‘When It Comes to a Wedding, They Say Even a Dry Skull Would Roll in That Direction’ (the role of a sheep’s head in Kalmyk wedding rites revisited)

• Main Author: T. Sharaeva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Российской академии наук, Калмыцкий научный центр 2018-12-01
• Series: Монголоведение
• Subjects: kalmyks; wedding rites; sheep; solar symbolism; cult of ancestors; hearth
• Online Access: https://mongoloved.kigiran.com/jour/article/view/54/37

The article investigates the semantics of a sheep’s head within Kalmyk wedding rites. A sheep’s head acts as an offering to diverse protector-deities, ancestors, and the sun, the three being sources of well-being and good life. Turko-Mongolian ceremonies to have included the throwing of a sheep’s head through a smoke hole (of the yurt) basically aimed to facilitate the newly married couple’s welfare, childbirth, and symbolized a blessing of the hearth. According to traditional beliefs, the sheep had a ‘sunny’ nature with corresponding purificatory, protective, and fructifying properties. The research applies the comparative and problem methods. Besides, it turns to the semiotic approach when it comes to examine and interpret separate elements of rituals. It is concluded that the present-day depiction of a solar sign on the bride’s forehead well corresponds to beliefs about the sheep’s ‘sunny nature’, its sacrificial function in rituals of offerings, rebirth, and requests of protection, ceremonial ‘substitution’ of the individual. The offering of a slit sheep’s head to elderly people was related to the cult of ancestors and the concept of ‘opening’ some sacral channels to gain a most decent contact through the ceremonial activities.