АПОТРОПЕЇЧНІ ДІЇ ПЕРЕВЕРТАННЯ-ВСТРОМЛЯННЯ-РОЗБИВАННЯ ЯК СПОСОБИ ЗАХИСТУ ВІД МЕРЦЯ ТА ЙОГО ДЕМОНІЧНИХ ІПОСТАСЕЙ У ГУЦУЛЬСЬКИХ МІФОЛОГІЧНО-ОБРЯДОВИХ ПРАКТИКАХ

Abstract

Apotropaic magic actions based on overturning, sticking, smashing are examined on the basis of folkloric and ethnographic discoveries of late 19th and early 20th centuries, and modern authorial field case studies from Hutsulshchyna area. The importance of the topic is determined by polysemantic, and different chronological elements of the archaic culture that these practices contain; they allow us to integrally and systematically research the constituents of funeral ritualism, and also particular occasional phenomena. It is defined that physical actions of overturning, sticking, smashing in Hutsul myth and ritual narratives have a clear apotropiac function of neutralizing the harmful impact of homogeneous, within their genesis, agents of danger – the deceased, and his manistic and demonic images: female characters, loci of nature, household spirits, vampires. Overturning, sticking or smashing as defense actions appear in a rite solely, and in interaction with each other, or are amplified by other items. Sticking achieves a positive result due to outer characteristics of the item that is used: it is, in a way, an autonomous amulet, since it is sharp and made of iron. At least a few paramount motivations are traced in overturning as a defense practice: such causes can originate from manistic motives and be attempts to make it impossible for the secondary entering of the soul into the body of the deceased, or its return into the living space after burying. Overturning and especially its variant: turning inside out, can be also reasonably qualified as a measure called to deceive the source of danger. Sticking could be displayed in the given mythological narratives in relation to everyday analogy, according to which the identical usage of these items neutralizes danger in a physical sense. A more complicated action is dinnerware smashing. On the one hand, defense abilities of this magic rite are improved by the noise caused by breaking, and also by the actional nuance: throwing; on the other hand, the rite performance locus: the threshold can indicate that this practice originated from the means of burying the deceased in the house. At the same time magic defense actions of the same performance and sense, which are based on overturning, sticking, smashing, are traced in other ethnocultural zones, which tells us about their versatility and primary ethnogenetic unity.