?
К вопросу о контактах живых с умершими: как покойники защищаются от живых
The article is based on field data from Russian North. The subject of the article is the problem
of the relationship between the living and the deceased. The main goal of the article is to
show how dream stories transform the Russian peasants’ idea about the possibility for the
deceased to visit their living kin in order to continue their family life together, including
sexual relations. This mythological plot, which often causes real fear among people who
have lost relatives, is mirrored in dream stories. On the one hand, the appearance of the
deceased in a dream is associated with the expectation of the dreamer’s imminent death, on
the other hand, stories are recorded about dreams where the deceased husband not only
does not take his wife with him to the world of the dead, but, on the contrary, tries to get rid
of her. The reluctance of the deceased to take his living relative with him can be explained
by the desire to preserve the border between the world of the living and the world of the
dead. For protection from the living, the deceased use the same strategies as do the living
to protect themselves against the dead relatives when they come. These strategies include:
1) escape (upon seeing a living relative, the dead goes away); 2) declaring the absence of
suitable housing (the deceased husband has nowhere to bring his wife); 3) expulsion with
the help of aggression, primarily obscene swearing.