The purpose of this collection of articles is to map out the gender ideologies found in Finnish folklore and to raise questions about the processes behind their production, interpretation and transformation. Several authors in this study examine the ways in which, through cultural forms of expression and representation, gender has been used in Finland and in Karelia to symbolically organise such categories as the human body, human environment, 'inside' versus 'outside', and 'this world' versus 'other world'.