Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events
This article undermines the actuality of a strict boundary between language and materiality by presenting verbal charms (puheged, vajhed/pakitas in Vepsian) among Veps, an Indigenous minority group of Northwest Russia. Vepsian verbal charms are ritualizedways of speaking that are customarily used to...
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2021
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/334676 2024-01-07T09:40:43+01:00 Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events Siragusa, Laura Zhukova, Ol'ga Yu Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies Area and Cultural Studies Department of Cultures Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) 2021-09-28T14:09:01Z 23 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/334676 eng eng De Gruyter Mouton 10.1515/multi-2020-0049 Our work was supported by the Humanities Program at the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, and by the KONE Foundation, NORMAL [grant number 201805889, 2018]. Fieldwork was also supported by the ERC Advanced Grant, Arctic Domus [grant number 295458, 2011]. Siragusa , L & Zhukova , O Y 2021 , ' Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events ' , Multilingua , vol. 40 , no. 4 , pp. 463-485 . https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2020-0049 ORCID: /0000-0001-6991-2313/work/99958711 d75237d3-e024-408f-8553-e10bcaebe8ef http://hdl.handle.net/10138/334676 000672586000003 openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess event human and non-human agencies language (and) materiality Northwest Russia Veps verbal charms ANTHROPOLOGY LANGUAGE 6121 Languages Article publishedVersion 2021 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:11:38Z This article undermines the actuality of a strict boundary between language and materiality by presenting verbal charms (puheged, vajhed/pakitas in Vepsian) among Veps, an Indigenous minority group of Northwest Russia. Vepsian verbal charms are ritualizedways of speaking that are customarily used to prompt a change in both human beings and environments in very tangibleways. When observing how they are conceived, distributed, and performed among Veps, the rigid separation between "material" and "immaterial" realms begins to be felt as an artificial construction, since Veps understand that in the act of "blowing" air accompanied by the recitation of "specificwords," human and often non-human agencies join forces to promote changes in people and the environment. This paper engages not onlywith the academic interest in the material intersections between language and the world (see, Cavanaugh and Shankar 2017; Keane 2008a; Wiener 2013, to name a few), but also aims to reframe the notion of "event" as a transformative and suspended encounter between human and often non-human agencies (Kapferer 2015) and thus deepen our understanding of what living relationally might entail. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Northwest Russia vepsian HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Multilingua 40 4 463 485 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
event human and non-human agencies language (and) materiality Northwest Russia Veps verbal charms ANTHROPOLOGY LANGUAGE 6121 Languages |
spellingShingle |
event human and non-human agencies language (and) materiality Northwest Russia Veps verbal charms ANTHROPOLOGY LANGUAGE 6121 Languages Siragusa, Laura Zhukova, Ol'ga Yu Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
topic_facet |
event human and non-human agencies language (and) materiality Northwest Russia Veps verbal charms ANTHROPOLOGY LANGUAGE 6121 Languages |
description |
This article undermines the actuality of a strict boundary between language and materiality by presenting verbal charms (puheged, vajhed/pakitas in Vepsian) among Veps, an Indigenous minority group of Northwest Russia. Vepsian verbal charms are ritualizedways of speaking that are customarily used to prompt a change in both human beings and environments in very tangibleways. When observing how they are conceived, distributed, and performed among Veps, the rigid separation between "material" and "immaterial" realms begins to be felt as an artificial construction, since Veps understand that in the act of "blowing" air accompanied by the recitation of "specificwords," human and often non-human agencies join forces to promote changes in people and the environment. This paper engages not onlywith the academic interest in the material intersections between language and the world (see, Cavanaugh and Shankar 2017; Keane 2008a; Wiener 2013, to name a few), but also aims to reframe the notion of "event" as a transformative and suspended encounter between human and often non-human agencies (Kapferer 2015) and thus deepen our understanding of what living relationally might entail. Peer reviewed |
author2 |
Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies Area and Cultural Studies Department of Cultures Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Siragusa, Laura Zhukova, Ol'ga Yu |
author_facet |
Siragusa, Laura Zhukova, Ol'ga Yu |
author_sort |
Siragusa, Laura |
title |
Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
title_short |
Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
title_full |
Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
title_fullStr |
Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
title_full_unstemmed |
Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
title_sort |
blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events |
publisher |
De Gruyter Mouton |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/334676 |
genre |
Arctic Northwest Russia vepsian |
genre_facet |
Arctic Northwest Russia vepsian |
op_relation |
10.1515/multi-2020-0049 Our work was supported by the Humanities Program at the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, and by the KONE Foundation, NORMAL [grant number 201805889, 2018]. Fieldwork was also supported by the ERC Advanced Grant, Arctic Domus [grant number 295458, 2011]. Siragusa , L & Zhukova , O Y 2021 , ' Blowing specific words : verbal charms as material suspended events ' , Multilingua , vol. 40 , no. 4 , pp. 463-485 . https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2020-0049 ORCID: /0000-0001-6991-2313/work/99958711 d75237d3-e024-408f-8553-e10bcaebe8ef http://hdl.handle.net/10138/334676 000672586000003 |
op_rights |
openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Multilingua |
container_volume |
40 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
463 |
op_container_end_page |
485 |
_version_ |
1787421529536987136 |