Conference: "Saying words, healing bodies. The practice and performance of therapeutic incantations in nineteenth-century Karelia".

Conference given by Aleksi Moine, (PhD student, University of Helsinki).

Description of the scientific event

Folk medicine in rural Karelia relied on the practice of incantations until the early 20th century. These were used to heal patients suffering from common injuries or illnesses, to relieve mother's pain during childbirth, or to enhance the physical attractiveness of unmarried young women. To heal the sick, the tietäjä (literally "he-who-knows") communicated with non-human agents through a ritual in which the utterance of words was accompanied by gestures and objects. Nineteenth-century folklore collectors transcribed a large corpus of incantations, which were subsequently archived and published. Today's incantatory texts have preserved traces of the ritual performance. It's these traces that I'll be looking at, to show how the body and the spoken word complement each other to guarantee the incantatory ritual its effectiveness.

Organization

• Eva Toulouze (CREE, Inalco)
• Outi Duvallon (SeDyL, Inalco)