https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6060-3562
E-mail: kyldysin@yandex.ru
Tel.: +7 (3412) 68-16-10
1, bld. 2, Universitetskaya str., Izhevsk, 426034, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Udmurt Literature and Literature of the Peoples of Russia, Udmurt State University; 42, Vanemuise str., Tartu, 51003, Estonia; Senior Researcher, Folklore Department, Estonian Literary Museum
Galina A. Glukhova
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5885-2693
E-mail: galant@udm.ru
Tel.: +7 (3412) 68-16-10
1, bld. 2, Universitetskaya str., Izhevsk, 426034, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Udmurt Literature and Literature of the Peoples of Russia, Udmurt State University
We express the gratitude to Anna Timirzyanovna Baidullina, Yana Leonidovna Zaitseva and Tatyana Arkadyevna Khokhryakova for their assistance in collecting material, as well as Tatyana Grigorievna Vladykina for valuable comments in the preparation of this article.
This study addresses one of the least explored topics in Udmurt ethnography and folklore — motifs of sexuality and eroticism in the traditional culture of the Udmurts. Despite the taboo nature of this sphere and its marginal status in everyday communication, erotic and sexual symbolism occupies a significant place in the system of calendar and family rituals. In calendar (gondyr ektyton, oshorok, sizyl pӧrtmaskon) and family (nuny syuan, syuan-bӧrys) rituals, motifs of sexuality are manifested in songs, ritual actions, and material symbols that perform the functions of agrarian, productive, and reproductive magic. The study demonstrates that ritual eroticism among the Udmurts encompasses a wide range of forms — from explicitly vulgar expressions to metaphors and subtle euphemisms. Its carnivalesque nature is reflected in the temporary suspension of social and verbal taboos, turning such rituals into spaces of symbolic freedom and renewal. Attention is paid to the mechanisms of ritual inversion, ritual gender change, and the symbolic reenactment of conception, which function as means of magical influence on the fertility of both nature and human beings. The source base of the research consists of field materials as well as published folkloric and ethnographic texts. The article represents the first comprehensive analysis of this topic based on Udmurt material and reveals its ethnocultural specificity.
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