Once again about archaic in the Góral traditional culture

Abstract

Górals are a separate ethnocultural group living in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians on the borderlands of Poland and Slovakia (Silesia, Orava, Podhale, Spiš, etc.). In the ethnogenesis of this group, not only Slavic tribes and peoples took part, but also Hungarians, Germans, Aromanians, Turks, etc., which enriched the Góral traditional culture with other ethnic elements. Both Slavic and non-Slavic elements of spiritual culture retain their antiquity, that is, the archaic features of the traditional culture of the Górals include the cultural archaisms of the peoples inhabiting this region. In various spheres of the spiritual culture of this mountainous region, many archaic elements of the common Slavic era have been preserved, which are also known in different parts of the Slavic world. In funeral rituals, these are, for example, relics of “white mourning”, the custom of lightly hitting the coffin on the threshold when taking it out of the house, a wedding-funeral, prohibitions on a number of works on memorial days so as not to “clog the eyes” of the souls of the dead, etc. In the field of traditional medicine, such common Slavic practices are methods of treating the evil eye and sorcery (extinguishing coals), the magic of ensuring the life and health of a newborn (passing a baptized child through a window, treating “sukhotka” (consumption) by dragging through a kalatch), methods of treating fever (leaving things on the road), the belief that moonlight can cause illness in a child, etc. In folklore, such archaic (at least Balto-Slavic) motives are the transfer of objects from one mountain to another by giants and the motive of the troops sleeping in a mountain. This motive is Celtic in origin (at least in Europe), however, it has deep Indo-European origins.

For citation
Valentsova M. M. Once again about archaic in the Góral traditional culture // Slavic Almanac. 2020. Issues 3–4. P. 245–269. DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2020.3-4.3.02