The Cow in the Traditional Spiritual Culture of the Brest Polesie Region (1) Cover Image

Корова в традиционной духовной культуре Брестского Полесья (1)
The Cow in the Traditional Spiritual Culture of the Brest Polesie Region (1)

Author(s): Inna Shved
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: cow; bull; ox; symbolism; traditional culture; folklore of Brest Polesie

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses peasants’ attitude to cows, the foundations and mechanisms of this attitude’s semiotization, and the mythological and poetic interpretations of the images of the cow (and of the calf) in various types and genres of Belarusian traditional spiritual culture. Inna Shved examines folkloric and ethnographic material recorded in the Brest Polesie region in the period 1990–2018. She identifies and describes the “cow-bull code”, which covers a wide range of phenomena in the spiritual and material culture of peasants and relates to objects of peasant life. Deriving its origin from mythology, this code is reflected in ritual terminology and in folklore texts used in rituals and otherwise.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 7
  • Page Range: 1-27
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: Russian