Women Cry with Words
Symbolization of Affect in the Karelian Lament
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4787351 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Tolbert (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Pages | 80 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Yearbook for Traditional Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0740-1558 • E-ISSN: 2304-3857 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/767933 |
| OpenAlex | W2327517301 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 27 |
| References cited | 5 |
The Karelian lament, or itkuvirsi, is an extraordinary expressive form found in eastern Finland and Soviet Karelia that uses music, language, gesture, and the icons of crying to communicate affect and power. It has its roots in the ancestor worship of the ancient Karelian folk religion, and contains vestiges of classical Eurasian shamanism in its ecstatic, trancelike manner of performance. The lament is performed only by women, usually within the ritual context of funerals or weddings; however, it is also performed at non-ritual occasions with strong overtones of affect, such as when old friends meet after a long absence or as a complaint about the hardships of life. The lament is now only barely remembered by a handful of Karelian women, most of them refugees from World War II now living in Finland. The ritual contexts have completely died out in Finland, although the funeral context still partially survives in Soviet Karelia. The primary source material for this paper is drawn from my fieldwork with Karelian refugees in 1984-85, who had learned laments prior to World War II in traditional village settings
Archaeology · Art · Crying · Lament · Literature · Refugee · Sociology · Communication · Diverse Musicological Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 27 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2025 (33) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 20 |