Obsceniškumo raiška lyčių kilmȩ aiškinančiose sakmėse

Abstract

The article analyses Lithuanian aetiological tales, which explain the origin of different genders. The main aim of the study is to analyse the tales that explain the origin of male and female external genital organs, focusing on how obscenity is expressed in these stories. The main research question is whether obscene motifs are used to explain the origin of the genital organs or whether overt vulgarity is avoided. It also attempts to establish the purpose of such stories and whether their truthfulness was believed. The research uses analytical descriptive, comparative and interpretive methods, and Lithuanian tales are compared with similar variants from other countries. The analysis of the tales explaining the origins of men and women revealed that the genitals in the Lithuanian versions of the tales are not associated with a reproductive function but are only a kind of body accessory. The tales mention that humans were able to reproduce successfully even before the creation of the sex organs. The obscenity in the tales about the origin of the sexes is only implicit and conditional. In the variants analysed, there is not a single word that is classified as a swear word, and there are almost no euphemistic names for the genital organs either. The explanation of the origin of the male sex is based on the comparison of similar objects (a banana, a twig, a ball of clay, a long thread with a skewer in the crotch), while the origin of the female sex is motivated by destruction (the crotch has ruptured or been punctured) or by lack (the thread for the belly has been missing). In those tales, in which the origin of women is linked to the activity of a mythical being – God or the devil –, the attitude towards women is usually mocking and belittling.