Dozhin rituals in the system of traditional culture of the Eastern Slavs: ethnolinguistic components in semiotic analysis aspect

Abstract

We pay particular attention to the consideration of semantic components of the dozhin ritual (“beard curling” ritual) as an ethnolinguistic text, which are the ontological foundations of the agrarian complex of traditional culture system of the Eastern Slavs. We give a description of the “beard curling” ritual in the form of representation of actional blocks using the basic categories of semiotic analysis, an interpretation of the meaning of symbolic semiotic structures in the form of a layout of symbolic components. The field materials presented by us are both an indicator of the All-Russian context and the specific area itself – the Central Black Earth Region, in particular, Tambov region, and demonstrate the echoes and originality of functioning of constituent compo-nents of the dozhinochny ritual. The texts of this rite, incantatory elements, actional components turn out to be quite many-sided and diverse. The explanation of ritual’s ethnolinguistic compo-nents in the folk environment shows how the people interpret the contexts of its origin and devel-opment. The actual symbolic representation is shown in the sacred context of all symbolic semes, which emphasizes their ontological nature. The sacredness of the ritual is represented in the sym-bolism of significant semes: the “beard” in this case is an ethnolinguistic metaphor for the Chris-tian appeal to God, a prayer for the future harvest.