Ways of Genesis for an Individual's Ontological Status in an Archaic Culture (on Ukrainian Folklore Materials)

Abstract

The problems of philosophical comprehension of the spiritual aspect of the culture of this ethnic group at the archaic stage of its development are among the least studied. The article examines the important and practically untouched issue in our literature of identifying the stages of the genesis of the collective self-consciousness of the ancestors of Ukrainians through their understanding of their ontological status. Cognition of this aspect of the spiritual world of ancestors is carried out through the analysis of the most archaic genres in our folklore—spells and ritual actions. The logical stages of a person's understanding of their place and purpose in the world are distinguished through the analysis of their awareness of relations with the highest spiritual forces. In the context of the pagan worldview, the earliest form of self-awareness of an individual through their relationship with the highest spiritual beings was the position of subjection, worship to these beings, as evidenced by the texts of spells that have reached our time and fragments of rituals. By dominating over nature and mastering social relations, a person begins to realise themselves as a being stronger than evil spiritual forces, and in healing magic (in the texts of spells) appear motives of threats to evil spirits, orders to them, and this is a manifestation of a new stage of awareness by a person about their ontological status. In the process of the cultural-historical transition of the ancestors of Ukrainians from paganism to Christianity, there can be distinguished several stages of awareness of changes in the ontological status of the individual. Christianity in the spiritual world of the individual initially appears only as an external surround of the pagan worldview paradigm – Christian characters appear in the form of altered pagan spirits and gods, while the ontological status of a person remains unchanged. At the next stage, Christianity absorbs pagan plots and characters, filling them with Christian values. Later in the spells, the subject weakens his participation in the fight against evil forces, giving this role to the Christian characters. The genesis of the ontological status here is contradictory: a person feels under the care of powerful Christian forces, which strengthens the processes of historical self-affirmation, and at the same time is completely dependent on these forces, weakening the feeling of being an autonomous being.