Ритуально-магический аспект верований и обрядов племен Западной Африки в работах Юрия Шумовского
Ritual-Magic Aspect of Beliefs and Rituals of West Africa Tribes in Yuri Shumovsky’s works

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the materials of the personal archive of the outstanding researcher of West Africa, archaeologist and ethnographer Y. Shumovsky, a Ukrainian by origin. The materials were transferred by Yu. Shumovsky to Ukraine in 1995 and are stored in the funds of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve of the city Dubno. The archive contains materials related to the religious beliefs and rituals of the tribes of West Africa (especially the peoples of Dahomey, Benin, Mali, Nigeria and Guinea), in particular, about: magic in general and the institution of magicians, maternity rituals (the first minutes of a child’s life; the umbilical cord; gifts for a woman in labor and the newborn baby; the tradition of the first exit of a woman from the house after childbirth, etc.) funeral rituals (the diggers; the meal and the mourning for the dead); the cult of plants (trees “susu”, “sere” and “baobab”; the flower “kolu kolu”), the fruits and animals (primarily snakes – “davun” and “nazha”), the elements (rituals associated with the spirits of water), the beliefs in the afterlife of the soul and the afterlife, the rite of circumcision for men and women. The reviewed archival materials are of significant interest both for the study of the scientific activity of Yu. Shumovsky and for the ethnography of West Africa.

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