Metaphor and Embodiment in Spanish Ritual

吉尔摩怪兽是世界各地民间传说、神话和艺术中常见的人物。无论在哪里发现威胁神话中的生物，它们都有共同的特征，包括巨大的体型，结合了人类和野兽的混合形状，暴力，食人，当然还有恶意。在大多数文化中，神话中的怪物既是抽象邪恶的隐喻，也是反社会冲动的隐喻，他们鄙视和害怕“其他人”，如离经叛道的人、贱民和局外人。这项由纽约州立大学石溪分校的人类学家进行的试点研究项目将探索西班牙的研究地点，研究怪物在社区仪式中的社会角色。在1月至7月期间举行的城镇和村庄庆祝活动中，五颜六色的恶魔雕像“攻击”邻居，“吃掉”儿童，威胁规范标准，直到他们被联合的、英勇的社区行动击败。这项研究将整合心理动力学和社会解释，以深入了解在仪式背景下制造怪物的过程。这位人类学家将从精神分析的角度出发，假设怪物是由梦幻般的形象创造出来的，经验上真实的方面反映了压抑的欲望、内疚、敬畏和恐惧，与人类学关于绝对的自然方案、矛盾和冲突的理论相结合，人类学家将观察怪物仪式，采访社区成员，并与西班牙民俗文化专家讨论仪式的意义。这一试点项目的结果将用于编制一项重要的研究提案。

0118090Gilmore Monsters are familiar figures in folklore, myth and art around the world. Threatening mythical creatures share common features wherever they are found, including large size, hybrid shapes combining human and beastly form, violence, cannibalism and of course malevolence. In most cultures mythical monsters serve as metaphors for abstract evil as well as antisocial impulses, despised and feared "others" such as deviants, pariahs and outsiders. This pilot research project by an anthropologist from the State University of New York-Stony Brook will explore research sites in Spain for a study of the social role of monsters in community rituals. In town and village festivities occurring between January and July, colorful demonic effigies "attack" neighbors, "eat" children, and threaten normative standards until they are defeated by united, heroic community action. The research will integrate psychodynamic and social interpretations to gain insight into the processes which create monsters in the ritual context. Combining a psychoanalytic perspective which assumes that monsters are created from dreamlike images with empirically real aspects reflecting repressed desire, guilt, awe and dread, with anthropological theories of categorical natural schemes, contradiction and conflict, the anthropologist will observe monster rituals, interview community members, and discuss the meanings of the rituals with Spanish experts in folk culture. The results from this pilot project will be used in preparing a major research proposal.