Bulgarian Ritual Kinship (Kumstvo)

Abstract

Among the Orthodox Christians on the Balkans, the rituals of Christian baptism and marriage traditionally give rise to ritual kinship relationships, not only among individuals but also among family groups that were until then unrelated. Only among Bulgarians, Serbians, and Macedonians, these relationships are carried on hereditarily and are constructed according to the patrilineal kinship model. The godfather’s role ( kumstvo) is inherited as symbolic capital by the family-kin groups of both the godparents and the godchildren. These are relations of symbolic inequality and have a ritual character: both the calendar feast cycle and the lifecycle rituals are marked by symbolic rights and obligations, which are still observed until the present day in most Bulgarian families, for example, mandatory gift exchange. The belief in the power of the godparent’s curse is still alive today in a number of regions in Bulgaria. On the other hand, the godparent tradition among Bulgarians acquired new meaning and new dimensions during the decades of socialism and postsocialist transition. During the last two or three decades, the godparent relationship has become a way of building new social networks, often of a clientelist nature. More and more often, ritual kinship relations are used for benefits and hierarchical ascent, similarly to nepotism. This process leads to the reformation of social networks—it still functions as social capital, but to each new generation. Every new family chooses different godparents, thus creating new social networks. Research about godparent relations among Bulgarians and, more generally, on the Balkans, is based on both existing studies on the subject and on the author’s personal fieldwork research in Bulgaria.