Semantics of the Midwife in Maternity Rites Traditional
Culture of the Buryats

D. A. Nikolaeva

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2024. Vol 47

Semantics of the Midwife in Maternity Rites Traditional Culture of the Buryats

Full text (russian)

Author(s)

D. A. Nikolaeva

Abstract

The study of maternity rituals in the traditional culture of the Buryats makes it possible to identify preserved and actively functioning archaic traces of the mother cult. Maternity rituals are associated with a developed complex of initiation rituals, when a large-scale change of spatial, temporal and cultural paradigms occurs for a newborn. This process takes place under the guidance of a midwife, who is the figurative embodiment of the cult of the Mother ancestor. According to mythological and ritual views, from the first moments of the birth of a child, thanks to the midwife, the sphere of the iconic is actualized when the newborn undergoes the processes of ritual transformation necessary for his socialization and integration into society. The analysis of the structure of maternity rituals revealed the semantic connection of the midwife with the archaic image of the Mother ancestor. This can be seen, firstly, in the special requirements – “to be a prosperous woman”. These include age, health, but most importantly, “offspring without loss”. Secondly, the concept of a midwife as a “utoodai” (grandmother) made it possible to identify the motive of the ancestry of the Mother Earth in the image of a “gray-haired old woman”, which is simultaneously identified with the image of a hoofed animal “possessing an udder”. Such a woman, with qualities and linguistic definitions corresponding to the characteristics of the maternal cult (“Mother Earth”, “Mother Beast”), conducted, firstly, the ceremony of transferring a newborn from another world to this one, fixing it as a living person, and secondly, constructing sexual identification, launched a male coding program or female stereotypes of behavior, introducing a newborn into the members of the generic society and the corresponding gender and age group. The use of modern research methods allowed us to substantiate the ancient traces of the mother cult preserved in the traditional Buryat society, associated with the vital activity of society, which was a key basis in the formation of such vital elements as external structures, linguistic definition, and internal sacred content.

About the Authors

Nikolaeva Darima Anatolievna, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Department of Ethnology and Folk art Culture, East-Siberian State Institute of Culture; 1, Tereshkova st., Ulan-Ude, 670031, Russian Federation, e-mail: darimn@rambler.ru

For citation

Nikolaeva D. A. Semantics of the Midwife in Maternity Rites Traditional Culture of the Buryats. Bulletin of the Irkutsk State University. Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series. 2024, Vol. 47, pp. 35–41. https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2024.47.35 (In Russ.)

Keywords

Mother cult, midwife, newborn, maternity rites, initiation, Mother Earth, Mother Beast.

UDC

392.12(=512.31)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2024.47.35

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