Metaphor and Embodiment in Spanish Ritual

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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.