Calendar Celebratory Territory Inspections in Local Traditions of the Komi

Abstract

The article examines data on the summer calendar rite complexes where ritual inspections of territories have played the major part. Collective visiting of villages, in which priests were participating, and consecrating of fi elds and pastures performed the role of a universalistic activity in the life of a Komi village, as they were simultaneously directed at the future harvest, the health of the cattle, and the well-being of the participants themselves. By comparing the local versions of such inspections, the author shows several types of organization of a new sacralized time-space that enters and becomes an integral part of the economic activity. Additionally, summer youth games of the Komi are considered, for a number of elements of the latter may be related to the same ritual calendar function of spatial/ temporal recoding of the village cosmos.