Публикации
Siragusa L., Zhukova O.Y.
Blowing specific words: verbal charms as material suspended events
// Multilingua. Т. 40. № 4. 2021. P. 463–485
Ключевые слова: event; human and non-human agencies; language (and) materiality; Northwest Russia; Veps; verbal charms
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 ritualized ways of speaking that are customarily used to prompt a change in both human beings and environments in very tangible ways. 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 “specific words,” human and often non-human agencies join forces to promote changes in people and the environment. This paper engages not only with the academic interest in the material intersections between language and the world , but also aims to reframe the notion of “event” as a transformative and suspended encounter between human and often non-human agencies and thus deepen our understanding of what living relationally might entail.
Индексируется в Web of Science, Scopus, РИНЦ, РИНЦ (WS)
Последние изменения: 2 февраля 2022