“Masking”. A Change of the Mythical Status in the Transition from One Cosmic Time and Space Into Another Cover Image

„Маскирането“: смяна на митичния статус при преминаване от едно космическо време-пространство в друго
“Masking”. A Change of the Mythical Status in the Transition from One Cosmic Time and Space Into Another

Author(s): Ganka Mihailova
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН

Summary/Abstract: The rituals involving masked personages in Bulgarian folk traditions are some of the most spectacular and attractive ones, being at the same time the most enigmatic for science. For more than a century they have not disappeared from the pages of the scholarly press, provoking discussions between archaeologists (and more specifically, Thracian scholars), ethnologists and folklorists on the problems of their ethno-genesis, meaning and functions. The discussions have produced certain results, but have not succeeded to answer the key question: why masked rituals are performed and what had been the mythical prerequisites, which had originally brought about their emergence. The author gives her answer.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 22-45
  • Page Count: 24
  • Language: Bulgarian