E-mail: n.v.drannikova@gmail.com
6/1a, Gagarinskaya str., St. Petersburg, 191187, Russian Federation
DSc in Philology, Professor, Associated Researcher, the European University in St. Petersburg
This article explores the folklore of fishermen along the Winter Coast of the White Sea. It focuses on prescriptions, a small oral folklore genre that regulates the professional sphere of life of the local population. The article examines three groups of prescriptions: instructions, prohibitions, omens and beliefs. These shape the behavior of White Sea coast residents who are engaged in marine trades (harvesting marine mammals and fish) and affect both commercial fishermen and the villagers who remain on land. Fishing prescriptions verbally express behavioral norms and occupy an important place in commercial culture. They are performative texts, usually with a two-part structure. The research is based on materials from student folklore and anthropology expeditions from Northern Arctic Federal University to the Mezen and Primorskii districts of the Arkhangelsk region as well as on the notes of folklorist and ethnographer R.S. Lipets, made in the 1930s in the same region.
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