Inverted Behavior

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For those unaccustomed to these modes of speaking and acting, such practices and others like them might seem illogical or, at best, examples of vernacular or dialect-related particularities. Some would quickly dismiss them, calling them "provincialisms." However, this form of behavior implies that a person will intentionally act out or say the opposite of what is normally or usually expected. People use such forms, as they readily admit, either as habitual expressions or in order to "prevent evil forces from causing harm" (da zlo ne čuje). It is always better to be safe than sorry. The belief that evil is very much present in the human world and is ready to hear the slightest compliment and unmercifully strike the object of our admiration or attention is widespread in almost all human cultures. The South Slavic world is no di erent. These and other formulae and forms of behavior are indeed fragments of ritualistic behaviors which were once abundant in southeastern Europe. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's Srpski rječnik (Serbian Dictionary), rst published in 1818 in Vienna, provides su cient evidence for this: the rst edition of the dictionary contains 26,270 words and expressions, of which at least 10 percent refer to practices, customs, and beliefs which have to do with magic or ritual intended to avoid some harm or evil.

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The aim of this chapter is to discuss a subcategory of ritual behavior that expresses opposite or inverted behavior: formulae and behaviors that are in opposition to what is desirable in the normal, usual course of events. Much scholarly work has been dedicated to the study of ritual and ritualistic forms of behavior, and categorizations of these forms of behaviors have been attempted many times; however, little attention has been directed to a special form of anti-or "counter-" behavior, which still persists in everyday practices of speaking and behaving.

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Radenković and Inverted Behavior

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In his masterpiece about South Slavic charming, Ljubinko Radenković (1996) sets forth a classi cation of the forms of behavior during rituals of charming. These forms of behavior were and are still produced by charmers (bajalice, sg. bajalica) while performing healing rituals (bajanja, sg. bajanje). Radenković introduces, under the concept of ritual behavior, a category that he calls anti-ponašanje (anti-behavior). In an article written twenty-three years later, in 2019, Radenković returns to an analysis of ritual behavior, this time from a more general perspective, and develops the concept of ritual behavior more broadly in Serbian popular culture. Here, he devotes a great part of his discussion to the same category, which he renames "inverted" or "counter-" behavior (naopako ponašanje). In his 1996 book, he does not mention any theoretical reference that inspired him in creating this subcategory; however, in the 2019 article he does relate it to the work of Boris Uspenski (1996) and examples of "anti-behavior" in the culture of old Russia.

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In both the book as well as the article, Radenković provides subcategories and an abundance of examples for each form of what he considers anti-or inverted behavior in the ritual of charming and the broader eld of symbolic behavior. Through a profusion of examples Radenković makes his case and successfully builds this subcategory, inverted behavior. While in his 1996 book, Radenković does not elaborate much on the characteristics of inverted behavior except for a one-sentence de nition, "behavior oriented in the opposite sense of usual social behavior" (p. 88), he does pay more attention to them in the article (Radenković 2019:125). For instance, Radenković abandons the term "anti-behavior" (anti-ponašanje) for a more powerful concept, naopako ponašanje. His case is convincing; therefore, I suggest adopting an English translation that would convey this relatively new-old idea of "inverted behavior." Why not keep Uspenski's term, "anti-behavior," instead of proposing this one? Perhaps because the pre x "anti" has the connotation of opposing an activity and would mean in a literal sense a non-behavior, while the pre x "counter" (naopako) expresses the essence of this form of behavior: a behavior in an opposite direction. The goal of this chapter is to examine the validity of such a category, as suggested by Radenković, and to o er a critical assessment of this distinct model of ritual behavior. Ritual behavior per se in any culture is quite distant from usual, normative social behavior. So what is considered "magical behavior" could easily be interpreted as contrary to normal types of behavior. Ritual kissing or washing body parts (hands, feet, chest, head, face) in places or social circumstances ( rst visit to the newborn [babinje], funeral) which are not destined for this type of activity (entrance of the house/threshold, graveyard) or ritual nakedness might t in the category of an "unusual form of behavior." Further, it would be easier to label some of the "unusual" forms of behavior "anti"-behavior, in a literal sense of "anti-social" behavior, because such behavior is oriented against the usual social norms. Then again, putting on clothes inside out can be interpreted as ritualistic, but it takes some previous knowledge about what forms of ritual behavior are out there before one would be tempted to categorize them as "inverted."

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Radenković's thinking on inverted behavior has advanced considerably in the twenty-three years from 1996 to 2019. The realization that the type of behavior that a charmer produces while charming can surely be applicable to other symbolic behavior in everyday life certainly had an impact on his choice to devote more attention to this subcategory and choose a more appropriate term for it. Additionally, Radenković introduces, in 2019, several other categories of behavior which he did not mention in his previous work.

Given that the concept of inverted behavior exceeded its original frame as just one of many forms of ritual behavior during charming and that Radenković demonstrated that these forms were also present in the much broader "magical" behavior of everyday folklore, it became clear that the subcategory of inverted behavior deserves more attention. Therefore, another objective of this chapter is to develop the concept further by providing additional examples to the existing corpus and to argue for future directions in the general area of research of ritual behavior or behavior related to magic and ritual healing.

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Inverted Behavior and Charmers

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What were the categories of ritual behavior that Radenković used in his 1996 book to organize his classi cation of the forms of behavior of the South Slavic bajalice? For one thing, he organized the forms of behavior under the umbrella term "codi ed behavior" to establish communication with the forces of evil that brought harm to humans or the human world. He considered all ritual behavior non-verbal-as in non-verbal communication-made of symbolic acts and proceedings. Interestingly, he suggested that, although diverse, all of the subcategories he enumerated as forms of ritual behavior during charming could be reduced to one type of symbolic action. It is an action oriented toward ostensibly leaving the human world in order to get rid of the impure (evil) forces. This epitomizes what a charmer is supposed to do.

Charmers are hence not only mere "communicators" or sacral mediators (Pócs 1997) between the human world and other worlds (worlds of demons). They are wayfarers between these worlds.

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Radenković calls the symbolic action of the wayfarer provlačenje (loosely translated as "pulling" or "passing through"). This notion of "pulling through" or "being pulled through" gures rst on his list of ritual behaviors and is a device, he argues, to remove the opposition between the relational axis humans-demons.

The ritual behavior of provlačenje is an important category and a ritual per se that is a topic of many ethnological inquiries in the study of South Slavic folklore and elsewhere (Trebješanin 1991;Stajić and Pišev 2016;Frazer 1913;Eliade 1978;Kemp 1993). According to Radenković, this is also the type of ritual act to which some of the forms of inverted behavior belong.

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The other type of ritual act is the creation of communication and the formulation of "requests" directed to the forces of evil, which are shaped by the charmer. It is the charmer who decides which request will be used to obtain the desirable result. Hence, the charmer plays the role of mediator. and žmurenje (shutting one's eyes).

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In his article (2019), Radenković keeps the above-mentioned subcategories and provides some more examples of them: hodanje natraške (walking backward), pevanje umesto plakanja (singing instead of crying), ritualna kradja (ritual stealing), and maskiranje (masking). The reason for adding these forms of behavior to the existing list is partially his concentration on ritual behaviors done by ordinary people, not solely charmers who perform them during special circumstances ( Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1.

Taxonomy of ritual behaviors.

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The types of behavior that inspired Radenković to reorganize and further develop the notion of ritual behavior were from popular customs and the folklore of the human world: the life cycle (social cycle), annual customs (calendar cycle), legal (social-normative) customs, economic activity-related customs (farming, livestock, beekeeping, hunting, shing, etc.), and occasional customs (protection from disease, hail, drought, vampires, witches, etc. He was particularly interested in cases of imposture, which were forms per se of de-sacralization of the sacred, the inversion of what was considered beyond reach: "Dressing up in the Tsar's clothes should be seen in this context as a typical case of anti-behavior, to which, on the level of content, there corresponds the blasphemous attempt to procure sacred attributes through outer simulation" (Uspenski and Zhivov 2012:127). Uspenski did devote several studies to anti-behavior in Russia, although his analysis is from historical case studies (Uspenski and Zhivov 2012).

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Ritual Behavior and the Ordinary

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When examining the forms of ritual behavior executed not solely by the charmer but also by others, the "commoners," what jumps out are several possible inconsistencies. To begin with, most of the ritual behaviors are particular forms of behavior that are attention-grabbing. They are unusual. They are out of the ordinary. What makes them un-ordinary is the time, place, or circumstances in which the rituals are acted out or just how people do them: the number of kisses when greeting, which is often codi ed ("the Serbs kiss three times," srbi se ljube tri puta), or the kissing of someone's shoulder and then the palm of the hand (the traditional way that women greeted all men in central Serbia) or even a direct kiss on the mouth among men (in Montenegro). Even the ritual inviting to the slava (feast of the saint-protector of the family or kin), such as an invitation in person in the house of the potential guest with a ritual apple with coins pierced in the fruit, is not "normal" behavior sensu stricto. A linear symbolic meaning would be that the apple represents "health" (zdrav k'o jabuka) and the coins "wealth." Hence, the rst and sole invitation for a slava-because one invitation lasts for a lifetime-is a desire to generate health and wealth in both houses and families: those who are invited and those who get invited.

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What makes these behaviors ritualistic is the motivation behind them and their symbolic meaning, behind which is structured a cosmology of signi cations. However, among them there are also other forms of behavior that are notably un-ordinary: for instance, nakedness in times or places when or where nakedness is not accepted or urinating or spitting, forms of behavior usually considered "unclean." Behind these forms of behavior there is a lack of the usual linear symbolic meaning.

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When examining further Radenković's subcategories of anti-and, subsequently, inverted behavior, a pattern that is common to them all can be established: they proceed in an opposite way from what is expected in a given situation. For instance, keeping obstinately silent when talking is expected, using negation in speech which does not make sense, putting on clothes inside out, walking backward, and so on are all forms of behavior that replace a form of "usual" behavior. Hence, there is a notion of "inversion" or "doing the opposite" of the normal course of action. However, there are a few forms of behavior that seem to be intruders when analyzing other forms of ritual behavior which are under the category of life-cycle customs (Radenković 2019). These forms of behavior do not entirely " t" into the category. Let us examine ritual striking (udaranje). The rituals that are cyclical, according to Radenković, could easily gure under the subcategory of inverted behavior. When welcomed into this world, newborns were in the past traditionally kicked by their mothers at birth. It was believed that this was a symbolic act of separation between mother and child, and the children were treated as (falsely) "unwanted" or "unloved," which would protect them from evil spirits. Too much love, too much tenderness might have invoked or attracted evil spirits or the evil eye. Children coming home after their baptism would be ritually spanked with a broomstick. When an adolescent girl had her rst period, she was "greeted" with a ritual face slap by her mother. Newlywed couples were also ritually hit by their relatives when entering the house in which they were to live or just before entering the room in which their wedding night was to occur.

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Let us examine cases in which the ritual breaking of dishes and glasses is observed. Dishes are broken in the wedding ritual when the couple leaves the church. There is a person marching before the couple who drops plates in front of them as they march (Slovak minority of Vojvodina). Glasses from which the guests and couple have drunk are also broken. Dishes are broken when a new house is built. Coincidentally, it is believed that some sort of "blood sacri ce" is required when the building of a new house is completed. Thus, a chicken or some animal is sacri ced, and its blood is spilled on the foundation. It is believed that if the house/building does not obtain its sacri ce, it will "require" the life of someone from the household. There is also the custom of breaking some piece of pottery when the deceased were taken from their houses to the graveyard or at the graveyard itself. Interestingly, the intentional dropping of glasses in tap houses (kafane, sg. kafana) while getting drunk (opijanje) to express either uncontrollable joy or overwhelming sorrow is still a common thing in the Balkans. Čaše lomim ("I break glasses") is a common leitmotif of newly composed folk music such as in one of the great "classics" of the genre -as if self-hurting and su ering would be inseparable parts of one's enjoyment. The ripping of one's clothes (usually a shirt) also takes place on such an occasion as an extreme expression of joy or sorrow. The ripping of one's shirt is likewise a custom for celebrating a newborn. Traditionally it was done when a male child was born; nowadays most rstborns are celebrated in this manner. The "new" father is greeted by his friends (male peer group) by each ripping o a little piece of his shirt when they approach him to congratulate him. This is done uniquely between males and uniquely when the rst child is born. The most likely explanation as to why the clothes of a new father are ripped o is related to the scarcity of clothes in ancient times, according to which the father's clothes that were ripped o were used to wrap up the newborn; this might also indicate the admission of paternity. However, the ripping of clothes can likewise be interpreted as a symbolic rite de mark a moment in time. And although these practices bear the mark of the "inverted order"-because, after all, they do have all the appearance of being the opposite of the usual order, of everyday life-they are in fact linear ritual behaviors with an aim to mark a certain moment in the linear passage of time. They are part of a "rite de passage."

What about the ritual act of spanking or hitting? Radenković considers hitting, spanking, or beating acts of separation, destruction, or pain (2019:111). Children are by far those who are spanked the most: at birth and baptism, when receiving a visit from a relative, when the rst tooth appears, when rst steps are taken.

(Male) Children are hit on their face by their godfather when their hair is cut for the rst time (strižidba).

Incidentally, it is considered a bad omen if the child does not cry out loud at this time-perhaps because noise is a part of life, while silence is part of death and consequently evil forces. The rst haircut is also often a moment when the child gets their rst "real" clothes (traditionally, a three-piece out t or trodelno odelo). Customarily, small children wore only a long white shirt. The end of breastfeeding is also considered a moment to ritually spank a child.

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The ritual striking of a newlywed man by his group of peers just before heading o for his wedding night is also a remarkable one because this practice unites violence-even if it is symbolic-with joy and celebration. The newlyweds' stepping on each other's feet is also widespread. It is believed that the one who steps rst on the feet of their spouse will be the one who will "command" (sometimes this results in an amusing scene of the newlyweds who, just after kissing each other, start "tap dancing" in front of the guests). The bride is also supposed to lift up a male child after the wedding ceremony; it is believed that the couple will ensure healthy (male) o spring by this act. When putting the child down she is expected to ritually spank him in some regions in Serbia, hence the expression šljapenče (the "spanked one") for such a child.

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Ritual violence is present in other customary practices. The ritual striking in a group of peers is commonplace: for instance, in the game of "rotten mare" (trula kobila or janjine), which is usually played by adolescent boys, the one who makes a "mistake" by jumping aside or falling by accident will be spanked or hit by the other players. The game of "scabies" (šuga) is also an example of a social game that usually ends with the player who makes an error being put in the middle and hit. The player with "scabies" is turned with his back to the other players; when he turns around, he has to guess who hit him on the back while he was not looking. It is a more or less controlled outburst of (male) violence in which one plays the "victim," while the others are "executioners."

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The bride is the second most ritually slapped person after children. The ritual act of hitting a bride is probably the most widespread: depending on the region, she is hit on the back by the groom, brother-inlaw, mother-in-law, or father-in-law. It was believed that the striking was important for her future health and fertility. The collective striking by all present guests of the couple, who are desperately running toward the exit, is also a common leitmotif. The ritual striking of visitors on Christmas Day or the rst male visitor (polaženik) is also widespread. Ritual hitting and spanking are therefore very prevalent ritual acts in most stages of one's life.

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Radenković explains ritual striking as an act of a rite de passage or an act to rea rm the new situation and a change. However, ritual striking or spanking is far more common than just in transitional times in the life cycle, such as weddings or burials. Whether present in passages between life stages (birth, wedding, death) or during games, ritual violence functions as an act of stimulation of growth (of children, hair While some of these forms are clearly already classi ed as inverted (as, e.g., masking by Uspenski), some are visibly inverted: such as walking backward, dressing up in clothes inside out, or putting things upside down. Other forms are less clearly categorized as inverted.

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Let us examine some of these forms of behavior. Wearing clothes inside out is a "great classic" of inverted behavior. One wears clothes inside out-usually some piece of underwear-in order to protect oneself from the evil eye (protiv uroka). If it happens, by chance, that someone who is getting dressed inadvertently puts on a piece of clothing inside out, it is interpreted as a sign of some future "inverted" behavior. It means that a person who involuntarily puts on clothes inside out (say, underwear) will probably get drunk by the end of the day. An involuntarily "backward" action is a sign of what will happen. Wearing clothes inside out can also be "therapy": during the process of charming, the charmer might require that the patient wear a piece of clothing inside out-it is usually some piece of underwear, such as an undershirt-for a predetermined period of time (usually a week). Wearing clothes inside out is an e cient way to protect oneself against evil magic or a bad spell. In some wedding practices, the bride or both the bride and groom are required to wear some piece of clothing inside out. Wearing clothes backward has additional symbolism: it is a sign of someone's youth. A (male) person arguing that he is not "naive" or "childish" will state that he is not wearing his pants backward (or "he is not zipping up his pants backward"). Pants are a symbol of being male, while buttoning up pants "backward" (in back) means being a small child who is dressed by others. A sickly child believed to be suckled by a mora (a female nightly demon) was dressed in an adult male waistcoat, buttoned up in back (Lovrenčević in Radenković 1996).

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Spitting is another form of inverted behavior. Usually considered an unclean practice, it is usually interpreted as an o ense. Spitting next to others when arguing with them is a demonstrative act of contempt and disgust. However, in magical behavior it is abundantly present. Charmers spitting in the act of charming is interpreted by Radenković (1996:93) as the embodiment of the charmer's soul ghting with demonic forces. It was believed that spitting in the beak of a bird was an e cient way to get rid of some illness, after releasing it to y away. Small children are often told that they should not pick up or take a strange object seen on the road: some evil spell might be attached to it. The best way to prevent an evil charm, when seeing such an object, is to spit next to it and pass it by. Spitting on small children-usually by the mother but also by female relatives-is also done in order to prevent the evil eye or a bad charm. A mother spitting in the mouth of a young child while saying "you ugly [thing]" (gade) was done to protect the child from harm (Radenković 1996:93). Likewise, making a desirable object less attractive by urinating on it gures on the list of inverted behaviors. Like spitting, urinating on things is an e cient way to protect against the evil eye. To sprinkle urine on domestic animals, especially cattle, is the safest way to protect the herd from an evil spirit or a demon who could sneak up in the stable during the night and take away the cow's milk. Places around the house that must be protected also require urine. A possible interpretation of spitting or urinating as a way to prevent harm is comparable to the binary clean/unclean. To make an object of our love or admiration less desirable, less close to the state of perfection, which can only be an attribute of the gods, is to symbolically "cut into it" or make it less perfect, less clean, and less desirable for the evil forces.

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Therefore, I argue that some forms of ritual violence like spanking and hitting those who are present, especially at joyful occasions such as births or weddings, or dealing with "objects" that represent one's

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To that end I propose a non-exhaustive de nition of inverted behavior as a form of ritual act: inverted behavior is purposeful magical/ritual conduct, practice, or speech that is linearly oriented in the opposite direction of the desirable goal of achieving abundance, increase of growth. Of course, not all ritual spanking belongs to the category of inverted behavior. Stepping on the foot of a newlywed spouse just after the ominous "yes" has the symbolic meaning of "control," and it is often interpreted as a joke. However, in all ritual behaviors where spanking and hitting are used to foster fertility (the "headbutt" of the bride by the dever as soon as she enters the house) or growth (spanking children after their baptism or at similar times), it certainly is a form of inverted behavior.

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More nuanced forms of behavior are to be found in speech. Everyday vernacular constructions contain idioms which resemble in their form the usual formulae of charms (basme) (for more, see Radenković 1996).

Saying the opposite of what one means when politeness prevents one from directly expressing a desire also belongs to the category of inverted behavior. A guest's asking for food is considered quite impolite;

however, common civility and hospitality require the hosts' posing such a question. By answering a question as to whether one is hungry with jok, ti si ("ah, I'm not, you are"), the one who is o ered provides leeway to the host. The vernacular expression živ nisam is another expression to avoid using an a rmative form of speaking which would directly invite the forces of evil-by stating that one is dead or barely aliveto pass into action. It is not a mere form of verbal mannerism. It is an expression of someone's condition by avoiding the uttering of a sinister parallel.

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Like in the tradition of charmers, the speakers use short versions of negation or inverted speech in order to express their desires or wishes without being heard by the evil spirits. Some charms contain vernacular forms of negation, where the use of a negative pre x as a grammatical category does not make any sense (Radenković 1996:89-90), as in O vilo, nevilo! Pošalji mi sito nesito po djetetu nedjetetu (Vuletić Vuksanvić in Radenković 1996; "Oh, fairy, non-fairy, send me a sifter, a non-sifter through a child, a non-child"; interestingly, the word nesito is both the negation of the word "sifter" and an adjective meaning "non-fullfed," i.e., "hungry"). In this charm the charmer uses negation in order to be heard by the fairies-or to have access to the world of fairies. Stating the opposite of what is meant, "ugly" when thinking about "beauty" or "sweetness," is a way to speak to the potentially malevolent forces who will either leave alone the object of our admiration or be satis ed by the use of negation.

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In doing eldwork about childrearing and birthing in the Balkans, what becomes most obvious is the fact that the presence of various forms of inverted behavior is tenacious. Not praising a child or the beauty of a little girl is almost an obsession (a young mother told me that she "exactly became sick if someone praised the beauty of her little girl"-she just couldn't bear any praise of her spoken out loud). The obstinate reproducing of this practice is more than a socially controlled form of civility; it is a desirable and solely acceptable form of behavior.

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Conclusion C24S7

The fragments or idioms of inverted speech is a topic which remains to be explored. There is, of course, a chance that only elderly people still use such kinds of speech. Possibly, inverted behavior in action and in practice is far more visible than that "hidden" in the language, which can be easily interpreted as a vernacular "particularity," slang, or even a mannerism. However, it is persistent in other areas of conversation that are considered important.

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Unarguably beside the above-mentioned forms of ritual behavior oriented toward preventing evil or harm there are plenty of other forms and vernacular expressions that are waiting to be explored for the purpose of solidifying the subcategory of ritual behavior, inverted behavior. I categorically nd that Radenković's concept's English-language translation of "inverted behavior" is far more suitable than Uspenski's "antibehavior," for it can be interpreted as a lack of action and not a symbolic ritual action oriented toward the opposite direction.

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The Russian philologists Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov reconstructed a mythical cosmology around several Slavic gods through the comparative study of various Indo-European mythologies and a large number of Slavic folk stories and songs. They brought forward, in that manner, the battle of Perun and Veles, which was, according to them, one of the basic myths of the Slavic pantheon. Ivanov and Toporov (1983) used the same methodology to reconstruct a mythical cosmology around other Slavic gods, such as the Goddess Mokosh. Their method, called the "basic myth" or "key myth" approach, involved engaging in the archive of beliefs and myths and attempting to recreate the basic features of at least a part of an ancient cosmogony of a once-coherent belief system. As a future investigation track, it would be interesting to gather and analyze other forms of ritual inverted behavior, which could possibly lead toward the uncovering of other remnants perhaps of an extinguished ancient belief system in which inverted behavior played a major role and might conceivably be traced back to basic or key myths.

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