E-mail: irusinova@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (342) 239-64-35
15, Bukirev str., Perm, 614990, Russian Federation
DSc in Philology, Professor, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Perm State University
The research was carried out with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation project No. 20-18-00269, “Mining and Early Plant Culture in the Language, Folk Writing and Folklore of the Urals,” at Perm State National Research University.
This article considers the ways salt is used in traditional rites and magic practices of the Russian population of the Perm region. It is based on data from folklore and ethnographic collections as well as from dialect and thematic dictionaries of the region in card indexes. The traditional culture of the Perm area manifests different ways to sacralize salt, including some that have not been mentioned in scholarly works. The article describes cases of applying salt for apotropaic rituals (first of all to protect people and livestock from the evil eye), for treating various diseases, in wedding and funeral rites, and in divination. Salt may be used both alone or accompanied by bread or in combination with other items (charcoal, ash, hops, garlic, etc.). It has been noted that in the calendar rituals of the Perm region salt is included in several practices of spring festivals (Maundy Thursday, the Annunciation, the first pasturing of cattle), although almost never in birth rites. The article also describes a way to recognize a demon-witch (ved’maveshchitsa) with salt that is specific to the Perm region. The article concludes that the symbolic understanding and use of salt in traditional culture is associated with its objective qualities (strong taste, preservative properties) and with its perception as one of the main products of the traditional table. The perception of salt and its use in traditional rites and magic practices of Russians of the Perm area have much in common with those of other Slavs as well as of other peoples; this indicates their antiquity and universality. The results of this study could contribute to dialect, thematic, and ethno-linguistic dictionaries.
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