RU | EN
Submenu

Gromov D. Gravestones and Their Folklore Interpretations in the Eastern Moscow Region

D. Gromov
N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-0443-8718
E-mail: gromovdv@mail.ru

 

 Download  |  Go to Issue #4. 2023

 

ABSTRACT. The article deals with Russian grave-laying custom. In the European part of Russia there are at least five extensive areas of this ritual action: Kaluga, Ryazan, Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod and Don. In some areas, stones (large or small boulders) can be seen on almost all graves. There are cases of centuries-old existence and reproduction of this tradition. The article examines the existence of the tradition in the Eastern Moscow region. The author briefly describes the area and the features of its formation and then presents the results of a field study conducted on Easter days in 2022. The research methodology suggests quantitative structuring of folklore motifs. The author identifies two main mythological motifs associated with tombstones. The first is the idea of a grave as the deceased’s house, in those cases a stone is a mediator between the living and the dead. The second motif (less popular): a stone is placed to restrict the deceased in actions. Both motifs are quite archaic; perhaps their preservation is due to their attachment to stones as durable and long-lasting ritual objects. The folklore motifs identified in the Eastern Moscow region basically coincide with the motifs identified in four other areas. That indicates similar origin of the areas. This ethnographic study allows us to get closer to the answer to the questions: how the tradition of gravestones was formed, what the territories of “stone churchyards” mark.

 

KEYWORDS: gravestone, cemetery, funeral and memorial rites, Easter rites, Old Believers, Finno-Ugric peoples

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2023-4(22)-210-236
УДК 7.046.1(=161.1)

 

REFERENCES

  • Aleksandrova O. I., Lyapaeva O. N. [Stone on the grave in the funeral tradition of the Nizhny Novgorod region]. Russkaya tradicionnaya kul’tura segodnya: ekspedicionnye i arhivnye otkrytiya [Russian traditional culture today: expeditionary and archival discoveries]. Ulyanovsk: Federal’noye gosudarstvennoye byudzhetnoye obrazovatel’noye uchrezhdeniye vysshego obrazovaniya «UlSPU im. I. N. Ul’yanova» Publ., 2023. (In Russian).
  • Klyaus V. L., Chubukova D. G. [“Live” stones on Russian graves]. Zhivoj kamen’: ot prirody k kul’ture [Living stone: from nature to culture]. Ed. by L. O. Zaionts. Moscow: Institut mirovoy kul’tury MSU Publ., 2015, pp. 154–169. (In Russian).
  • Konkka A P. [Cemetery in Gridin as an outstanding object of sacred geography of the Karelian Pomerania]. Arheologiya russkoj smerti [Archeology of Russian death], 2016, vol. 3, pp. 67–79. (In Russian).
  • Kremleva I. A. [Funeral and memorial customs and rituals]. Russkij Sever: etnicheskaya istoriya i narodnaya kul’tura. 12–20 veka [Russian North: ethnic history and folk culture. 12–20 centuries]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2004, pp. 661–705. (In Russian).
  • Kutenkov P. I. [Ancient rite of the Ryazan land. Three circles of otherworldly sadness]. Rossijskij nauchnyj zhurnal [Russian scientific journal], 2013, no. 1 (32), pp. 76–80. (In Russian).
  • Listova T. A. [Some features of the funeral and memorial rite on the Russian-Ukrainian-Belarusian borderland]. Polevye issledovaniya instituta etnologii i antropologii Rossiyskoy akademii nauk. 2009–2010 [Field studies of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2009–2010]. Ed. by Z. P. Sokolova. Moscow: IEA RAS Publ., 2014, pp. 135–161. (In Russian).
  • Listova T. A. [Sacred decoration of graves among Russians (cross and stones) in the context of the mythology of the underworld]. Nekropoli Tsentral’noy Rossii [Necropolises of Central Russia]. Eds by D. V. Gromov, S. S. Mikhailov, M. A. Safarov. Moscow: IEA RAS Publ., 2022, pp. 17–60. (In Russian).
  • Mikhaylov S. S. [So what is considered Guslits?]. Guslitsy. Istoriko-krayevedcheskiy al’manakh [Goose. Historical and local history almanac]. Moskovskaya oblast’: Il’inskiy pogost Publ., 2004, vol. 1, pp. 7–20. (In Russian).
  • Mikhaylov S. S. [Funeral and memorial rites of the Old Believers of the Eastern Moscow region at the turn of the 1990s–2000s]. Lokal’nye etnokonfessional’nye gruppy v Tsentral’noy Rossii [Local ethno-confessional groups in Central Russia]. Eds by D. V. Gromov, S. S. Mikhaylov. Moscow: IEA RAS Publ., 2021, pp. 6–21. (In Russian).
  • Narody Povolzh’ya i Priural’ya. Komi-zyryane. Komi-permyaki. Mariytsy. Mordva. Udmurty [The peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. Komi-Zyrians. Komi-Permyaks. Mari. Mordva. Udmurts]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2000. (In Russian).
  • Orfinskiy V. P. [Necrocult buildings of the Russian North in the context of Christian-pagan syncretism]. Narodnoye zodchestvo [Folk architecture]. Petrozavodsk: Izdatel’stvo Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Publ., 1998, pp. 49–83. (In Russian).
  • Pimenov V. V. Udmurty. Opyt komponentnogo analiza etnosa [Udmurts. Experience of component analysis of ethnos]. Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1977. (In Russian).
  • Popova E. V. Kul’tovyye pamyatniki i sakral’nyye ob”yekty besermyan [Cult monuments and sacred objects of the Besermians]. Izhevsk: UIIYAL UrO RAS Publ., 2011. (In Russian).
  • Pribaltiysko-finskiye narody Rossii [Baltic-Finnish peoples of Russia]. Eds by E. I. Klement’yev, N. V. Shul’gina; Institut etnologii i antropologii. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2003. (In Russian).
  • Vlaskina T. Yu. [To the origins of modern trends in the development of folk funeral and memorial traditions on the Don]. Vtorichnyye formy traditsionnoy narodnoy kul’tury [Secondary forms of traditional folk culture]. Krasnodar: Traditsiya Publ., 2010, pp. 52–57. (In Russian).
  • Vlasova I. V. [Rural settlements in the central regions of the Russian North]. Russkij Sever: etnicheskaya istoriya i narodnaya kul’tura. 12–20 veka [Russian North: ethnic history and folk culture. 12–20 centuries]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2004, pp. 37–101. (In Russian).
  • Zelenin D. K. Vostochnoslavyanskaya etnografiya [East Slavic ethnography]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1991. (In Russian).