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Werewolf Histories pp 238–256Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Dead Bodies and Transformations: Werewolves in Some South Slavic Folk Traditions

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Part of the Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic book series (PHSWM)

Abstract

South Slavic folklore and ethnographic sources from the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries abound with folk narratives about various supernatural beings, thus providing a fruitful ground for a range of mythological, folklorist and ethnological approaches to the subject. Certain aspects of the above-mentioned cultural forms alongside folk customs can be linked with traditional culture’s conceptions about death and afterlife, the transformational potential of the human body and animal symbolism. In such terms, accounts about werewolves are no exception — even more so, they seem to provide to the mentioned inquiries quite well.

Keywords

  • Body Image
  • Dead Body
  • Transformational Potential
  • Ritual Practice
  • Bodily Characteristic

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Maja Pasarić
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Willem de Blécourt (Historical anthropologist and an independent scholar) (Historical anthropologist and an independent scholar)

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© 2015 Maja Pasarić

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Pasarić, M. (2015). Dead Bodies and Transformations: Werewolves in Some South Slavic Folk Traditions. In: de Blécourt, W. (eds) Werewolf Histories. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-52634-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-52634-2_11

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-58049-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52634-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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