По следите на "Жълтото момиче"
On the Track of the "Yellow Girl"

Summary/Abstract: The legend of a maiden with the byname "yellow" (Tur. Sarı Kız 'Yellow girl') is connected with two places in the eastern Rhodopes - the region of the town of Ardino and within the boundaries of Greece, between the towns of Gumurdzhina (today's Komotini) and Soflu (today's Sufli). The "Yellow girl" in the Rhodopes is a warrior hypostasis of an archetypal female image. Its sacred hypostasis is Sarı Kız from the legends and beliefs of the heterodox Muslims in Turkey. The demonic hypostasis is represented by female spirits, inhabiting forests or waters - "yellow maidens", albasti, pen, samodivi, etc. - in the traditions of Turkic, Balkan and Slavic peoples. The broad area of propagation of the byname Sarı Kız and of the notion, connected to it, suggests direct cultural contacts. The name and the image are transmitted with the movement of Turkic-speaking kinship groups in the Ottoman Empire and are re-interpreted in the process of interaction of cultural traditions. In the second half of the 20-th century the new means of information (press, media, etc) and the centralization of social and cultural life have brought about a new re-incarnation of the traditional image.

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