Isofunctionality of the Ethnic-Cultural Stereotype (the Case of Folk Tales about “Blood Libel”)

Abstract

The article examines the samples of folklore texts about the “blood libel” (ritual use of Christian blood by the Jews), recorded in the last decade in different regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, and discusses the modifications of this superstition in modern folklore (the variability of motifs, the existence of the story in different contexts, dating libel to various calendar periods and ritual situations, to different locus and places) and its dynamics. As the material demonstrates, the subject code of superstition varies within the same plot, and different situations (holidays, ceremonies, etc.) associated with “blood libel” are similarly estimated as “dangerous” in the system of folk axiology.