« 2019. № 3 (147)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2019, № 3 (147), 705—714

UDK 39:624.011.1:691:391.985](477.83/.87)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2019.03.705

CHOICE OF TREES FOR HOUSING CONSTRUCTION IN UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS: PEOPLE’S WORLDVIEW PRINCIPLES, TRADITIONAL SYMBOLICS

FAYNYK Tetyana

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8446-4002

Doctor of Sciences in History, Senior Researcher

in the Institute of Ethnology, Ethnology of Modernity

Department: National Academy

of Sciences Ukraine,

15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine

Contacts: е-mail: t.faynyk@gmail.com

Abstract. This article is written on the basis of literary sources and materials of field research within the Carpathian region. Traditional folk outlook approaches, the selection of natural materials for housing construction are highlighted in this article. The attention accents to the deeply spiritual attitude of the Ukrainian highlanders to the environment, which should be developed by our contemporaries. The object of the research is the popular wooden housing construction, and the subject — the properties of wood, people’s beliefs and beliefs about it. We used in our study the historical-comparative method and methods of field ethnography: interviews, observations and photophixation. The basis of our work is the field materials of the author, collected on the territory of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi regions of Ukraine. On the basis of the collected materials and beliefs about wood materials collected during the expeditions that are still preserved in the memory of the Ukrainian people, the author aims to show the deep spiritual attitude of Ukrainians to the surrounding nature and the importance of traditions in the selection of material for housing construction. The urgency of the proposed topic is that, when preparing materials for construction, taking care of proper equipment for their homes and the yard, providing themselves with wealth and well-being, people thoughts about spiritual world and preservation of nature. Our goal in the proposed article is to show that popular ideological ideas and beliefs served not only ideology, but also a kind of methodology in the construction business. Myths, legends, folk signs, rituals gave the folk knowledge about the properties of wood, its suitability for construction. Traditions of wooden housing construction of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Ukrainian Carpathians reflect the all-Ukrainian ideological approaches, which are based on the following-reproduction of an archetype model of the world coming from mythology. Confirmation of this is the whole system of prohibitions and encouragements, recommendations, beliefs, signs, magic acts in the world of wildlife. In addition to the experience gained from the real communication of the inhabitants of the Carpathians with the natural surroundings, the traditions reflecting the ideological views of the people were of great importance in the selection of material for housing. They combine pre-Christian beliefs about the universe of mythological origins with the Christian, derived from the biblical plots. They form the spiritual basis of building traditions, which also enrich the spiritual culture of the people.

Keywords: world perception, world outlook, natural environment, tree, wood, beliefs, building material, traditions.

Received 24.04.2019

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