ЙЕНЯ - БЕЛЕГ ЗА СОБСТВЕНОСТ ИЛИ САКРАЛЕН ЗНАК?
"YENIA" - A MARK OF PROPERTY OR A SACRAL SIGN?

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes an ethnological analysis of an ancient in traditional sheep-breeding - the marking of lambs. Its ritual dimensions are revealed on a typological level, and in the context of Bulgarian cultural-historical system as well. The marking, being a phenomenon with universal cultural characteristics, is studied here in connection with the early history of humankind, and as a social strategy of existence in the Universe through mastering of natural variety and uniqueness, and putting them in human dimensions. The concrete data prove, that the peculiarities of the development to different ethnic cultures add new meanings, but do not change their basic sense. The marking of lambs in the context of Bulgarian folk culture is analyzed in connection with the actual historical world model and both forms of existence of the traditional society - the profane and the sacral ones. The ritual has the significance of the traditional society - the profane and the sacral ones. The ritual has the significance of Creation, in which the community is the medium and the Creator in the same time. In this sense "yenia" - the mark on the ear of the animal, is the sacred sign of structural principles and forms of existence in the human world. Its sacral functions are in a close relation with the profane ones, with the ways of rationalizing the attitudes of property. They point the place and the concrete destination of the Divine within the boundaries of the human world.

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