Winter Crones and Bread-Givers
The Northern Iberian Vieya
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8933009 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cristobo de Milio Carrín (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 131 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 343-370 |
| Publication date | 2020-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587x.2020.1751476 |
| OpenAlex | W3108462099 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
La Vieya (the old woman) is a figure from the oral tradition of north-western Iberia. She is portrayed as performing work traditionally perceived as feminine, such as spinning or baking. She lives on certain mountaintops and prominent rocks, often those containing caves. Her power over the climate gives her an almost divine stature. La Vieya reveals a web of symbols and meaning which connect femininity with prosperity and food production, while fitting these symbols into specific moments of the year cycle. Her cult is evidence that for centuries people in the Iberian north-west were able and allowed to discreetly keep alive what amounted to a non-Christian worship, alien to the state-sanctioned religion. A negotiation occurred between the more conspicuous manifestations of culture, as produced by literate elites, and the unnoticed folk culture. The Christianization of the European countryside remained an ongoing and perpetually unfinished process
Ancient history · Archaeology · Christianity · Christianization · Cult · Estonian · Ethnology · Femininity · Folk culture · Political science · Power (physics · Prosperity · Sociology · Theology · Worship · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |