In keeping with this weeks supernatural theme, I found a discourse which interests me; Traditional Owners "ghostology" in comparison to popular culture's portrayal of ghosts. In Indigenous Australia, ghosts or spirits make frequent appearances in the stories and lore. The numinous is integrated into stories and the cosmology as a way of constructing and interacting with the outlying world. In Indigenous Australian ghost milieu spirits or ghosts 'protect the country and uphold its protocols, ...[and]... watch human activities closely' (McDonald 2010, p.52). Ghosts are known to exhibit aggressive or disaffected behaviour towards new people or people who do not behave in the right way.
In autochthonic ghost stories, ghosts and spirits are terms sometimes used interchangeably to describe the dead or ancestors via allegories. This is an important part of the tradition, as Ancestors are seen to watch over their mortal counterparts. After a loved one's death ghosts 'live normal human lives, traveling through the bush, devising song ceremonies...' (McDonald 2010, p.57).
Popular culture's relationship towards ghosts is very different, despite some commonalities. Ghosts are often romanticised through humanisation. For instance, in any of the popular ghost hunting television shows like Ghost Hunters or Paranormal Detectives, the typical fear element is cogently portrayed on initial investigation. As the episode unfolds, the cast members often discover some story of a wife who died in childbirth, a man who lost his children or some such similar humanisation. It is like these shows build and encourage the fear up into a rising crescendo, then reintegrate the ghost back into the mortal world, where we humans can make sense of it once again.
Traditional Owners vernacular also uses stories and tales to make sense of death and ghosts, however popular culture's portrayal is much more distanced as we lack kinship connections to the featured ghost to connect as wholly as Indigenous Australians. In Indigenous Australian milieu 'ghosts and spirits...help them to make sense of events occurring in their environment' (Clarke 2007, p.141). Meanwhile in popular culture, although the ghost stories evoke emotional responses in the audience, there is a core goal of detached entertainment.
Below is a music video by Indigenous Australian artists-Makaratta Mob. The song is aptly named 'Ghost Trees'.Avant-garde and quite moving.
References
Clarke, P 2007, 'Indigenous Spirit and Ghost Folklore of "Settled" Australia', Folklore, Routledge, London and New York, pp.141-161.
McDonald, H 2010, 'Universalising the particular? God and Indigenous spirit beings in East Kimberley', The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Australian Anthropological Society, pp.51-70.
Multimedia
Mask picture-http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1155518
Makaratta Mob YouTube Video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk5e4cxDqp0
The issue of ancestor respect and connection in a kinship frame seems so removed from portrayal of ghosts and ghost busters. Perhaps, in a postmodern western and secular nation, ghosts are relegated to other... what other people see and experience. In other cultures, as you observe so well, the ancestors accompany their relatives on their life's journey.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I agree, it does seem very removed from modern depictions. perhaps ghosts as the other in modern culture milieu are multi-faceted.
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