The Rhythm of Life: Reproductive and Vegetative Cycles in the Bulgarian Tradition
Language: Bulgarian with a summary in English

     The study is an attempt to establish the presence of synchrony in occurrence of the reproductive processes in part of the living nature and its reflection in the traditional culture of the Bulgarians. In the text natal rites are analyzed as a system of notions about the human reproductive cycle, which is part of the overall process of creation of life and is dependent on certain biological rhythms. The object of the research is the seasonal rhythmicity of the subsequent births in part of the living nature (the domestic animals and the cultivated plants) and its correlation to the rhythm of human procreation. The analysis of this particular “rhythm of life” can be applied in the interpreting of the different codes in the traditional culture. This pertains primarily to the human lifecycle. On the other hand, in the traditional stock-breeding there is an emergence of an “anthropomorphic code” connected with the process of animal reproduction where becomes evident the human modeling of animal “lifecycle” corresponding to the climate and geographic environment of the Balkans. This makes both cycles comparable in many of their parameters in the rites of the traditional society.

Table of contents

Introduction

First chapter. Conceiving and pregnancy. Autumn-winter time cycle

Marital seasons. Conceiving of the first child

The fertilization of the cattle in the animal cycle of life

Autumn sowing-time

Winter rituals connected with pregnancy of people and animals

Winter’s culinary code

Second chapter. Birth and breastfeeding. Spring-summer time cycle

The bird’s reproduction during the Spring

Birth and breastfeeding

The birth in the human society

The domestic animal’s feeding in the animal cycle of life

The children breastfeeding: The animal code of the birth’s rituals

Bottle of the young domestic animals with different food

Rituals related to the first separation of the child from the mother: The animal code

The weanling animals in the animal cycle of life

The birth in the human society

The domestic animal’s feeding in the animal cycle of life

The children’s breastfeeding: The animal code of the birth’s rituals

Bottle of the young domestic animals with different food

Rituals related to the first separation of the child from the mother: The animal code

The weanling animals in the animal cycle of life

Weanling in the human society

Milking of the herds in the animal cycle of life

The shearing of the sheep in the animal cycle of life

Children’s ritual haircut

Animal maturation in the animal cycle of life

Spring sowing-time

Conclusion

Bibliography

Abbreviations

Summary 

Ритъмът на живота – репродуктивни и вегетативни цикли в българската традиция

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