Buy
Open Access
Subscription Access
Bridal Symbols in the Don Cossack Wedding
Abstract
This study presents a new interpretation of symbols of the bride-maiden, already known in the Eastern Slavic, specifically Don Cossack tradition. It is based on findings of ethnographic expeditions of the 1980s–2000s to areas where Don Cossacks are concentrated, and on 19th-century periodicals published in the Don Region. To interpret the essence and meaning of bridal symbols, ritual practices and folklore texts are integrated, viewing both in the context of two principal passages that the bride undergoes during the wedding: 1) transition from the state of maidenhood to that of a married woman; and 2) transition from one family clan to another. Both transitions are related to the ideas of “beauty” (krasota), supposed to be lost during the ceremony, and “lot” (dolya)—part of the life force and benefits allotted to the bride from her family/clan during the rite and added to the common lot of her new family. Material embodiments of “beauty” (the braid, ribbon, and wreath) can be interpreted as symbols of freedom and virginity. These qualities are lost during the rite, whereas their material symbols are either destroyed or passed on to others. Symbols such as a small tree and twig (referring to the folkloric image of the “garden”) can be related to the idea of “lot”, and rituals in which they feature can be interpreted as a gradual disruption of the braid’s ties with her family clan, deprivation of her familial “lot” (symbolic death), followed by rebirth manifested in the acquisition of a new “lot”—that of a married woman in a new family clan. Existing classifications of bridal symbols are revised, while new ones are revealed and interpreted.
About the Author
M. A. Ryblova
Federal Research Center “Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences”
Russian Federation
Pr. Chekhova 41, Rostov-on-Don, 344006
Russian Federation
Pr. Chekhova 41, Rostov-on-Don, 344006
References
1. Avramov. 1875 Svadebniye obychai v odnoy iz stanits Cherkasskogo okruga. Etnograficheskiy ocherk. Donskiye oblastniye vedomosti, No 51.
2. Baiburin A.K. 1993 Ritual v traditsionnoy kulture. Strukturno-semanticheskiy analiz vostochnoslavyanskikh obryadov. St. Petersburg: Nauka.
3. Bernshtam T.A. 1982 Obryad “rasstavaniya s krasotoy” (K semantike nekotorykh elementov materialnoy kultury v vostochnoslavyanskom svadebnom obryade). In Pamyatniki kultury narodov Yevropy i yevropeiskoy chasti SSSR, T.V. Stanyukovich (ed.). Leningrad: Nauka, pp. 43–66.
4. Donskaya svadba. 2019 Iss. 1: Materialy arkhivov i publikatsiy XIX v., M.A. Ryblova, A.V. Kogitina (comp. and comm.). Volgograd: Izd. Volgograd. Inst. Upravleniya – filiala RANKhiGS.
5. Grevtsova T.E. 2013 Donskiye naimenovaniya obryadovogo khleba pervogo dnya svadby na vostochnoslavyanskom fone. In Sovremennaya russkaya leksikologiya, leksikografiya i lingvogeografiya, O.N. Krylova (ed.). St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya, pp. 81–91.
6. Grevtsova T.E. 2017 Leksika zaklyuchitelnykh dney svadby u khoperskikh kazakov. Filologicheskaya regionalistika, No. 3 (23): 11–27.
7. Gura A.V. 2011 Brak i svadba v slavyanskoy narodnoy kulture: Semantika i simvolika. Moscow: Indrik.
8. Kolesnitskaya I.M., Telegina L.M. 1977 Kosa i krasota v svadebnom folklore vostochnykh slavyan. In Folklor i etnografiya: Svyazi folklora s drevnimi predstavleniyami i obryadami. Leningrad: Nauka, pp. 112–122.
9. Listopadov A.M. 1947 Starinnaya kazachya svadba na Donu. Rostov-on-Don: Rostov. obl. knigoizd.
10. Madlevskaya E. 2005 Devichya krasota. In Muzhiki i baby. Muzhskoye i zhenskoye v russkoy traditsionnoy kulture: Illyustrir. entsikl. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo-SPB, pp. 162–168.
11. Mestniye slova i vyrazheniya, upotreblyayemiye na Donu. 1875 Donskiye oblastniye vedomosti, No. 10.
12. Polevaya zapis Kubrakovoy V.S. 1992 g. v stanitse Alekseyevskoy Volgogradskoy obl. Informant Kopylova A.S. 1913 g.r. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv V.S. Kubrakovoy.
13. Polevaya zapis Porvina V. 1992 g. v stanitse Alekseyevskoy, Volgogradskoy oblasti. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv V.S. Kubrakovoy.
14. Polevaya zapis Ryblovoy M.A. 1984 g. v khut. Ozerki Ilovlinskogo rayona Volgogradskoi obl. Informant Antonova T.I., 1918 g.r. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv M.A. Ryblovoy.
15. Polevaya zapis Ryblovoy M.A. 2001 g. v khut. Plotnikove Danilovskogo rayona Volgogradskoi obl. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv M.A. Ryblovoy.
16. Polevaya zapis Shapkinoy R.V. 1997 g. v stanitse Tepikinskoy Uryupinskogo rayona Volgogradskoy obl. Informant Letyagina Zinaida Ivanovna, 1935 g.r. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv M.A. Ryblovoy. (Materialy etnograficheskoy praktiki studentov-regionovedov VolGU 1997 g. nauchn. ruk. M.A. Ryblova. Tetr. No. 5).
17. Polevaya zapis Sorokinoy E.G. 1997 g. v stanitse Tepikinskoy Uryupinskogo rayona Volgogradskoy obl. Informant Shalyapin Nikolay Pavlovich, 1920 g.r. (s.a.) Lichniy arkhiv M.A. Ryblovoy. (Materialy etnograficheskoy praktiki studentov-regionovedov VolGU 1997 g. nauchn. ruk. M.A. Ryblova. Tetr. No. 3).
18. Polyakov. 1875 Starinnaya donskaya svadba. Donskiye oblastniye vedomosti, No. 22.
19. Popov E. 1876 Iz byta donetskogo stanichnika. Narodnaya svadba v stanitse Gundorovskoy. Etnograficheskiy ocherk. Donskaya gazeta, No. 100.
20. Protsenko B.N. 2004 Svadebniy obryad donskikh kazakov vo vremeni i prostranstve. Traditsionnaya kultura: Nauchniy almanakh, No. 4 (16): 26–34.
21. Rudichenko T.S. 2000 Osobennosti svadebnogo rituala kazachyikh poseleniy yuga Donetskogo okruga (po ekspeditsionnym materialam). In Itogi folklorno-etnograficheskikh issledovaniy etnicheskikh kultur Kubani za 1999 god: Materialy region. nauch.-prakt. konf. Dikarevskiye chteniya (6), stanitsa Kreposnaya Krasnodarskogo kraya, 14–16 maya 1999 g., O.V. Matveev, M.V. Sementsov (eds.). Krasnodar: Kubankino, pp. 91–95.
22. Slovar russkikh donskikh govorov. 1975 In 3 vols. Vol. I. Rostov-on-Don: Izd. Rostov. Gos. Univ.
23. Tolkacheva S.V. 2013 Simvolika ritualnogo perekhoda nevesty v russkom svadebnom pesennom folklore Udmurtii. Vestnik Udmurtskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Istoriya i filologiya, iss. 4: 135–141.
24. Tolstaya S.M. 2010 Motiv rasstavaniya s voley/krasotoy v severno-russkoy svadebnoy pricheti: Poetika i mifologiya. In “Uvedi menya, doroga”: Sbornik pamyati T.A. Bernshtam. St. Petersburg: MAE RAN, pp. 151–160.
25. Tumilevich F.V. 2012a Svadebniy obryad u kazakov-nekrasovtsev. In Kazakinekrasovtsy: Yazyk, istoriya, kultura: Sbornik nauchnykh statey, G.G. Matishov (ed.). Rostov-on-Don: Izd. YuNC RAN, pp. 36–72.
26. Tumilevich F.V. 2012b K voprosu o poetike pesen kazakov-nekrasovtsev. In Kazaki-nekrasovtsy: Yazyk, istoriya, kultura: Sbornik nauchnykh statey, G.G. Matishov (ed.). Rostov-on-Don: Izd. YuNC RAN, pp. 141–187.
27. Zorin N.V. 2004 Russkiy svadebniy ritual. Moscow: Nauka.
Supporting agencies: This study was performed under the Public Contract of the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 2020 (No. 01201354248).
For citation:
Ryblova M.A. Bridal Symbols in the Don Cossack Wedding. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2020;48(2):114-121. https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.2.114-121
Views: 66
Email this article 