Vesa Matteo Piludu

University of Helsinki, Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, Post-Doc

University of Helsinki, Deparment of World Cultures, Teacher of Science of Religion and Semiotics

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Address: Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland

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Dissertation (PhD, Monograph): Bear Ceremonialism by Vesa Matteo Piludu

The Forestland’s Guests: Mythical Landscapes, Personhood, and Gender in the Finno-Karelian Bear Ceremonialism

The Forestland’s Guests: Mythical Landscapes, Personhood, and Gender in the Finno-Karelian Bear Ceremonialism, 2019

The goal of the thesis is to provide new approaches for the interpretation of the elaborate Finni... more The goal of the thesis is to provide new approaches for the interpretation of the elaborate Finnish and Karelian bear ceremonial’s songs, which were intensively collected in the 19th Century and in the early 20th Century. The study aims to furnish a better understanding of the meanings of the ceremonial taking in consideration the context of folk beliefs at the time. The chapters will cover all the ritual phases, adapting the classic Hallowell’s typology to the Finno-Karelian case. However, each chapter aims to provide some answers to the main research questions. Why did the bear hunt require such a complex ritualized reciprocity? How were the passages of borders between the village and the forest ritualized? How and why were the forest, its spirits and the bruin personalized? Why do many Bear Songs contain references to wedding songs? How did the Christian faith and the rich cattle holders’ beliefs communicate with the hunter’s rituals, forming a historically stratified tradition? The study reveals that the vernacular definitions of the bear’s personhood changed often in the ritual phases: it was the offspring of the forest spirits or a hunter’s relative; a bride or a groom; a boy or a respected elder. On a general level, the bear had a shifting double identity: it was strictly bounded to the family of the forest spirits, but at the same time the hunter emphasized its human features to make the ritual communication easier and to transform the bruin into the guest of honor of the village feast, in which the bear meat was consumed. The hunter’s self could also change in the ritual: in the songs, he presented himself as a mighty man protected by mythic iron belts and shirts; as a handsome and mimetic seducer of female forest spirits, or as a humble orphan who needed their guidance. During the feast, the roles of the women toward the bear also varied: the mistress warmly welcomed the bruin as a guest or groom, but the women were also guided to protect the cattle. The landscapes acquired mythic features and they could be presented as welcoming or dangerous. These apparently kaleidoscopic changes followed a precise ritual logic: they were elaborate rhetorical devices to make the 'guests' – the bruin and the forest spirits – behave or react in certain ways in different ritual phases and to influence their perception of the hunters’ actions.

Vesa Matteo Piludu

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Dissertation (PhD, Monograph): Bear Ceremonialism by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Edited books: Kalevala, Bear Rituals, Shamanism by Vesa Matteo Piludu

New Pubblications by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Articles and Chapters: Bear Ceremonialism by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Articles and Chapters: Kalevala in Italy by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Articles and Chapters - Contemporary Music & Dance by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Articles and Chapters - Tamang Bombos (Shamans) by Vesa Matteo Piludu

In Memoriam by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Finnish Mythology and Arts by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Introductions (Books Edited by the Author) by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Articles and Chapters: Sámi and Italian Travelers by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Exhibitions - Reprovesi and Mantyharju by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Exhibitions - Shamanhood & Bear Ceremonialism by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Seminars & Conferences (Organization and Papers) by Vesa Matteo Piludu

Papers by Vesa Matteo Piludu

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