E-mail: boyko_yulia@mail.ru Tel.: + 7 (212) 24-50-88 26,
Kommunisticheskaya str., Syktyvkar, 167982, Russian Federation
PhD in History, Researcher, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Science
Primarily on the basis of field research, the author of this article traces the local peculiarities of the cycle of funeral and memorial rites of the Luzsko-Letskiy Komi who live in the basins of the Luza and Letka Rivers in the southwestern part of the Komi Republic (in the Priluzsky Region). Analysis of this ethnographic material shows that the most significant parts of these rites reflect archaic ideas about the continuation of the life of the deceased in the afterlife and are closely related to the cult of ancestors that persists in people’s consciousness. Luzskiy Komi funeral and memorial rites feature bidding farewell to the deceased on the fortieth day; putting feeders and bird houses next to the graves, as well as tables and benches. The rites of the Letskiy Komi, possibly because of their better preservation, display clearer characteristics that include such elements as giving relatives “gifts from the deceased”, feeding the cattle before bringing out the coffin, covering the coffin lid with a towel, and commemorating ancestors under a growing tree in the homestead. The ritual of “first meeting”, widespread through the present day, is not observed among other groups of Komi (Zyrian). The form of Letskiy Komi traditional wooden grave monuments, specific to them, consists in making them out of the trunk of a juniper tree. Such features as the method of making of coffins “on thorns” and the ritual dressing of the deceased in a shroud are probably connected to the influence of Old Believers.
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