Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15176/vol61no27
How to Train Your Weasel: Animisms of Traditional and Contemporary Multi-species Communities
Maja Pasarić
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb
Abstract
The paper investigates the presence or weasels in the ethnographic material of the geographical area of Croatia from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, with an emphasis on various interactions between these animals and people. With reference to recent reflections on animism as a worldview that recognizes the power of action, the ability to communicate and the potential status of being a person in different beings and forms of life, i.e., as relational epistemology and ontology, the above frameworks are applied in the context of certain animalistic ideas of the Croatian ethno-tradition. Attention is also given to notions of usefulness and harmfulness of weasels and to beliefs and ideas about these animals. Communicative aspects and social interactions between weasels and humans are also explored, especially when it comes to their shared living spaces. In this context, I looked at my own experience of sharing segments of the living space with a mink, with reference to the affective and sensory dimensions of such an animal-human encounter.
Keywords
weasel, mink, animism, animalistic ideas, interactions
Hrčak ID:
324353
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2024.
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