On the Typology of Ritual Models of Space

Abstract

 Among the main ways of defining the content of the ritual text the most common, perhaps, is the translation of the main ideas of the ritual into the term of space relations. This article examines spatial models realized in various types of rituals among the Eastern Slavs. The emphasis is on the description and interpretation of the basic scheme of ritual space, according to which the world is divided into "own" and "alien". The plots of specific rituals can be seen as the consequences of the violation of this dichotomy.