DEFINITION OF UNIVERSAL RITUAL STRUCTURE ON THE EXAMPLE OF UKRAINIAN FAMILY RITUALS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.39.364988Abstract
The purpose of the article is an attempt to create a structure of an averaged and universal rite, which would be suitable, if not for all, then for the majority of ritual actions. Research Methodology. The method of structural and functional analysis has been used, which according to the authors, contains a significant potential for further research, in particular, of the Ukrainian folk rituals. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that after A. van Gennep, K. Levi-Stros, M. Eliade and their followers, no successful attempts to create an effective ritual structure have been made. Conclusions. Unlike dramatic action, for which all elements of the composition are important, ritual action is completely satisfied only with the climax. At the same time, for the ritual, it is the climax episode that is original and unique. All other episodes into which the ritual action is divided are auxiliary and they are combined into seven groups according to the nature of the action: 1) invitations (i), 2) visits (v) and returns (r), 3) creation of a ritual attribute (a), 4) agreements (ag), 5) veneration of sacred actions, elements, objects (s), 6) blessings and gifts (b), 7) feasts and festivities (f). Having examined in detail and compared nine family rituals from the wedding, funeral, and childbirth cycles, we obtained enough schemes to determine a universal ritual structure that would be acceptable for most traditional ritual actions: i+v+[s+а+ag+b+C(c)+f]+r
It should be noted that the ritual, at least a family one, always begins with invitations and the arrival of the participants to the place of its holding. It ends with the return to their own homes. The other six elements, such as honouring the sacred, creating a ritual attribute, agreements, blessings, feasting, and culmination, may change their order and location, but they are, in most cases, present in each specific ritual. If we apply the same procedure to other rituals that make up the three mentioned family cycles, we will obtain, if not the same, then very close results. And this once again proves the right to the existence of a universal ritual structure determined as a result of this study.
Key words: ritual, structure, structural and functional method, Ukrainian family rituals.
References
Chubynskij, P. P. (1877). Trudy etnohrafichesko-statisticheskoy ekspeditsiy v Zapadno-Russkyi krai, snariazhennoi Imperatorskim Russkim Geograficheskim Obshchestvom. Yugo-Zapadnyi otdel. Materialy i issledovanyia [Proceedings of the ethnographic and statistical expedition to the Western Russian region, equipped by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. South-Western department. Materials and studies]. (Vol. 4, ХХХ+715 p.). St. Petersburg. [in Russian].
Eliade, M. (1949). Le Mythe de l'éternel Retour. Archétypes et répétition. Collection “Les Essais”, XXXIV. Paris: Gallimard. [in French].
Eliade, M. (1958). Patterns in Comparative Religion. London: Sheed and Ward. [in English].
Eliade, M. (2001). Sviashchenne i myrske. Mify, snovydinnia i misterii. Mefistofel i androhin. Okultyzm, vorozhbytstvo ta kulturni upodobannia [Sacred and mundane. Myths, dreams and mysteries. Mephistopheles and Androgyne. Occultism, divination and cultural preferences]. Kyiv: Osnovy. [in Ukrainian].
Gennep, A. van. (1909). Les rites de passage. Etude systematique des rites. Paris : Librairie critique. Emile Nourry. [in French].
Guzhva, V. K. (2012). Uroki rezhyssury [Directing lessons]. Harkiv: Machulin. [in Russian].
Kukharenko, O., Diedkov, M., Vysheslavskyi, H., Mozulenko, D., Taran, V. (2024). History and Prospects of the Structural-Functional Method in Ethology: Implementation in Family Rituals, Street Art and Activities of Local Artistic Communities. Ad Alta. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 1, 101–106 [in English].
Kylymnyk, S. (1962). Ukrainskyi rik u narodnykh zvychaiakh v istorychnomu osvitlenni. T. 3. Vesnianyi tsykl [Ukrainian Year in Folk Customs in Historical Perspective. Vol. 3. Spring Cycle]. Winnipeg–Toronto. [in Ukrainian].
Levi-Stros, K. (1958). Anthropologie structurale. Paris: Plon. [in French].
Levi-Stros, K. (1962). Le Totemisme aujourdhu. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. [in French].
Maierchyk, M. S. (2011). Rytual i tilo. Strukturno-semantychnyi analiz ukrainskykh obriadiv rodynnoho tsyklu [Ritual and Body. Structural and Semantic Analysis of Ukrainian Rituals of the Family Cycle]. Kyiv: Krytyka. [in Ukrainian].
Movna, U. V. (2025). Beekeeper Vademecum of Father Myron Litynsky 1912 and Its Projection in Expeditionary Ethnographic Materials from the Yavoriv Nadsyannya of the Beginning of the 21st Century. Storinky istorii – History Pages, 61, 161–176. [in Ukrainian].
Movna, U. V. (2023). Med v rytualno‑mifolohichnii semiosferi ukraintsiv Karpat i Prykarpattia (na prykladi Sviatvechora yak proloha Rizdva) [Honey in the Ritual and Mythological Semiosphere of Ukrainians of the Carpathians and Precarpathian Region (Exemplified by Christmas Eve as the Prologue to Christmas)]. Slavia Orientalis (Warszawa), LXXII, 1, 29–42. DOI: 10.24425/slo.2023.145195 [in Ukrainian].
Serdiuk, I. (2021). Dytyna v ukrainskomu istorychnomu naratyvi XVIII st [Child in the Ukrainian Historical Narrative of the 18th Century]. Slavia Orientalis (Warszawa), LXIX, 1, 23–42. DOI: 10.24425/slo.2021.136999 [in Ukrainian].
Stanislavskij, K. S. (1951). Rabota aktera nad soboi [The Actor's Work on Himself]. Мoscow: Isskustvo. [in Russian].
Voropai, O. (1958). Zvychai nashoho narodu [Habits of Our People]. Vol. 1. Munich: Ukrainske vydavnyctvo. [in Ukrainian].
Yastremska, T. (2021). Semantychna opozytsiia “verkh/nyz” u dialektnii kartyni svitu ukraintsiv [Semantic Opposition “top/bottom” in the Ukrainian Dialectal Worldview]. Slavia Orientalis (Warszawa), LXX, 1, 187–211. DOI: 10.24425/slo.2021.137008 [in Ukrainian].
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
