Symbolic Ornamental Compositions on Houses in the Village Fedoseevo-Pustyn’ in the Shilovo District of the Ryazan’ Region

 

Aleksandr P. Gavrilov

Historical and Cultural Museum Complex of Shilovo

 

Full Text (pdf)

For citation: Gavrilov, Aleksandr P. Symbolic Ornamental Compositions on Houses in the Village Fedoseevo-Pustyn’ in the Shilovo District of the Ryazan’ Region // Graphosphaera. 2022. Vol. 2. № 2. P. 196–208. URL: http://writing.igh.ru/index.php?id=2022-2-2-196-208 

DOI: 10.32608/2782-5272-2022-2-2-196-208

Abstract: The paper brings into scholars’ attention the ornamental compositions preserved on four houses in the village Fedoseevo-Pustyn’ in the Shilovo District of the Ryazan Region, Russia. The structure and stylistics of these ornaments are analyzed. The stories of local informants allow us to interpret the function of these images: they were applied to protect houses from all kinds of real and imaginary disasters, i. e. they were literally apotropaic. This kind of apotropaic magic was practiced by special “masters”, who may be classified as “knowledgeable” people. The information has been obtained that such “masters” applied protective signs to houses in the 20th century. There is also an opportunity to connect the “deciphering” of the meaning of such apotropaic ornaments with the motifs and images of heroes of archaic small forms of oral tradition (know as Tales of Meshchera, Meshcherskie skazy) recorded by folklorists in the Ryazan Region. It can be argued that such a long preservation of the tradition of magic practices in this particular village was due to its history – it was founded in the 16th century and the life in it was never interrupted. This made it possible to transmit these practices as well as the accompanying notions of their necessity from generation to generation.

 

Key words: Ryazan’ land, small forms of folklore, contemporary epigraphy, ethnography of the Russian people, apotropaic magic, folk ornamentation, ethnography of dwellings

 

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Published on  December 12th, 2023