BANS IN FUNERAL AND MEMOTIAL CUSTOMS AND RITUALS OF THE CHUVASHS
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2021-4-159-167
One of the interesting and little-studied sources for studying the traditional ideas of the Chuvash people are prohibitions (taboos). According to Chuvash linguists and folklorists, they belong to small genres of Chuvash folklore and are a separate type of aphoristic oral-poetic works. They are characterized by a clear linguistic form of construction, logic, instructive orientation, rigor of execution. Originating in ancient times, prohibitions served as one of the forms of regulating human behavior in society. They regulated daily life, household occupations, crafts and crafts, food, religious beliefs, behavior, etiquette, language, culture of speech, etc. They occupied a special place in ceremonial life, including in customs and rituals associated with sending a person on his last journey. The purpose of this study is to determine the role and significance of prohibitions in regulating the behavior of people and members of the community within the framework of funeral and memorial customs and rituals of the Chuvash of the Ural-Volga region. In the study, the prohibitions are considered in accordance with the main stages of the funeral and memorial rite (preparation for the funeral and protection of the deceased; washing; seeing off on the last journey; burial; wake). The work is based on the author's literary, archival and field materials. When developing this topic, the author was guided by one of the methodological principles, according to which the system of prohibitions is understood as part of the socio-normative culture of the people, regulating human behavior in everyday life and in religious and ceremonial practices. In both cases, prohibitions have a religious nature and act as a kind of imperative in the process of human social life. The study showed that prohibitions in the context of funeral and memorial rites determined the place, time, order of the ritual and regulated the behavior of participants. In the prohibitions and prescriptions of this type of rite, an ambivalent attitude towards the deceased is manifested. On the one hand, they show the superstitious fear of the members of society before the deceased and death, on the other — the desire to propitiate him and as soon as possible to conduct him to the other world. Due to the observance of these prohibitions, the deceased was gradually isolated from the world of culture and society, as well as “moving” into the world of ancestors.
Keywords: сhuvashs, funeral and memorial customs and rituals, prohibitions, omens, beliefs
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Issue: 4, 2021
Series of issue: Issue 4
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 159 — 167
Downloads: 1267