Magic, body and social order : the construction of gender through women's private rituals in traditional Finland

This book, published by the Finnish Literature Society in 1998, draws on nearly 1800 archival texts housed in the Finnish Literature Society's Folklore Archives. It examines from an anthropological perspective magic rituals practiced by and for Finnish women in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as pollution beliefs and sexual imagery, and what all of these reveal about gender dynamics in the traditional Finnish-Karelian culture area. Many of the original source materials on women's magic rituals are translated into English for the first time.