UDC

Authors

Abstract

In recent decades, Russian scholars have been actively investigating folk Orthodoxy as an integrated religious, ritual and mythological system. This article aimed to describe and interpret magic texts and practices of A.A. Artemyeva – a “knowledgeable” belonging to the famous Sidorov family of narrators in Kenozero. An important place is given to the structural and functional analysis of the system of connections and relationships between the elements of canonical Orthodox theology and popular piety. The author studied field materials obtained during the expeditions to Kenozero (Plesetsk and Kargopol districts of the Arkhangelsk Region) in the summer of 1991. The methodology of the paper is based on the comparative historical method of studying popular religiousness, allowing us not only to identify historical strata of different times in its structure (dogmatic Church doctrine and magic experience), but also to determine their proportion and mechanisms of relationships between them. The author reveals that a ritual specialist’s Christian worldview is based on the canonical Bible and Apocrypha, which were popular among Old Believers. The pagan (non- or pre-Christian) components of the integrated religious system reflect the local mythological beliefs in Kenozero. The narratives under study, recorded from the “knowledgeable” and representing a contamination of archaic and Christian motifs and images, are unique in many respects. Having looked into the ritual specialist’s philosophy, the author came to the conclusion that its magic beliefs are combined with the Christian ones and often flow into each other. The “knowledgeable” herself believes that her magic practices, unlike the sinful work of wizards, are pleasing to God.

Keywords

References

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