| Titre | Entre bêtes et saints. Esprits des vivants et esprits des morts chez les vaqueiros de alzada | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Maria Cátedra | |
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Revue | Etudes rurales |
| Numéro | no 105-106, 1987 Retour des morts | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Le retour des morts I - La figure et la personne |
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| Page | 65-78 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Between Animals and Saints
When his death is near, the spirit of the vaqueiro, a cow raiser in the Asturian mountains, comes to haunt his relatives. When he is still alive, he announces to them his impending death, when he is dead, he comes back to sollicit them. In both cases, he appears in the form of noises, voices, lamentations, or strange natural phenomena provoking intense fright. He more seldom appears in the form of his own human body. Unlike living spirits, dead ones harass their relatives, demand the fulfilment of old promises or the sacrifice of an animal in their favor. The qualities, powers and appearances of these spirits and of the strange beings that dialogue with them cannot be understood outside of references to the animal world such as it is ordered by the vaqueiros. Frightening and nocturnal animals are pitted against domestic animals, especially against cows who feel hauntings better than man himself. A key animal in the vaqueiro 's life, the cow, born wild, is the object of a process of domestication which serves for reflections not only on the education of living men, but also on the long voyage of the wrathful soul toward the holy places of its eternal rest. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rural_0014-2182_1987_num_105_1_3180 |
