Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Researches and Development, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russian Federation, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Introduction: the article provides an analysis of one of the aspects of the Mansi family ritual – the rites of transition in relation to the infancy of a child. The sequence of its individual stages (separation, intermediate, inclusion) designed into a system of obligatory rituals, has been built. A child in this sequence is seen as not yet belonging to the human world, which requires performing certain necessary magical actions. Attention is focused on the symbolic meaning of the temporary container of a child (āpа ‘cradle’), as well as on the protective markers accompanying the stages of the named transitions.
Objective: to identify the rites of transition of a child’s infancy in the aspect of the concept of rites of transition by A. van Gennep; to reveal their symbolic nature.
Research materials: published sources on ethnography and folklore of the Mansi people; data on linguistics; oral reports of informants; field observations of the author.
Results and novelty of the research: the materials of the author’s personal observations, reflecting the peculiarities of the cultural and linguistic representation of the early period of a child’s life, are introduced into scientific circulation. For the first time, attention is focused on the symbolic design, arrangement of children’s cradles (ľūľ sān ‘bad chuman’, sanhōs ‘elongated birch chuman’, īti āpa ‘night cradle’, hōtal āpa ‘day cradle’) and related representations (sacredness, otherness, invisibility, reincarnation), ceremonials (of birth, transition), rituals (cutting off the umbilical cord, “burying” the navel and
afterbirth, cleansing, moving to a house), marking the transitional stages of an infant’s life. The variety of signs used in relation to a cradle and a child in it is revealed.
Key words: Mansi people, āpa ‘cradle’, rites of transition, reincarnation, magic rites, a maternity house, a living house, Arnold van Gennep
For citation: Popova S. A. Markers of the rites of transition of a child’s “cradle” period (on the example of the Northern Mansi group) // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2024; 14 (2/57): 348–359.