ЖЕРТВОПРИНОШЕНИЕТО НА АНТРОПОМОРФНИ ФИГУРИ В СЕЗОННИТЕ РИТУАЛИ НА ЕВРОПЕЙСКИТЕ НАРОДИ
SACRIFICE OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC OBJECTS IN THE SEASONAL RITUALS OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES

Summary/Abstract: The article makes a comparative study of the sacrifice of anthropomorphic objects in the seasonal rituals, which is an example of cultural identity of the European peoples. The analysis is based on empirical data mainly from the period from the middle of XIX c. to nowadays. Here are revealed the kinds of sacrifice, the basic notions, connected with sacrificial messages, the time and space of sacrificial acts, the subject and the symbolic dimensions of explored objects, the motivation and the contents of the ritual practice itself. Special attention is paid to the logic of reiteration, whose unity with the logics of replacement enables the reproduction of the ritual practice, and at the same time it reactualises the architypic model and the human sacrifice. In this connection it is specified that the sacrifice of anthropomorphic attributes and the symbolic destruction of dublicating their characters are not only a transformation of human sacrifice, but its repetition as well. The choice of the kind of agent/ sacrifice has a psychological motivation and its replacement or duplication is made on the principle of similarity. In the end a conclusion is drawn, that in the evolution process, or from the point of view of social development, the sacrifice of anthropological objects is introduced and infirred in the ritual practice by the concept of man as of highest measure for ritual exchange of values. This concept places man on the highest point of the assessment hierarchy of sacrificed valuables.

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