UDC

130. 3 (470.11) (045)

Authors

Terebikhin Nikolay Mikhailovich
Institute of Social, Humanitarian and Political Sciences, Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russia)
Melyutina Marina Nikolaevna
Kenozero National Park; Institute of Social, Humanitarian and Political Sciences, Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russia)

Abstract

The paper deals with one of the important issues of sacred ecology related to registration, preservation
and investigation of sacred natural sites as centers of cultural and biological diversity in Kenozero
National Park. These sites have a special place in the structure of the park’s sacred landscape, being
natural markers of ethnocultural, regional and local identity of indigenous people living around the
lake. This identity forms geocultural images of their childhood home and their “own land”. The paper
focused on Dumino-Dolgozersky landscape complex located in the southern part of the national park
(Lekshmozero). It includes lakes, swamps, springs and channels which form the geocultural image of
this area as an island or an archipelago. The authors concentrate their attention on studying the sacred
symbolism of water and its place in the worldview structure of the local community. In addition, they
analyze the rituals of sacrifice and gift as mechanisms of total exchange and connection between the
people and the spirits protecting sacred natural sites as well as Christian saints (patrons associated
with the water element). Having analyzed the Dumino-Dolgozersky landscape, the authors come to the
conclusion that the natural composition of its water bodies perfectly corresponds to the “water character”
of Russianness which had absorbed the water-wood archetype of Finno-Ugric ethnocultural substratum.

Keywords

Lekshmozero, sacred natural sites, regional and local identity, childhood home, sacred water, cultural landscape

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