Обещаният дар (функции на дарообмена в традиционната сватба)
The Promised Gift (Functions of the Exchange of Gifts in the Traditional Wedding)

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt at a functional and semantic characterisation of the set of rituals of “minting a gift” in the traditional Bulgarian wedding. The ritual is widespread in several variants throughout the entire Bulgarian ethnic territory, and is mostly performed as an element of the extended ritual actions in the introduction of the bride into the bridegroom’s home. On a semantic plane, the actions performed carry the meaning of an act of production and aim at stimulating the ultimate result of the appearance of the bride into the new house, i.e. fertilisation and inception. The main participants in the ritual – close relatives on the side of the husband, the marriage-maker who declares the promised gifts and the newlyweds - have been considered in view of their role in the act of presentation of the gift, which is also generally correlated to their status in the social hierarchy. The same results of gift making, going beyond the logic of the rule “do ut des”, boil down to the ritual transfer of property, chattel and fertility to the home of its new representatives – the newlyweds. On that ritual basis, by way of the specificity of the gift – a symbol of common life in wedlock and the way, whereby it is received – the social relationships are realised, and the functional and status differentiation in the community reinforced.

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