[Gandur] erindi: Beholding the Speckled Salmon: Folk Liturgies in the Sacred Landscapes of Ireland's Holy Wells

[Eva Þórdís Ebenezersdóttir]

kæru þjóðfræðingar, það er nóg um að vera í okkar ranni.

Næsta föstudag, 14. oktober kl. 16:00-17:00 í stofu 206 í Odda ætlar
Mannfræðingurinn Celeste Ray að flytja okkur erindið

Beholding the Speckled Salmon: Folk Liturgies in the Sacred Landscapes of
Ireland's Holy Wells

Celeste Ray er prófessor í mannfræði við The University of the South í
Tennessee. Hún er stödd hér í boði Stofnunar Árna Magnússonar og er
erindið á föstudag í samvinnu við SÁM.

Við hvetjum ykkur til að hefja helgina á skemmitlegum nótum.

kv. Stjórn FÞÍ


Auglýsingu má einnig finna hér 
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246698325381223

útdráttur erindisins:

Holy wells are springs or other water sources that are foci for spiritual
devotion, and as the archaeological record indicates, have remained such
for millennia though the religious beliefs celebrated wellside have come
and gone. Agricultural reforms, and the lately-deceased economic boom in
Ireland, led to the destruction of many wells. Others remain sites of
daily Catholic devotions and of annual "patterns," or Patron days,
affirming community identities and honoring locally- or
regionally-venerated saints (many of whom are of dubious origin). Known
for healing properties, a well's association with specific ailments
attracts particular pilgrims who perform syncretic folk-liturgies in a
clockwise circuit and often deposit votive
offerings at the site. If devotees see a salmon, an eel, or a trout in the
well after prayers, their request is sure to be granted. However, the
increasing presence of international spiritual tourists and neopagans, and
their introduction of new types of wellside rituals, contests the
sacrality and community ownership of these numinous landscapes. For Irish
families who have ritually-maintained particular wells for generations,
landscape, liturgy and identity are all mutually-constitutive. These
family stewards worry that "inappropriate" visitation and rituals may
cause wells to lose their thaumaturgical power or become dangerous places.
While most wells are blessed, some retain "cursing stones," and may have
such negative associations that locals avoid the site and hesitate saying
its name.
Anthropologist Keith Basso has written about Apache place names serving as
"mnemonic pegs" for right living. Likewise the Irish Dinnshenchas (the
body of lore about places) "stalks" the Irish with stories. This paper
considers the sociospatial dialectic of these sacred places.