Back to the journal

The motif of “composition” in healing and ritual texts: the history of images and mythological semantics

Read the articleRead the articleDownload the article
The authors of the publication:
Temchenko Andriy
p.:
42-53
UDC:
398.3(=161.2):81’373.612
Bibliographic description:
Temchenko, A. (2018) The motif of “composition” in healing and ritual texts: the history of images and mythological semantics. Materials to Ukrainian Ethnology, 17 (20), 42–53.

Author

Temchenko Andriy

candidate of historical sciences, associate professor of the Department of History of Ukraine at Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Cherkasy National University.

 

The motif of “composition” in healing and ritual texts: the history of images and mythological semantics

 

Abstract

Introduction. Interdisciplinary research that helps to reveal the little-known facts of the past is a crucial task of the modern humanities.

Purpose. The leading motif of certain healing texts is the verbal ‘division’ and further “composition” of the ill body, which implies its reproduction in a new hypostasis. Similar points can be seen in the archaic religious texts of the Indo-Europeans, as well as archaeological finds of the Bronze Age, when the ideological basis of the farmers mythology has been formed.

Results. The rudiments of the cosmogonic beliefs of the Indo-Europeans are preserved in the healing texts of Ukrainians. Certain elements of the heavenly / earth landscape are compared to the parts of the human body. Comparison of mythological texts with archaeological material helps to understand the ‘logic’ of ritual body division during burial ceremonies or sacrifices. In this way there is a ‘new’ birth of the deceased in the other world, the sacrifice of a living per- son can ensure overall stability and natural balance. The divided body can also belong not to a sacrifice, but serve as a marker of a ‘stranger’ ancestor or ‘living’ deceased, who can do harm after death. This is explained by the fact that in a structured and well-organized agricultural culture, the well-laid body of the deceased actually duplicates the location of the sleeper, who can be awakened, and the deliberate violation of the anatomical proportions of the “dead” makes it impossible for him to “resurrect”.

Unlike apotropic rites, in healing texts there is a verbal ‘composition’ of the unbalanced ill body, which is carried out in a corresponding tone and sequence. Fixing of bodily integrity is confirmed by a comparison with the landscape elements (mountains, rivers, ground), which guarantee the inevitability of a positive result of treatment. Instead, the deliberate destruction of the bodily proportion with the chaotic arrangement of its elements is used by the rite for destruction of chthonic creatures, which explains certain calendar rituals or actions of apotropic character.

The “right-wrong” situation is a part of the overall binarity “space-chaos” / “life-death” and serves as a key to comprehension of the semantics of human sacrifices, when the victim’s body is divided into three parts. The proportional separation of the head, body and hands performs a function similar to correct composition in the healing texts and duplicates the plots of etiological myths aimed at recreation of the cosmic order.

 

Keywords

myth, sacrifice, body, healing ritual, Indo-Europeans, ancestor.

 

References

  1. BELOVA, Olga. Giant. In: Svetlana TOLSTAYA, ed-in-chief, Slavonic Antiquities: An EthnoLinguistic Dictionary: in Five Volumes. Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow: International Relations, 1995, vol. 1: А (Август) — Г (Гусь), pp. 301–302 [in Russian].
  2. BELOVA, Olga, Svetlana TOLSTAYA. Bones. In: Svetlana TOLSTAYA, ed-in-chief, Slavonic Antiquities: An Ethno-Linguistic Dictionary: in Five Volumes. Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow: International Relations, 1999, vol. 2: Д (Давать) — К (Крош- ки), pp. 631–633 [in Russian].
  3. BONGARD-LEVIN, Grigoriy. Ancient Indian Civilization. Philosophy, Science, Religion. Moscow: Science, 1980, 333 pp. [in Russian].
  4. BULASHEV, Heorhiy. The Ukrainian People in Their Legends, Religious Views and Beliefs: Ukrainian Cosmogonic Folk Views and Beliefs. Kyiv: Trust, 1992, 414 pp. [in Ukrainian].
  5. BUTKEVICH, Timofey. On the Meaning and Significance of Bloody Sacrifices in the Pre-Christian World, and On the So-Called Ritual Murders. In: V. BOYKOV, compiler and annotator, Blood in Beliefs and Superstitions of Mankind. Saint Petersburg: Sophia, 1995, pp. 231–368 [in Russian].
  6. VELETSKAYA, Natalya. Pagan Symbolism of Slavonic Archaic Rituals. Moscow: Science, 1978, 240 pp. [in Russian].
  7. VYSHNEVSKYI, Dmytro. A Child not of Human Likeness, but of Demonic One. In: Yevhen KYVLYTSKYI, ed., The Kyivan Past, 1896 (Yr. 15), vol. LIII, May, Documents, News, and Notes: pp. 39–40 [in Russian].
  8. GALKOVSKIY, Nikolay. The Struggle of Christianity with the Remnants of Paganism in Ancient Rus: in Two Volumes. Moscow: Indrik, 2000, vol. 1, 376 pp. [in Russian].
  9. HERODOTUS. The Histories in Nine Books. Translated from the Ancient Greek, prefaced and annotated by Andriy BILETSKYI. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1993, 575 pp. [in Ukrainian].
  10. DANYLENKO, Valentyn. The Aeneolithic Period of Ukraine. An Ethno-Historical Study. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1974, 175 pp. [in Russian].
  11. YAKYMOVYCH, Serhiy. Yakiv Demchenko’s Ethnographic Records 1857–1858. In: Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi, ed.-in-chief, Ukraine: A Scientific Journal on Ukrainian Studies. Historical Section of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Kyiv: State Publishing House of Ukraine, 1930, bk. 1, pp. 89–129 [in Ukrainian].
  12. ZHARNIKOVA, Svetlana. The Origin of Indo-Europeans. Part 5: Archaic Images of Russian North Folklore [online]. Available from: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=ETOzCAAAQBAJ [in Russian].
  13. ZHUYKOVA, Marharyta. The Origin of the Expression Good Riddance! and Slav Folk Beliefs about Two Ways of Dying. In: Albert BAIBURIN, general editor, Forum for Anthropology and Culture. Readings in Honour of D. K. Zelenin. Saint Petersburg, 2004, no. 1, pp. 267–276 [in Russian].
  14. KULISH, Panteleymon, compiler and publisher. Notes on Southern Rus. Reprint. Kyiv: Dnipro, 1994, 719 pp. [in Russian].
  15. KOSTOMAROV, Mykola. Slavonic Mythology: Historical Monographs and Studies. Mos- cow: Charlie, 1995, 688 pp. [in Russian].
  16. KOSTIUK, Iryna. Culture of the 21st century in the Captivity of Mythologies: Causes and Prospects. In: Volodymyr ODREKHIVSKYI, ed.-in-chief, Bulletin of the Lviv National Academy of Arts. Series: Culturology. Lviv, 2016, iss. 29, pp. 37–46 [in Ukrainian].
  17. BOBRINSKIY, Aleksey. Mounds and Random Archeological Finds near the Town of Smela: in Three Volumes. Vol. 2: Count Aleksey Bobrinskiy’s Diary of Excavations in 1887–1889. St.-Petersburg: V.S. Balashev and Co Printing House, 1894, vol. 2, 224 pp. [in Russian].
  18. KUSHTAN, Dmytro. A Report on Archaeological Explorations in Cherkasy  Region  for 1999. In: Scientific Archives of the Cherkasy Archaeological  Inspection. Cherkasy, 2000, 1999/63 [in Ukrainian].
  19. LYSENKO, Serhiy. Burial by Demembration of the Late Bronze Age in the Middle Over Dnieper Lands. In: Viktor KOTSUR, ed.-in-chief, Scientific Notes on Ukrainian History: Collected Scientific Papers. Hryhoriy Skovoroda Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical University. Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi: Aston, 2003, iss. 14, pp. 53–62 [in Ukrainian].
  20. LYSENKO, Serhiy. Results of Studies on Monuments of the Bronze Age near the Villages of Malopolovetskoye and Yakhny in 1992–1998 and the Periodization of the Middle-Late Bronze Age in Fastiv District. In: Archaeological Sites of Fastiv District: Problems of Research and Protection: A Scientific and Information Bulletin, no. 10–11, 1998, Fastiv, 2001, pp. 30–38 [in Russian].
  21. MARTYNOV, Anatoliy. Portraiture of a man from the Shestakovo Burial Ground. In: Artemiy ARTIKHOVSKIY, ed.-in-chief, Soviet Archeology. Moscow: Science, 1974, 4, 231–242 [in Russian].
  22. MEDVEDEVA, Alla. Ethnic Stereotypes in Modern Conditions: Theoretical Approaches and Studies at the Empirical Level. In: Viktoriya KHARSEEVA, ed.-in-chief, Theory and Practice of Social Development. Krasnodar: Hors Publishing House, 2014, 8, 43–48 [in Russian].
  23. Hilarion Metropolitan. Pre-Christian Beliefs of the Ukrainian People. Kyiv: Oberih, 1991, 424 pp. [in Ukrainian].
  24. NERSESOV, Yakov. The Indians of North America [online]. Available from: http://relig.info/article/indeitsy-severnoi-ameriki [in Russian].
  25. Nymphodor of Syracuse. Barbarian laws. In: Archeology and Ethnography of the Caucasus [online]. Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20070527014431/http://kolhida.ru/indexphp3?path=_sourcer&source=nimfodor [in Russian].
  26. PERETTS, Volodymyr. Some Ethnographic Data from Old Manuscripts. In: Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi, ed.-in-chief, Ukraine: A Scientific Monthly on Ukrainian Studies. Ukrainian Scientific in Kyiv. Kyiv: Printing House of the Second Union of Printers, 1914, bk. 1, pp. 86–91 [in Ukrainian].
  27. PYSARENKO, Yuriy. The Death of Sviatohor: An Echo of the Prehistory of Mankind in Epics (1). In: Valeriy SMOLIY, ed.-in-chief, Ukrainian Historical Journal. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1999, 1, 132–143 [in Ukrainian].
  28. PLOTNIKOVA, Anna. Cemetery. In: Svetlana TOLSTAYA, ed-in-chief, Slavonic Antiquities: An Ethno-Linguistic Dictionary: in Five Volumes. Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow: International Relations, 1999, vol. 2: Д (Давать) — К (Крошки), pp. 503–507 [in Russian].
  29. POZNANSKIY, Nikolay. Incantations. An Attempt of Studying the Origin and Development of Incantatory Formulae. Moscow: Indrik, 1995, 352 pp. (reprint of the 1917 edition) [in Russian].
  30. AGAPKINA, Tatiana, Elena LEVKIEVSKAYA and Andrey TOPORKOV (compilers, text-preparers, annotators). Polissia Incantations (Recorded through the 1970s–1990s). Moscow: Indrik, 2003, 752 pp. [in Russian].
  31. POMERANTSEVA, Erna. Role of Speech in the Ploughing Ritual. In: Vera SOKOLOVA, ed.-in-chief, Rites and Ritual Folklore. Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnography, USSR Academy of Sciences. Moscow: Science, 1982, pp. 25–36 [in Russian].
  32. PROPP, Vladimir. Historical Roots of Fairy Tales. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg Uni- versity Publishers, 1996, 366 pp. [in Russian].
  33. Johann Schiltberger’s Journey across Europe, Asia, and Africa, in 1394 to 1427. In: Aleksey PAVLOV, ed., Proceedings of the Imperial Novorossiysk University. Odesa: L.  Nitsche  Publishing House, 1867, vol. 1 [online]. Available from: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus3/Schiltberger_3/frametext2.htm [in Russian].
  34. NOVYTSKYI, Yakiv, Petro YEFYMENKO and Vasyl MYLORADOVYCH (collectors). Recipes of Folk Medicine, Incantations against Diseases. In: Olena TALANCHUK (compiler). The Ukrainian Magic. Kyiv: Lybid, 1992, pp. 32–95 [in Ukrainian].
  35. RYBAKOV, Boris. The Paganism of Ancient Rus. Moscow: Science, 1988, 784 pp. [in Russian].
  36. SINIUK, Arsen. Burial Mounds of the Bronze Age of the Middle Don (Pavlovsk Burial Ground). Voronezh: Voronezh University Press, 1983, 192 pp. [in Russian].
  37. TOLSTAYA, Svetlana. Funeral Repast. In: Svetlana TOLSTAYA, ed-in-chief, Slavonic Antiquities: An Ethno-Linguistic Dictionary: in Five Volumes. Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow: International Relations, 2009, vol. 4: П (Переправа через воду) — С (Сито), pp. 162–169 [in Russian].
  38. TOPOROV, Volodymyr. Indo-European Ritual Term souh1 -etro- (-etlo-, -edhlo-). In: Viacheslav IVANOV, ed.-in-chief, Balto-Slavonic Studies. 1984. (Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies, USSR Academy of Sciences). Moscow: Science, 1986, pp. 80–89 [in Russian].
  39. TOPOROV, Volodymyr. On the Issue of Reconstructing an Indo-European Ritual and Ritual-Poetic Formulae (Based on Studying Incantations). On the Centenary of Death of August Schleicher. In: Yuri LOTMAN, ed.-in-chief, Sign Systems Studies, IV. Tartu: Tartu State University, 1969, pp. 9–43 [in Russian].
  40. TOPOROV, Volodymyr. On the Structure of Some Archaic Texts Correlated with the Concept of the World Tree. In: Yuri LOTMAN, ed.-in-chief, Sign Systems Studies, V. Tartu: Tartu State University, 1971, pp. 9–62 [in Russian].
  41. NOMYS, Matviy (collector). Ukrainian Proverbs, Sayings and so on. Collections of Opanas Markovych and Others. Compiled, annotated and prefaced by Mykhaylo PAZIAK. Kyiv: Lybid, 1993, 766 pp. [in Ukrainian].
  42. VASMER, Max. The Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language: in Four Volumes. Translated from the German and supplemented by Oleg TRUBACHIOV. Edited and prefaced by Boris LARIN. 2nd edition. Moscow: Progress, 1987, vol. 4 (Т – Ящур), 864 pp. [in Russian].
  43. ZEHREN, Erich. The Hanged God. Towards the Archeology of Culture. Translated from the German by B. KALLISTOV. Moscow: Science, 1976, 381 pp. [in Russian].
  44. TSIVIAN, Tatiana. Mythological Programming of Everyday Life. In: Albert BAIBURIN, ed.-in-chief, Ethnic Stereotypes of Behavior. Collected Articles. Leningrad: Science, 1985, pp. 154– 178 [in Russian].
  45. TSIVIAN, Tatiana. The Male / Female Opposition and Its Classifying Role in a Model of the World. In: Albert BAIBURIN, Igor KON, eds.-in-chief, Ethnic Stereotypes of Male and Female Behavior. Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnography, USSR Academy of Sciences. Saint Petersburg: Science, 1991, pp. 77–91 [in Russian].
  46. CHUBYNSKYI, Pavlo. Wisdom of the Ages.The Ukrainian Ethnography in Pavlo Chubynskyi’s Creative Heritage: in Two Books. Kyiv: Art, 1995, bk. 1, 224 pp. [in Ukrainian].
  47. STRACK, Hermann Leberecht. Blood in Beliefs and Superstitions of Mankind. Folk Medicine and the Issue of Blood in the Jewish Ritual. In: V. BOYKOV, compiler and annotator, Blood in Beliefs and Superstitions of Mankind. Saint Petersburg: Sophia, 1995, pp. 5–228 [in Russian].
  48. KOVLEVA, Elena. Myth’s Playing Nature and Modern Culture. Kazan: Cognition, 2011, 168 pp. [in Russian].
© ІМФЕ