Page 58 - Hrobat Virloget, Katja, et al., eds. (2015). Stone narratives: heritage, mobility, performance. University of Primorska Press, Koper.

stone narratives

Figure 1: Baba mono-
lith drawn by Majda
Peršolja as she remem-
bers it from childhood
(Hrobat, 2007, Figure
4; Photo: Katja Hrobat

Virloget).

Siberia. He found that in the Khanty perception breathing is not
the only life strength, but can indicate the existence of life only if
other characteristics are absent. In the Khanty terminology, all liv-
ing things have lil, or life strength. However, the categories of ani-
mate and inanimate are not fixed. A stone can be both, inanimate,
if stationary, or animate, if falling. And even in its stationary form,
it can be animate as well. Any object with no distinctive form, like
a hill, a stone, etc., is inanimate, but if the form resembles some-
thing animate or living, it is perceived as animate. Therefore a stone
resembling a person or an animal (for instance a bear) or a shadow
of a person, which has that person’s form, or a sacred doll, can be
perceived as animate. Therefore »the physical form itself is ozhivot-
voriashchii (in Russian); that is, life giving (Jordan, 2003, p. 104).«

Such perceptions of stones as animate beings seem to explain
the old traditional custom of stonecutting from Lokev on Karst.

56