Abstract
The article presents the latest field materials of the Toponymic expedition of the Ural University to the Kologrivsky district of the Kostroma region, collected in July-August 2024 and concerning the practices of using small stones or mineraloids such as belemnites and fulgurites (qualified by folk tradition as stones) for magical and folk medical purposes. In addition to the Toponymic Expedition’s card index, the material was also extracted from lexicographic and ethnographic sources describing Kostroma or other Russian traditional practices. The examined stones, which have a remarkable appearance (bizarre shapes, noticeable patterns, through holes, etc.), are called in this area urochlivye or urochnye kamni, “jinx stones”. The article offers a semantic analysis of this name, gives its linguistic and geographical characteristics, presents parallel names of similar stones existing in the same territory (these are uryadik, shulets-palets, urodlivyi kamen', chortov palets, names for stones with a through hole – glaz, kurinyi glaz, kurinyi kamen', kurii bog). The functions in which they are used are described: as a magical remedy for the treatment of severe crying in infants, as a talisman against the evil eye in older children and adults, as a remedy for diseases, as a talisman for poultry, which was hung in a chicken coop (“kurinyi bog”), finally, as an attribute of children’s games. The article touches upon the issues of the symbolism of these stones, their functioning in the local and all-Russian cultural context of the use or veneration of various kinds of stones, the natural reasons for the activity of this tradition in the Kostroma region.
Published Version
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