herdsmen by the tedai. Both the ritual form of making the contract and its
shape (physical and/or mental form) used to be covered by the unified
concept of mbardus (or obhod in Russian). This signified the ritual describing
of a circle around the livestock when it was turned out onto grasslands in
spring, but also some kind of esoteric knowledge and its material form that had
to be concealed from the public. We can also see in it a dialogical relationship
with high religion, characteristic of folk belief. Obhod is a practice observed also
in the Orthodox Church, where it is carried out by the priest pacing out a circle
around somebody or something during a service (like in blessing a field, for
example, or in a crucession). But the practice of casting the circle neednt
necessarily originate in high religion but may rather constitute a religious
universal. It has been common practice to encircle anything that people wished
to protect magically or that needed to be marked and set apart as something of
a special identity.
16 Some Observations about Bounderies in Vepsian Folk Culture

A more obvious link to high religion emerges when mbardus occurs in written
form, as a magic amulet. I myself have not had the luck of seeing any such
texts. It must be said that nowadays the chances of recording anything related
to herdsmans magic during fieldwork are rare, certainly rarer than the
opportunities of registering common curing spells which are still familiar to
quite numerous Vepsian informants of the older generation. Since the
occurrence and spreading of written spells and their intertextual symbiosis with
Christian prayers is not infrequent, it is however quite easy to imagine a written
mbardus as a piece of writing, probably reminiscent of a prayer or spell, that
the herdsman has at his disposal.
Discussing the same phenomenon in North Russian tradition, the Russian
researcher Ksenij Fedosova has emphasized the unambiguously clerical origin
of such letters (2010). North Russian herdsmen have obtained texts from
people close to the church that differ from usual spells by their drier and
more formal style. Presumably the herdsman must have been at least
somewhat literate, since on some occasions, these texts have functioned as a
kind of instruction, describing among other things the rituals for turning the
cattle out to grassland and for magically encircling and blessing it.
Ksenij Fedosova has also noted that over time (that is, comparing the 19 th
and 20th centuries), the texts of (clerical) written origin have come increasingly
into oral use. At present, I have at my disposal no texts deriving from the
Vepsian herdsmens practices. However, since the Vepsian spell tradition has
enough transitions with Russian spells and in the 20th century, at the latest,
Russian spells have also been used by the Vepsians, it is quite likely that the
spells for turning out the cattle may also have been secret writings in Russian
and, as texts, go back to the ecclesiastical written tradition. As concerns their
reading, however, one must be more sceptical. Up to the middle of the 20 th
century, both literacy and knowledge of the Russian language were rather rare
in Vepsian villages. The seers were certainly unable to copy such written spells
out for the herdsmen. Even now, in the 21st century I have met an illiterate
tedai whose professional competence was primarily and exclusively based on
oral knowledge and practices and whose attitude towards all written matter
was mystifying. Naturally this does not exclude the possibility that the
writtenness of the objects of the pact may have been merely symbolic,
putative, classifiable into the category of the written only within an oral
culture.
Either way it is known that the herdsman was to hide or keep to himself
the mbardus and the esoteric knowledge accompanying it that had been given
to him. Anthills in the forest are known to have been a widely used hiding
place. In Russian written spell texts, the herd gathering around the herdsman
 Madis Arukask 17

has been compared to ants gathering in their hill. Thus, the hiding of the
mbardus in the anthill can be explained through magic by analogy. The
prohibition to disturb anthills or any living thing, for that matter used to be
one of the herdsmans taboos. But the prohibition particularly to children to
scatter anthills has applied universally, and indeed in connection with the
welfare of livestock.
If the herdsman behaved according to the rules of the pact that is, if he
didnt breach the religious, behavioural, sexual and other taboos he had to
observe during the grazing period , then the herds were guarded and
protected by the forest. According to folk tales, he could even sleep all days
long near his cattle, needing only to blow his horn once to gather the herd
together and lead it to a new place. The communitys pact with the forest held
good. When, however, animals began to go missing, it was the herdsman who
was held responsible; presumably he had either breached his taboos or let slip
some of his secret knowledge.
Whereas the tedai of the community is, by virtue of her role, constantly on
the other side, constantly involved in the affairs of the spiritual world and may
move across boundaries if needed, the herdsmans role could be regarded as
that of one who periodically stands on the boundary. In all likelihood the
herdsmans profession also involved the relevant experiences and visions, but
the magic pact would not allow him to reveal them. His looks during the grazing
period the hair and beard that he was forbidden to cut hinted at his
connection with the otherworld. Sexual taboos, too, referred to the fact that
during the grazing season, the herdsman was married to the forest, although
celibacy was not always required of him in ordinary life. Thus we see here that
the boundary between the human community and the forest was not merely
symbolic or associated with a few isolated beliefs, but was acted out in practice
through the herdsmans role through the obtaining of the esoteric knowledge
from a seer and/or a person connected to the Church, carrying out the
mbardus of the herds on St. Georges Day, when the livestock was first turned
out to the grasslands; concealing the magical pact, observing the relevant
taboos, etc.
My herdsman informant from Ladv village had last performed the ritual of
mbardus himself as late as in 1994. He had knowledge that he kept to himself
but was prepared to share with me. After the first interview that lasted over an
hour and was also participated in by other people, he invited me to return the
following day in order to tell me something in greater detail. But next time I
went to see him, I didnt even get into the house, and so I was left empty-
handed. This, however, is already an example of a situation where not only
esoteric knowledge confined within its bounds but a boundary is also drawn
18 Some Observations about Bounderies in Vepsian Folk Culture

between a familiar (ones own) person and a stranger, since being a new
acquaintance, I certainly qualified as a stranger.
Thus I would conclude this essay with some observations on the level of
the individual. I have observed among the Vepsians inhabiting a village
community a tendency not only towards communal, but also towards a
personal identification, particularly in communication with strangers. I see this
as a very traditional feature revealing a behaviour pattern peculiar to
representatives of a communal people, a feature not at all characteristic of
people living in dispersed settlements and/or of modern individuals.
What I have in mind here is first and foremost communication situations
their opening and concluding, and self-positioning in different situations. As
one could expect, much revolves here around the concept of honour central to
collective cultures but of far smaller significance for people living in dispersed
patterns. In addition to that, there are the strategies linked up with diplomacy
(a collective relationship with the otherworld is always diplomatic, to a certain
extent), and ways of communication associated with uncertainty avoidance (to
use a concept from Geert Hofstedes approach, cf. Hofstede 2001: 145 ff.). Let
me bring some characteristic examples.
No matter what kind of information and tone are conveyed in
communication with a stranger, there is still the attempt to conclude these
situations in a conciliatory tone. Thus the communication situations are
brought within bounds, and I do not mean here the ordinary welcomes and
farewells that, in Western society, are essentially very open and yet formal. I
would rather compare these situations to a burial situation which always
involves not only collective, but also private biddings of farewell and begging
for forgiveness. In 2010 expedition I and three other members of our group
asked a nearby villager for permission to use his sauna. From previous
experience we knew that the price for using the sauna was a bottle of vodka.
This time, however, we did not hand the bottle over to the master of the house
himself, prior to going to the sauna, but to one of his companions that I was
used to seeing with him. This, it emerged, had been a mistake. As a result, we
were subjected to our drunken hosts outpour of arguments, reproaches and
attempts at squeezing another vodka out of us which we ignored , which
went on as long as we stayed in the sauna. Yet in spite of all that, the man
finally addressed us as he was leaving with the words: All right, Im going now,
forgive me if there was anything untoward or if I said something that I shouldnt
have. Certainly it was not just a drunk persons submissiveness, since I have
heard a similar farewell formula from different persons in different situations.
The words served as a means of bringing the situation within bounds and
restore (or at least try to restore) the temporarily upset balance of a
 Madis Arukask 19

relationship. The identity of the parties was redefined, with the host expressing
his tolerance and us more or less accepting that.
It is also very common for a person to emphasize his fairness, moral and
ethical behaviour. On several occasions this was done by people who had
formerly occupied high positions on the local collective farms. In conversation,
they repeatedly eagerly underlined that their activities while holding that
position caused no problems or injustice to other people (I never betrayed
anyone!) This behaviour is associated with a sense of personal honour, a
necessary part of the identity of the member of a collective and something that
is not kept to oneself. A westerner may take this as an unnecessary
exaggeration, even boasting, or simply as a personal trait, but in the behaviour
of my Vepsian informants this constitutes a cultural norm. I also see this as
personal self-identification in relation to the surrounding world, a pattern of
behaviour very strictly associated with the establishing of boundaries between
ones own and the foreign, with taking the right side.
In the present essay I tried to show how the tracing and taking into
account of religious and cultural boundaries characteristic of traditional
collectivity lives on in present day Vepsian folk culture. The way of life that has
evolved over long term in a natural environment of forests holds an important
place here. On a collective religious level, the boundaries emerge particularly
clearly in practices connected with death and the forest, from amongst which I
here focused on practices linked with herding and on the herdsmans role as
one who stands on the boundary. It would seem that in daily life, this is
accompanied by the periodic re-defining of ones personal identity through
characteristic speech acts in communication with others. This is a phenomenon
not so common in individualistic cultures, such as the modern Western society.

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This research was supported by the European Union through the European Regional
Development Fund (Center of Excellence CECT) and by the Estonian Science Foundation
(research grant no. 9271).