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• The Traditional Way of Thinking of Small Farmer Housewives in Finland

  91-102

  Anssi Halmesvirta

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  18

  The aim of this article is to throw light on the historical experiences and their memo­ries of a housewife from a small farm in Upper Savo (Yläsavo) in Finland. Its moti­vation emanates from the fact that neither local, commissioned histories nor ethno­graphical studies have touched the orbit of their lives and their traditional, three-dimensional way of thought. The theoretical vantage-point applied here was put for­ward by Paul Ricoeur and further developed by Frank Ankersmit: memories of wit­nesses of historical experiences can tell more intimate and accurate narratives than documentary histories. As evidence, culled from interviews and diverse biographical and autobiographical material, they can complement the work of ethnographers who operate on the same field by recording past as lived life.

• Ancia Zarichanska and Folk Belief in Transcarpathia: A Comparative Perspective

  7-28

  Vasyl Korol

  Oleksandr Kryvonos

  Views:

  21

  This study focuses on the historical figure of Ancia Zarichanska (Anna Poidyn), a spiritual mediator and charismatic healer from the Transcarpathian village of Zarichchia. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork (2018–2019) and qualitative interviews with local informants, the article examines the narrative construction of this woman in collec­tive memory, as well as her magical abilities, ritual practices, and ascetic lifestyle. Her unusual behavior – including voluntary seclusion, visionary experiences, fasting, and selective social interaction - is interpreted as an expression of religious asceticism, deviant piety, and spiritual authority.

  Central elements such as near-death experience, rebirth motifs, and prophetic healing are analyzed in comparison with European folk healers, visionary figures, and shamanic initiation processes. Zarichanska’s case demonstrates how spiritual legitimacy can be es­tablished outside institutional religion. Particular attention is paid to the cultural logic underlying the attribution of mystical authority, the emergence of local rituals such as “Hercna Wednesday,” and the ritual veneration of her grave as a site of popular devo­tion.

  This study contributes to the ethnology of folk belief by showing how collective memory, oral tradition, demonological narratives, and religious-magical practices inter­weave to shape local forms of “folk sainthood.” The figure of Zarichanska is presented as a paradigmatic example of trans-cultural patterns of non-institutional spirituality, which fulfill identity-forming functions, especially in times of social transformation.