Spiritual Territoriality: Boundary Setting and Place-Claiming in Burial Site Folk Stories — A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Place-lore has been gathered and recorded by Estonian researchers since the end of the 19th century, among which are a host of accounts relating to interactions with human spirits. This article examines place-lore texts relating to burial sites, stored at the Estonian Folklore Archive. Narratives that are interwoven into these folk stories reveal a recurring motif of entities asserting ownership over place or objects or imposing spatial restrictions regarding certain sites. This article analyses these cases and
proposes that these behavioural patterns indicate a reflection of values and principles among the population.