Ethnology 

The article is dedicated to a study of some components of a wedding ceremony of the Komi-Permyaks. Several problems are solved in this research. First, wedding terms which refer to wedding acts and rituals are divided into groups. Secondly, wedding traditions of the Komi-Permyaks and Russians are compared. Completion of these tasks allows us to identify analogies with the Russian local customs and ethnic specificity of the wedding ritual culture of the Komi-Permyaks. Most of the terms describing wedding acts and rituals of the Komi-Permyaks are borrowed Russian words. In addition, there are designations in the Komi-Permyak language, some of which appeared due to the influence of the Russian language, other terms can be considered as a result of the development of their own language as a part of ritual culture. The system of wedding terminology of the Komi-Permyaks is quite complicated, because it combines vocabularies of different languages and different local versions of the terms for the same ritual. The article analyzes in more detail the wedding rituals and acts which have an ambiguous meaning or, according to their names, suggest an ethnic specificity. Content analysis of the customs shows that the most important moment — action or its symbolic importance — is reflected in the name of a ritual. Perhaps, existence of different names of the same ritual is a result of changes in the wedding ceremony on different territories among local groups of the Komi-Permyaks. Comparative analysis of the Komi-Permyak and Russian wedding traditions indicates that more similarities are observed with those Russians who lives in Kama region and in the European North. A part of the wedding rituals and acts discussed in the article can be considered unique Komi-Permyak traditions, as they have no analogies found among the Russian customs. Among them are acts like eating dumplings at the bachelorette party, treating to people who were not invited to the wedding (kudpydes), a custom when a mother-in-law gives her daughter-in-law a handkerchief, and puts it on her shoulders or on newlyweds’ shoulders.

Kеy words: wedding ceremony, Komi-Permyaks, wedding terminology, engagement, dumplings, bathing of the bride.

DOI: 10.20874/2071-0437-2017-38-3-111-119

02.10.2017

T.G. Goleva

Perm Federal Research Centre of Ural Branch RAS, Lenin st., 13a, Perm, 614990, Russian Federation

E-mail: [email protected]