O escandinavo berserkr, o finno-careliano tietäjä, e uma história de tecnologias ritual

This paper argues that there is a historical connection between the ritual technology of the Finno-Karelian ritual specialist known as a tietäjä and the Scandinavian berserkr. The Finno-Karelian tietäjä is a specialist institution characterized by an ecstatic state of heightened aggression in the performance of rituals centrally structured as battles and conflicts; the semiotics of Iron-Age warfare are prominent in its stratified symbolism. This institution emerged through the assimilation of a Scandinavian religion formation and ritual technology during the Iron Age, which caused fundamental changes in mythology, interactions with unseen worlds and understandings of the body or vernacular physiology. The present paper considers the implications of features of the tietäjä’s technologies for the Scandinavian models. It draws this into discussion with evidence of vernacular physiology in Old Norse sources and evidence of berserkir in particular. The tietäjä traditions and arguments concerning its origins are introduced for unfamiliar readers and relevant points of theory and methodology are outlined before proceeding to the discussion of berserkir and the argument for viewing berserkir as an institution characterized by a ritual technology connected to heightened (but directionally controlled) aggression. If this origin of the tietäjä’s ritual technology is roughly correct, comparison suggests a historical relation that gives a new understanding of berserkir.