Rahvausk lokaalses kollektiivis

Abstract

Among the large quantity of Saami materials filed in the Sound Archive of Folkloristics and Comparative Religion at the Turku University is included a collection of about 480 tapes from Talvadas (Dálvadas), a small River Saami village in northernmost Finland. The material was mainly produced during the years 1967-1975, when an in-depth research project was conducted in the village. All of the adult population of the village was repeatedly interviewed by altogether twelve interviewers. A wide range of Saami folklore was discussed during the interviews, but special weight was laid on topics concerning folk beliefs, memorates and belief legends. Some supernatural beings and forces, as well as the topographical distribution of the supernatural, are briefly described in this article as examples of the village's belief tradition. The Talvadas interviews form a thick corpus of material, which reveals the complex character of folk belief tradition on the local level. Variation occurs at least in each and every individual's fundamental attitudes towards the supernatural in general, attitudes towards certain supernatural beings and forces, and the means of narration and interpretation in different interview situations. Both the form and the function of narration vary in the different interviews of the same interviewee. The character of the interviewer (e.g. insider/outsider, age, sex) seems to be a crucial factor: the narrative and its evaluation are closely connected to the interview situation, and the result depends on who is talking with whom.The supernatural world is real to many of the villagers and strong belief may be expressed in the narratives, but the narrator's viewpoint can also be e.g. pedagogical or strictly humorous. Belief topics can also be used as a means of testing the listener's credulity, commenting on social relations, or displaying the narrator's creative skills in traditional storytelling. Thus the Talvadas-material breaks the ideal of a homogenous tradition community with commonly shared beliefs.