Last lecture Todays lecture

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Last lecture Todays lecture

• Myth, ritual and tale
• A story of female initiation and the elements in
  it
• How real practices might become tales

• Myth, ritual gt tales review
• Baba Iaga and remnants of goddess worship
• Bears and horses
• Eating and the mouth
• Cows and milk

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Magic tales and initiation

• Old initiation had to do with exposure
• Initiation practices gone, but tales remain
• All magic tales have to do with initiation
• And thus with young people
• Animal tales are for little kids
• Everyday life tales are for adults

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Ritual and tales

• Vampire reflects practices that were recent
• Other reflect older practices, like exposure
• Reflect an ancient system of belief, an ancient
  religion of goddess worship
• Archeological digs suggest goddess worship

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And more modern items like tales seem to have it
also Female figure that controls time
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Female figure that controls space Figure which
completely fills its abode Like a goddess in a
temple And the abode is pretty special too
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Goddess in temple in 19th century cloth Note
horses
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World War II monuments representing the
motherland are female figures
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Associated with sacrifice of males
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Monument in Volgograd
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Young people at marriage pay tribute
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Goddess worship remnants

• Previous religious practices gone but
• Remnants in serious form like motherland statues
  with the sons of the motherland sacrificed to
  same
• Remnants in embroidery, which can be decorative
  or have ritual uses

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Goddess remnants in tales

• Serious beliefs can sink and become the subject
  matter of childrens material like Ring Around
  the Rosie
• What was good becomes bad
• God Baal gt Beelzebub
• Goddess gt Baba Iaga
• Baba Iaga is not all bad
• Source of knowledge, of magic items

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Witch gives gift of magic light Sets right
family injustice Notice skulls she seems to
control human life and death
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More Goddess remnants in tales

• Baba Iaga paired with the rusalka
• Baba Iaga is old and the rusalka is young
• Rusalka also associated with young men and
  marriage

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Other remnants of myth

• Haney discusses horses and ancient horse
  sacrifice
• Shamanic practices and horse sacrifice
• Horses associated with Baba Iaga and other
  goddess remnants
• Associated with birds and trip to the other world

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Wolf as shamanic animal human gt wolf
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Bears as totemic animals human ancestors
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More bear cult remnants

• Russia as the land of the bear represented by
  the bear in the Olympics
• In tales bears marry (abduct) girls the
  original animal husband
• Produce Bearson heroes
• Girls left in huts for bears in tales this is a
  remnant of a type of sacrifice

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More Russian tales

• Spoons, food and the mouth
• Ability to eat (and drink) as proof of heroic
  stature
• Losing flesh in the other world

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Ivan, the Cows Son

• The fish at weddings
• The pike as a shamanic fish
• The cow as a second mother other second
  mothers
• Women and milk suckling makes you part of this
  world

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Cows Son continued

• Weaning and the evil eye
• Witches and milk
• Forest baby
• Attack from the back
• Analog to vampires and blood
• Exchange of bride for cattle

Please note difference witches/Baba Iaga