Gdzie koza chodzi, tam żyto rodzi. Płodnościowa funkcja kolędowania z maszkarą kozy
“Where the Goat Walks, Rye Grows”. The Fertility Function of Carol Singing with a Mascaron of a Goat

Summary/Abstract: The text is about one of the oldest Nativity and New Year rituals - carol singing, with the carollers carrying a mascaron of a goat. The author resorted to the methodological premises of the Moscow ethnolinguistic school and treats the goat mascaron as a “macro-sign”, whose contents are expressed by means of assorted symbols. A characteristic of particular codes (objective, actional, verbal, and temporal) made it possible to reconstruct the image of the mascaron and the symbolic meaning associated with it while paying particular attention to its fertility function. The article is based on nineteenth- and twentieth-century New Year’s Eve songs, records of beliefs, and descriptions of assorted practices as well as contemporary accounts. In order to present a more complete image Polish data were supplemented by material from other cultural regions. The text, preceded by a description of the state of research into images of the goat mascaron, also benefitted from the findings of the author’s predecessors, and assembled comments and conclusions scattered in numerous articles.

• Details
• Contents