UDC

141.3:[291.1+008]

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.4.138

Authors

Nikolay M. Terebikhin
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov; prosp. Lomonosova 2, Arkhangelsk, 163002, Russian Federation; e-mail: terebihinn@mail.ru

Abstract

This article presents the results of the author’s many-years’ research in the field of sacred geography, phenomenology of religion and religious anthropology of the peoples in the European North of Russia. The paper aimed to study the topos of banya (‘bath’) in the sacred landscape of Arctic and Subarctic regions of the Russian North and reveal the desacralized heritage of archaic theurgy in the relaxational-hygienic and medical-recreational acts of bathing. The Northern Russian and the Finno- Ugric bathing traditions, historically inked to the territories of the Novgorodian colonization, were chosen as the object of the research. The methodology applied included the methods of structural-semiotic, comparative-typological and hermeneutic analysis. The author expounds the conceptual-theoretical aspects of studying the phenomenon of bathhouse as an archaic shrine/temple with a powerful sacred energy finding its outlet in the cycle of bathing rituals, initiatory and medicinal practices, aimed to “renovate”, i.e. give a “second birth” to the person. One of the most important results of the research is the author’s conception of sameness of the sacred status of a bathhouse and a smithy, which is based on the idea of “making”, “tempering” and “reforging” a person in the course of the transformational, transitive ritual of “going through fire and water”. Having performed the structural-semiotic and comparative-ethnographic analysis of the bathing ritual within the context of religious anthropology and ethnoecology of peoples in the European North of Russia, the author comes to the conclusion that the bathhouse in Finno-Ugric and Northern Russian tradition was a universal shrine/temple, where archaic life cycle rituals were performed.

Keywords

topos of bath, Northern Russian bathing tradition, Finno-Ugric bathing tradition, ritual, religious anthropology, European North of Russia

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