Abstract
Latest research in environmental humanities often presumes the necessity of some kind of an ontological “shift” in thinking and living, while the question of the possibility of such a shift on an experiential level, is still to be answered. In this article, I am (re) visiting Latvian folk epistemologies as a sample case of alternate yet already “present” ontogenealogies that could be applied for reinventing ways to experience environed embodiment. While it is not possible, or desirable to recapture the past, alternate ontogenealogies of the Global North—partly local, yet always also entangled with closer and farther regions, can provide insight into the building of future societies upon the idea of meaningful, senseful materiality. Especially—in context of pre-Christian sacrality of naturecultures that place meaning beyond and before human I-consciousness, thus, capturing the idea of consciousness as the result, not the source of senseful agency of materiality. Moreover, such inquiry allows diluting the presumption of a homogeneous Global North, instead demonstrating the heterogenous genealogical background that co-constitutes our experiences and materialities today. Within this article, I focus on the topics of life and nature in Latvian folksongs—Dainas, expressed through the elemental worldings of stone and forest, to demonstrate old Latvian epistemologies as a fruitful ground for an affirmative environmental ethics in the future.
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Notes
- 1.
See Stacy Alaimo, Bodily Natures: Science, Environment and the Material Self (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010), Astrida Neimanis, Bodies of Water (London: Bloomsbury, 2017). Esp. Astrida, Neimanis, Astrida Neimanis, “Posthuman Phenomenologies for Planetary Bodies of Water,” in A Feminist Companion to the Posthumanities, ed. Cecilia Åsberg, Rosi Braidotti (Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2018), 55–66.
- 2.
“What is needed is a posthumanist ethics, an ethics of worlding” Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 392.
- 3.
Marietta Radomska, Uncontainable Life: A Biophilosophy of Bioart (Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press: 2016).
- 4.
Taking in mind the restrictions of space, I here omit some of the methodological considerations that do not refer directly to the topic at hand—however, since these are already discussed in some of my previous articles, I here cite some of the material that explores the topic of genealogy and ontogenealogy further. I first refer to the idea of reframing the sphere of critical genealogy from a methodological approach to a materially embedded ontological outlook in Anne Sauka, “The Nature of Our Becoming: Genealogical Perspectives,” Le foucaldien 6, no. 1 (2020): 1–30.
- 5.
See, Anne Sauka, “Life in Process: The Lived-Body Ethics for Future”, Religious-Philosophical Articles [Reliģiski—filozofiski raksti], 28 (2020): 154–183.
- 6.
The experiential outlook, with the highlight of the “already present” in the phenomenological perception, felt sense, and affectual relations with what is often termed as “nature” is taken on by the field of embodied critical thinking. Donata Schoeller and Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir, “Embodied Critical Thinking: The Experiential Turn and its Transformative Aspects,” philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Continental Feminism, 9 no. 1 (2019): 92–109. Schoeller and Thorgisdottir offer the return to nature through an experiential approach and offer “felt sensing” as a possible vehicle to reconnect with one’s environment.
- 7.
Anne Sauka, “Beyond the Skin Line: Tuning into the Body-Environment. A Venture into the Before of Conceptualizations,” The Polish Journal of Aesthetics. Listening and Polyphony. Philosophy, Aesthetics, 64, no.1 (2022): 162–181.
- 8.
Robin Krimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013), accessed online.
- 9.
Here, next to Robin Wall Krimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (New York: HarperCollins, 2020) should also be mentioned.
- 10.
Sophie Strand, The Flowering Wand (Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2022).
- 11.
Marie Nancy Brown, Looking for the Hidden Folk (New York: Pegasus Books, 2022).
- 12.
See Lenart Škof, “Elements of Slovenian Indigenous Religion” in this volume (xx).
- 13.
Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, “Nordic Animism,” YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@NordicAnimism/videos
- 14.
For example, Ewa Domanska states: “…asking the questions ‘what is an object?’ and ‘is it alive?’ […] might support the emergence of an alternative worldview based on a participatory perspective of the world that understands (new) animism as a different way of being human and relating to the world on different terms.” Ewa Domanska, “Is This Stone Alive? Prefiguring the Future Role of Archaeology,” Norwegian Archaeological Review 51, no. 1–2 (2018): 22.
- 15.
“Like Creation stories everywhere, cosmologies are a source of identity and orientation to the world. They tell us who we are. We are inevitably shaped by them no matter how distant they may be from our consciousness.” Krimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass.
- 16.
Nordic Animism researcher Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen comments on the use of the Nordic mythologies and highlights that while the term indigenous should be reserved for marginalized societies, the old, pre-Christian, and animist mythologies can nevertheless be employed for future ethicalities, by rather using the term “traditional.” Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, “Is Nordic Animism Indigenous,” YouTube, October 4, 2021, https://youtu.be/ivI9BxJyptg
While Latvian knowledges (as well as many other pre-Christian worldviews) were marginalized, the Latvian society has nevertheless undergone Christianization a long time ago and thus its mythologies can similarly be accounted for as “traditional” rather than “indigenous.”
- 17.
Roman Zaroff, “Some Aspects of Pre-Christian Baltic Religion,” in New researches on the religion and mythology of the Pagan Slavs, ed. Patrice Lajoye (Lisieux: Lingva, 2019), 183–219.
- 18.
Here and further, where I refer to Daina, unless specified otherwise, I will use the electronic Cabinet of Folksongs or Cabinet of Dainas at https://www.dainuskapis.lv. About the Cabinet of Folksongs, see: Latviešu folkloras krātuve, “The Cabinet of Folksongs or Dainu Skapis,” http://en.lfk.lv/collection/folksong-cabinet
- 19.
Zaroff, “Some Aspects of Pre-Christian Baltic Religion,” 187–188.
- 20.
The Cabinet of Dainas (which is an actual cabinet constructed by Krišjānis Barons) which holds the largest collection of Latvian folksongs, was made in the late nineteenth century. While it leads some authors (such as Zaroff, 187) to conclude that ethnographic material is only usable as a supportive source (which might be true for the purposes of specific, fact–checking research), for a genealogical analysis this changing, transformative nature of genealogies is not hindering. See on Latvian folklore studies Sandis Laime and Beatrise Reidzāne, “Latvian Folklore Studies and Mythology”, in Latvia and Latvians: Collection of Scholarly Articles. Vol.2 (Riga: Latvian Academy of Sciences, 2018): 89–125.
- 21.
Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen refers to the myth as a “how” (with regard to relating to the world) rather than a “what” in “Ginnrunar and Netflix Ragnarok, A Review”, Nordic Animism Youtube Channel, https://youtu.be/F5uyCBiokrw. See also: Yunkaporta, Sand Talk.
- 22.
Janīna Kursīte, Latviešu dievības un gari (Rīga: Rundas, 2020), Janīna Kursīte, Latviešu folklora mītu spogulī (Rīga: Zinātne, 1996).
- 23.
The article, however, does not propose to deliver an in-depth description of the meanings behind Latvian pagan traditions and knowledges but rather proposes rethinking old genealogies as a vehicle for relating to the world today. Here, I follow the idea that myths are to be employed as a how to relate to the world, rather than accepted as a “what.” Thus, I am only fragmentary mentioning some of the most necessary information on the epistemologies themselves, while focusing on their usefulness for today. While folk poetry itself has been researched quite broadly, interdisciplinary research that would connect contemporary philosophical thought with the situated knowledges of Latvian sacral scripture is lacking—and this is, thus, my attempt at trying to breach this disciplinary chasm.
- 24.
Kursīte, Latviešu folklora mītu spogulī, Ch. 1.
- 25.
Translated from: Sasatika Dievs ar velnu/Vidū jūras uz akmiņa/Kažociņi brikukraku/Zobentiņi šmigu šmagu (LD 33692) Here and further Latvian Dainas—LD, cited from the Cabinet of Dainas https://www.dainuskapis.lv/
- 26.
Kursīte, Latviešu dievības un gari, 231–234.
- 27.
See also more on the chthonic world in Latvian tales Ingus Barovskis, Htoniskā pasaule latviešu pasakās: laiks un telpa. [Chthonic World in Latvian Tales: Time and Space], Doctoral dissertation, (Rīga: University of Latvia, 2015).
- 28.
Barovskis, Htoniskā pasaule latviešu pasakās, 70–72.
- 29.
Barovskis, 183.
- 30.
Translated from: Melna čūska riņķi grieza/Vidū jūras uz akmiņa/Tā griež puiša dvēselīt’/Kas meitiņas nicināja. LD 8694.
- 31.
Translated from: Melna čūska diegu vilka/Caur peleku akmentiņu/Es izvilku puišam prātu/Vienu nakti guledama. LD 10296.
- 32.
This addition seems to be transformed from a different Daina: LD 9646, which comments on master-serf relations with “I wrapped the master’s mind so that he could not give me to a different master.”
- 33.
Melna čūska diegu vilka/Pār pelēku akmentiņu/Es izvilku puisim prātu/Vienu nakti klāt gulēj’si.
Es ietinu puiša prātu/Baltā diegu kamolā/Lai tas mani nevarēja Pa prātami dancināt.
Melna čūska riņķi grieza/Vidū jūras uz akmeņa/Tā griež puiša dvēselīte/Kas meitiņas nicināja
See, Iļģi, “Vissbija,” Album “Saules meita” [Daughter of the Sun], Youtube, https://youtu.be/O32ZjGfcy4A
- 34.
Kursīte, Latviešu dievības un gari, 127–137. Interestingly, the Latvian pre-Christian religion excels within the pagan religions of the nearest Prussian and Lithuanian regions with the smallest number of male deities.
- 35.
Janīna Kursīte. Lecture 1 “Latvieša pasaules uztvere un ticība” [Latvian worldview and beliefs], Latvian World, Lecture course, OpenMinded, Riga, Latvia).
- 36.
Barovskis, 70–72.
- 37.
It is also of note that the post-soviet period has seen a proliferation of “new-found” sacral places in the Latvian landscape, i.e., the so-called “modern holy places”. These are criticized by folklorists, scientists, and other skeptics as merely a “good business plan” and are thus problematic in the least yet remain popular. Rūta Muktupāvela, “The Mythology of Ethnic Identity and the Establishing of Modern Holy Places in Post-Soviet Latvia,” The Pomegranate 14, no. 1 (2012): 69–90. While these popular places remain at least controversial, it is yet a possible indication of the necessity of a new animism or a new relation to the earth felt by the people.
- 38.
On life and non-life: Radomska, Uncontainable Life. In context with geological becomings see Elizabeth Povinelli, Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016).
- 39.
Anne Sauka, “Selfhood in Question: The Ontogenealogies of Bear Encounters” Open Philosophy 5, no. 1 (2022): 532–550.
- 40.
And rather reveals a dance of the Apollonian and Dionysian beyond the dialectic, Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy (London: Continuum, 1983), 10–17. My work against the dichotomy of life and death see Sauka, Life in Process, Anne Sauka “Becoming Self: A Legion of Life in a Culture of Alienation.” In Normalitāte un ārkārtējība filosofiskā skatījumā (Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, 2022), 25–46.
- 41.
Janīna Kursīte, “Latvieša pasaules uztvere un ticība.”
- 42.
Going even further, this idea then could be traced back to Leib phenomenology or Nietzsche’s idea of the lived body as the big mind that is more knowledgeable than the consciousness that reflects upon it (as consciousness is just one of its expressions, i.e. the “small mind”). Nietzsche, KSA, 4:39.
- 43.
At least in a symbolic context. On the ontology of trash as a non-existent that persists and as such is to be contrasted to the existent that does not persist see: Greg Kennedy, The Ontology of Trash (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), x.
- 44.
See Ramachandra Guha’s critique of (local/American) wilderness/civilization dichotomy and its harmfulness for global contexts: Ramachandra Guha, “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique.” In The Future of Nature. Documents of Global Change, edited by L. Robin, S. S Sörlin, P. Warde, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 409–426. See also William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” Environmental History 1 no. 1 (January 1996): 7–28—a discussion on the changing understandings of wilderness in the Global Northern/Western contexts.
- 45.
Michael Marder, Dump philosophy (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 4–5.
- 46.
An important discussion here would be to reframe the hierarchy of religions. Most often, the “development” of a religion is judged based on the question, of whether the religion has a developed pantheon. In essence, this is a presupposition that all non-monotheistic religions are hierarchically lower than Christianity and other monotheist religions. This view is also expressed by Leons Gabriels Taivāns, “Baltu reliģija un kristietība (tipoloģiskas rekonstrukcijas principi)” [The Baltic Religion and Christianity (Principles of Typological Reconstruction)], Ceļš no. 44 (1992), 18–32, where he discussed the “lacking” of morality and understanding of the “state” in pagan religion. Similarly to how James Scott, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017) highlights how the derision and fall of early states might be only considered as a loss from the point of view of states, not the point of view of the people, more “dispersed,” Dionysian religions might also represent a less controlled society that has the same faith, while different practices, different choice of main deities, etc. It could even be argued that a developed pantheon goes hand-in-hand with patriarchal religions. This is certainly true for Latvian vs Lithuanian religious practices, where Lithuanians have a more developed pantheon with male deities having a stronger role, and the opposite is true for Latvian mythology. Notably, Lithuanians accepted Christianity on their own accord for political gain (twice), while Latvians were more or less forcibly Christianized. Zaroff, “Some Aspects of Pre-Christian Baltic Religion,” 186.
- 47.
See also the work of archeologist and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas, who has written extensively on goddesses and the role of femininity in religion/culture, as well as on the Baltic pre-Christian religion. On the Goddess Laima (Luck/Happiness) see Marija Gimbutas, The Lanugage of the Goddess (San Franscisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 111. More in Marija Gimbutas The Balts. London, 1983; more on her work Joan Marler, “Baltic Archaeology, Cultural History, Ancient Lithuanian Symbolism, Old Europe, and the Archaeomythology of Marija Gimbutas,” Archaeologia Lituana 23 (2022): 10–33.
- 48.
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature. Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).
- 49.
Kursīte, Latviešu dievības un gari, 142–166.
- 50.
Using the term in an Irigaraian sense. Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter (Ithaca: Cornwell University Press, 1985), 74.
- 51.
See Alaimo, Bodily Natures.
- 52.
Lauren LaFauci and Cecilia Åsberg, “Is All Environmental Humanities Feminist Environmental Humanities?” Seeing the Woods: A Blog of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (July 6, 2020). https://seeingthewoods.org/2020/07/06/is-all-environmental-humanities-feminist-environmentalhumanities/
- 53.
That is not to say that “rationality is bad,” but rather to highlight the necessity of plurality and perspectivism in thinking.
- 54.
LaFauci, Åsberg, “Is All Environmental Humanities Feminist Environmental Humanities?”; Greta Gaard, “Indigenous Women, Feminism, and the Environmental Humanities,” Resilience 1 no. 3 (Fall 2014): 86–99.
- 55.
Translated from: Uz akmeņa malku cirtu/Strautā kūru uguntiņu/Lai sildās tie ļautiņi/Kas man laba nevēlēja. LD 9121–2.
- 56.
Barovskis, 72; Jolanta Stauga also highlights that with the act of grinding and rolling something gets remade: “…cosmos is distinguished from the primal chaos. Thus, the sake can be looked upon as an ambivalent being, where, on the one hand, it is the one that creates a cosmogonical space in the middle of the primal waters, while, on the other hand, the snake is associated with chaos and can create it also itself, which is signified by its black color and its belonging to the chthonic world.” Jolanta Stauga, Dzīvnieki latviešu folklorā: Mitoloģiski maģiskais aspekts (pēc latviešu tautasdziesmu un mūsdienu folkloras materiāliem) [Animals in Latvian Folklore: Mythological Magical Aspect (After the Materials of Latvian Folksongs and Modern Folklore], Doctoral dissertation, (Riga: LU, 2011), 85.
- 57.
Kursīte, Latviešu kultūra mītu spogulī, Ch. 3
- 58.
Janīna Kursīte, Mītiskais folklorā, literatūrā, mākslā [The Mythical in Folklore, Literature, Art] (Rīga: Zinātne, 1999), Chapter: “Mītiskā telpa” [Mythical Space].
- 59.
Sandis Laime “The Sacred Groves of the Curonian Ķoniņi: Past and Present,” Folklore (Estonia) 42 (2009): 67–80. Ķoniņi was a unique group of Latvians living in the Courland region, who never experienced serfdom and in this sense were, in fact, Latvian “landlords.” In effect, they were the last who had sacred groves until Soviet occupation, and thus their practices have attracted research attention. “The Curonian ķoniņi were neither peasants nor free peasants, but instead constituted a special estate of freemen, to whom the peasant laws of Courland did not apply and who enjoyed the same status as other vassals of the order in Courland.” (Laime, The Sacred Groves, 67.)
- 60.
Janīna Kursīte. Lecture 2 “Latvieša laika un vietas uztvere. Svētbirzis jeb “dots devējam atdodas”” [Latvian understanding of time and space. The sacred grove or “you get what you give”], Latvian World, Lecture course, OpenMinded, Riga, Latvia.
- 61.
Translated from: “Svētajam kokam/Deviņi zari/Ik zara gala/Deviņi ziedi/Ik zieda galā/Deviņas ogas. LD 33601.
- 62.
Kursīte, Latviešu folklora mīta spogulī, Ch. 3.
- 63.
Usually, today that is interpreted today simply as “many” different plants, and each year I promise myself to count, which I do not…
- 64.
Kursīte, “Latvieša laika un vietas uztvere.”
- 65.
Dzīvoš ilgi, ne tik ilgi/Saules mūžu nedzīvošs/Ūdentiņš, akmentiņš/tie dzīvoja Saules mūžu. (Live I long, or not that long/I won’t live the life of Sun/Water and stone/they will live the life of Sun. LD 27341-2.
- 66.
“Elka: is also translated as an idol, which is why idol worship in Latvian is “elkdievība” or the wrong, pagan faith, according to Christianity. “Elka” is also associated with the Latvian word for “elbow”—elkonis, and thus, with a “turn,” with something that is not straightforward, but rather a “way-around”, such as symbolical interpretation or divination. Janīna Kursīte “Par Austrumprūsijas un Kurzemes vietvārdu stāstiem” [On Eastern Prussian an Courland’s Toponyms] Latvijas Vēstnesis No. 183, 2003.
- 67.
Kursīte, “Latvieša laika un vietas uztvere.”
- 68.
Caur sidraba birzi gāju/Ne zariņa nenolauzu/Būt zariņu nolauzusi/Tad staigātu sidrabā. LD 30637.
- 69.
Laime, “The Sacred Groves of the Curonian Ķoniņi,” 70.
- 70.
Songs about the top of the tree: Bērziņš mani aicināja/Nāc, meitiņa, slotas griezt/Griez, meitiņa, zarus manus/Galotniti vien negriez/Lai palika galotnīte/Vējiņam vēdinàt. [Birch tree invited me/come and cut my branches, girl/just don’t touch the top/allow the top to stay/for the wind to blow through].
- 71.
Es izdzirdu ganu puisi/Ar bērziņu baramos/Bērziņš saka: zarus griež!/Gans nogrieze virsuniti. [I heard the herder boy/Quarrelling with the Birch tree/Birch tree says: branches are cut!/Herder cut the top.] LD 2767-1.
- 72.
Kalabad tu, bierztaļa/Uz manim žēli raud’? /Nosalauzu vienu rīksti/Svētu rītu ganīdama [Why do you, grove/Cry to me in sorrow?/I cut only one switch/herding in the holy morning.] LD 2762-5.
- 73.
Katherina Schwartz, “The Occupation of Beauty: Imagining Nature and Nation in Latvia,” East European Politics & Societies 21 no. 2 (2007): 259–293.
- 74.
The problematization of wilderness—Guha, “Radical American Environmentalism,” Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness.” I discuss the dialectic as a status quo in Sauka, “Selfhood in Question.”
- 75.
Anne Sauka, “Breaching the Dialectic with Situated Knowledges: The Case of Postsocialist Naturecultures,” Polish Journal of Aesthetics, 2023.
- 76.
Similar to the rest of Europe but in stark contrast to the United States of America, where (1) the forest might be someone’s untouchable property or (2) the forest might be the “property of nature” in the context of wilderness conservation.
- 77.
Especially in the past, yet this tradition is still quite strong for private housing that rarely has an empty lawn, and mostly has a smaller flower garden beside the house, as well as at least some fruit trees, vegetable patches, and berry bushes behind the house further inside the garden.
- 78.
LSM.lv “Mežu platība Latvijā turpina pieaugt—pērn tie bija 52%” [The Area of Forest keeps on Increasing Last Year it was 52%]. https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/meza-platiba-latvija-turpina-pieaugt%2D%2Dpern-tie-bija-52.a325062
- 79.
Petr Jehlička, Miķelis Grīviņš, Oane Visser, Bálint Balázs (2020), “Thinking food like an East European: A critical reflection on the framing of food systems,” Journal of Rural Studies 76 (2020): 286–295.
- 80.
Izstaigāju bērzu birzi/Lāga rīkstes nenogriežu/Izstaigaju Bebreniešus/Lāga puišu neredzeju/Cits bij greizs, cits bij šķībs/Cits meitiņu salauzits. [I walked through the birch grove/Did not cut a [proper] switch/I walked through Bebernieši/Did not see a proper fellow] LD 12756-1.
- 81.
Precību dziesma: Tumši, tumši tie mežiņi/Kà nav tumši, egles vien/Sveši, sveši tie ļautiņi/Kà nav sveši, tautas vien. [Dark, dark those forests/how could they not be—only fir trees/Foreign, foreign those people/How could they not be—only folks]. LD 18910-2 This folksong does not translate that well and needs further explanation. Namely, it could mention that there is not a single oak tree “to provide light,” while this remains omitted in the particular verse. Also, “only folks” here means anyone outside of the immediate circle/relatives of the girl that is singing the song, thus, basically, it is a song about being married away, since “the coming of folks” usually denotes the coming of eligible bachelors, and “giving to folks” means marriage.
- 82.
Not only death but also birth. The goddess Māra is said to have a chamber where she acts as a primum mobile or a first mover for (wooden cribs). Kursīte, Latviešu dievības un gari, 129. Pilla Māras istabiņa/Sīku mazu šūpulišu/Vienu Māra kustinaja/Visi līdzi līgojàs. [Full is Mara’s room/with small cribs/She moves one/All move together with it] LD 1872, 1.
- 83.
See LD 33625-9.
- 84.
Janīna Kursīte, Dainu kodekss (Rīga: Rundas), 369–370; on the meanings of kokle: 203–204.
- 85.
Although the “death” here is symbolic, it is peculiar how the kokle retains the agency of the youngest daughter, especially for the mother. Is it a symbol of what her daughter left behind or is it her now married daughter that she only “hears” and does not see? In any case, the agency of the non-living comes to the fore.
- 86.
Jane Bennett, The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings and Ethics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
- 87.
Belief is what can be practically examined, and faith is the sum of practical experience of the usefulness of this world, the underworld, and the heavens. The meaning of faith in pre-Christian views allows a post and pre-dialectic worlding where examination and experimentation are not opposed to belief. Janīna Kursīte, “Latvieša pasaules uztvere un ticība.” On virtue: Kursīte, “Dainu kodekss,” 12–13, 534.
- 88.
Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, citing Gary Nabhan.
- 89.
Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010).
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Acknowledgments
This article is supported by the ERAF (European Regional Development Fund) Post-doctoral Research Support Program [project Nr 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/001 research application Nr. 1.1.1.2./VIAA/4/20/613, project “Ontogenealogies: The Body and Environmental Ethics in Latvia”] as well as the Fundamental and Applied Research program of the Latvian Council of Science, project “Competing discourses of nature in Latvia and ecological solidarity as a consensus building strategy” (lzp-2020/1-0304).
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Sauka, A. (2024). Experiencing Elemental Embodiment: (Re) visiting Latvian Folklore on Life and Nature. In: Škof, L., Sashinungla, Thorgeirsdottir, S. (eds) Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42119-8_4
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