Metaphor and Embodiment in Spanish Ritual

0118090吉尔摩怪物是世界各地民间传说、神话和艺术中熟悉的人物。 威胁性的神话生物在任何地方都有共同的特征，包括巨大的体型，结合人类和野兽形态的混合形状，暴力，食人，当然还有恶意。 在大多数文化中，神话中的怪物作为抽象邪恶的隐喻，以及反社会的冲动，鄙视和害怕“他人”，如离经叛道，贱民和局外人。 纽约州立大学石溪分校的一位人类学家将在西班牙的研究地点进行一项试点研究，研究怪物在社区仪式中的社会作用。在1月至7月的城镇和村庄庆祝活动中，五颜六色的恶魔肖像“攻击”邻居，“吃”孩子，并威胁规范标准，直到他们被团结的英雄社区行动击败。 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创造怪物的过程。结合精神分析的角度，假设怪物是从梦幻般的图像与经验真实的方面反映压抑的欲望，内疚，敬畏和恐惧，与人类学理论的分类自然计划，矛盾和冲突，人类学家将观察怪物仪式，采访社区成员，并讨论仪式的意义与西班牙民间文化专家。这一试点项目的成果将用于编写一项重大研究提案。

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.