Idapoolsete läänemeresoome rahvaste usund ja selle uurimine Eestis
Religious Beliefs of Eastern Finnic Peoples and Relevant Research Conducted in Estonia

Summary/Abstract: a survey is given of the history of Estonian researchers’ studies on the folklore and, especially, on the folk belief of the Finnic peoples of russia. rooted in the 19th century, researcher interest in those issues was enhanced by the establishment of Estonian as the language of tuition at Tartu university in 1919, and boosted after WW ii, when the eastern border of Estonia was open. Modern restrictions on conducting research in russia have had negative repercussions on the volume of Estonian studies of Finnic peoples. For folk belief research it is important that the folk cultures survived in russia have preserved various elements of the traditional culture, including traits of the older folk belief observable first and foremost in the world-view of the informants from the older and middle generations. This has been supported by the Orthodox background and the minor role of written culture in everyday life. The second half of the article is focused on the traditional beliefs and practices survived in the Central Vepsian area, with forest as the dominant motif. The relations between the human culture and the animist world are discussed as revealed in herdsmen magic, in rituals carried out in semi-natural holy places, and in connection with death and the dead.

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