Abstract
Trying to interpret oneself and the other in the world, the traditional Man has established a real world and an otherworld. Specific herbal and animal attributes were ascribed to particular people who allegedly had the power to communicate between worldliness and transcendence. Also some human characteristics were linked with herbal and animal mediators. These attributes were folklorized as miraculous powers. Such supernatural beings from South Slavic traditional conceptionsof the world have been largely associated with the pre-Christian deities and their degradations, based on the observed real attributes of the vegetal and animal species. The interdisciplinary comparative way of treating South Slavic folklore real-unreal motifs through time and space in this article is its ethnological, animalistic and anthropological contribution.
Highlights
Anthropological research of the interaction between nature and culture have been spreading ever since the research work of Franz Boas (1858–1942), a pioneer of American and world modern anthropology
2007b, 9); the snakefly (Dichrostigma flavipes) called dugovratka and the Aesculapian sorcerer-snake (Elaphe longissima, Zamenis longissimus) called hižna kača (Balog, 2011, 50) or kravosis (Hirc, 1896, 10, 22) for the fly-faced or snake-faced witch; the European horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) called poskok for the folklore Snake-Queen with a rose, crest or crown on her head (Vrkić, 1995, 266–267) and for South Slavic brides with floral headstalls who hop at the center of circle-dances; the Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla) called zmajica vijoglav(k)a for the Russian mythical bird Vreteno at the top of the world tree (Иванов, Топоров, 1974, 203; Belaj, 2007, 230) and for the Dalmatian Hinterland’s fairy Vijoglava (Kutleša, 1997, 390)
The process closes full circle when the apocalyptic animals – symbols of chaos, cosmic evil and dehumanization – turned into symbols of divine justice on account of punishing sinners (Kuvač-Levačić, 2012, 777, 785, 788), such as the image of useful bats stigmatized into causative agents of the COVID-19 pandemic virus
Summary
Anthropological research of the interaction between nature and culture have been spreading ever since the research work of Franz Boas (1858–1942), a pioneer of American and world modern anthropology. 2007b, 9); the snakefly (Dichrostigma flavipes) called dugovratka (shenecklonger) and the Aesculapian sorcerer-snake (Elaphe longissima, Zamenis longissimus) called hižna kača (house snake) (Balog, 2011, 50) or kravosis (cow-suckler) (Hirc, 1896, 10, 22) for the fly-faced or snake-faced witch; the European horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) called poskok for the folklore Snake-Queen with a rose, crest or crown on her head (Vrkić, 1995, 266–267) and for South Slavic brides with floral headstalls who hop at the center of circle-dances; the Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla) called zmajica vijoglav(k)a (she-dragon headturner) for the Russian mythical bird Vreteno (spindle) at the top of the world tree (Иванов, Топоров, 1974, 203; Belaj, 2007, 230) and for the Dalmatian Hinterland’s fairy Vijoglava (she-headturner) (Kutleša, 1997, 390)
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