engleski

Cockroaches: From Belief Narratives to the Contemporary Visual Practice of Catherine Chalmers, or How the Cockroaches Survived on Earth for More Than 320 Million Years

In my paper, I will present the role of cockroaches (of which there are around 3500 species) in customs and beliefs of specific ethno-traditions in which the former play a prominent role. It is exactly the aforementioned that has been demonstrated by the exhibition Cockroaches – A Lingering World (Croatian Natural History Museum, 2017) presenting the universally-hated insects, but also animals that will remain in this world even after the human race dies out following the potential – and entirely realistic, according to certain political circles – scenario of nuclear war. In his book Animal Symbolism in Slavic Folk Tradition (1997), Aleksandr Gura thus points out that the basis of Russian beliefs (belief narratives) on cockroaches is the belief that they are the forecasters of abundance and material prosperity. Such folk beliefs generally only refer to black cockroaches, and not red-brown ones. According to certain accounts of lore, large black cockroaches thus herald abundance, and farmers consider it a sin to exterminate them ; in other words, if large numbers of black cockroaches are settled in a household, this is a sign of upcoming good fortune. Naturally, all of this is now a thing of the past ; the aforementioned nurturance has nowadays been replaced by lethal insecticides. To conclude, I would like to bring to mind the photographic works of Catherine Chalmers, the art of whom demonstrates that even the “humble” cockroach can become a subject of so-called high art. Perhaps this humbleness is also the key to the comprehension of the fact that the cockroaches have survived on Earth for more than 320 million years.

cockroaches, ethnology, animal righst, popular culture

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