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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2024. № 5 (179), 1137—1149

UDK 398.341(100)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

THE ROOF OF THE BUILDING IN THE RITE OF THE DEVOTION

RAKHNO Kostyantyn

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-3919
  • Doctor of History, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher
  • of the National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne,
  • 102, Partyzanska Street, 38164, Opishne, Zinkiv District,
  • Poltava Region, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: krakhno@ukr.net

Abstract. Belief in evil eye is one of the most common manifestations of magical thinking. The very names of the evil eye are very similar among different peoples, as well as the ways to eliminate it. An important place in the rites of removal of the evil eye was occupied by the roof as a sacred part of the house, which protected its inhabitants and at the same time served as a place of contact with supernatural forces.

The purpose of the article is to investigate the rites of removing the evil eye, in which the roof of the house appeared, and their connections with the ideas about the sacredness of the roof among different peoples of the world.

The object of the research is ethnographically recorded examples of superstitious omens related to the evil eye, magical protection against it and methods of its elimination. According to the popular ideas, the evil eye consisted in the harmful influence of some people’s view on someone or something. Ethnographers have recorded many manifestations of ritual behavior related to the roof of the house and aimed at protecting and guarding oneself and loved ones from bereavement. Various apotropaic images and objects placed on the roof to be visible to evil eyes served as preventive amulets against lessons. Amulets were placed under the roof. During the treatment of lessons in folk medicine, dishes and other things used in the ritual were placed on the roof. Objects were thrown over the roof, on which the evel eye was transferred. An important symbolic role was also played by the ridge of the roof, the eaves of the roof, the attic, and the chimney.

The methodological basis of the research is the comparative-historical methodological toolkit.

The basis of the work are ethnographic materials related to the perception of the roof in traditional culture. The results of the research show that the peoples of the world, including the Ukrainians and their neighbours, had many options for protection against hostile or unkind views. Among them were both preventive rites and customs that were supposed to avert the threat, as well as those aimed at treating the consequences of evil eye and its elimination. Many of them were carried out on such a semiotically important structural part of a traditional house as the roof.

Keywords: customs, beliefs, rituals, folk medicine, roof, mythology, traditional culture.

Received 4.10.2024

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