The article analyzes fragments of parish chronicles, which contain information about the religious practice of animal sacrifices. In Christianity, this ritual has no official confessional status and is excluded from religious rites. Analysis of publications shows that in studies, the sacrifice of animals is artificially separated from religious practice and interpreted as a relic of the ancient rite or system of representations not only in the Komi tradition, but among other Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples. Information about animal sacrifices is revealed in the historical parts of only three annals and in one modern part, where they are presented in close interweaving with the history of the local parish, the daily (economic) and festive life of the rural community. Analysis of fragments of chronicles allows us to conclude that the sacrifice of an animal is a vow, which, depending on the type – individual or public, as well as situations of origin, conditions and time of its development, at the time of fixation, can be presented as a patronal composition, a chapel, vow/cherished holiday, and a prayer service to the revered saint, procession, traversal of fields and pastures with prayers, each of which can meet separately and combine with the rest. As a result of the study, animal sacrifice is recognized as vernacular religious practice, formed in the Orthodox rural community of Komi on the basis of a system of traditional economy, popular worldview and Christian doctrine, which was relevant until the 1930s.
Key words: animal sacrifice, vernacular religious practice, vow, saint image, parish annals, Komi tradition
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2023_3_97
About the author
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Lyudmila S. Lobanova – Research Fellow at the Department of Folklore, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Federal Research Center “Komi Scientific Center, UB RAS”; 26 Kommunisticheskaya st., Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, 167982, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. |