If It Dries Out, It's No Good: Women, Hair and Rusalki Beliefs

Abstract

INTRODUCTION There is something instinctual about communicating social behavior and intentions through hair. I have spent summers in Russia with my hair pulled back demurely, trying to remain inconspicuous, the observer rather than the observed. I noticed how, almost uniformly, little girls wear hair ribbons which are bigger than their heads; how mod young women in mini skirts wear their hair loose; how relatively reserved women pull their hair back; how the older ones keep their heads covered in kerchiefs. In his article Magical Hair (1957), Edmund Leach discusses hair as a prominent feature of rites of passage across cultures. He writes: From [an] anthropological point of view, [rites of passage] retlectthe progression of the individual through set stages in the social system; these stages correspond to different degrees of maturity, different types of permitted sexual behavior, different allocations of social power ...Even the most skeptical anthropologist must admit that head hair is rather frequently employed as a public symbol with an explicitly sexual significance ...Marked changes in hairdressing vel)' commonly accompany the changes in sexual status that occur at puberty and marriage, but the pattern of change varies.(I) In Russia today, age and sexuality are expressed through hair, but the type of expression has changed, reflecting changes in society and worldview.(2) This paper examines earlier manifestations of East Slavic beliefs about hair and sexuality as expressed in the traditional wedding ritual complex and in customs related to the rusalko. In the wedding ritual, the bride is sold to her new husband and his family, and must leave her home and village. As part of the ritual, she sells her braid to her new husband, and is valued for the thickness of her braid I will argue that this act is symbolic of a woman's giving over her sexual potency and autonomy to her husband and to her new marriage. In addition to discussing the role of hair in ritual, I will suggest an interpretation of the wedding as a sort of a blueprint of the histol)' of the wedding ritual itself. The ritual itself: in my opinion, reflects a transition in the role of women in a society increasingly influenced by the Orthodox Church. THE RITUALS As with all folklore, beliefs are articulated in a variety of ways. Traditionally, young girls and women were distinguished from each other by dress; they were also distinguished by hair and headgear. Customs and rituals involving hair portray a system of social position. A young girl wore her hair either loose or in one braid on the back of her head. The single braid may have been adorned