Mari сlothing in the funeral and memorial rituals (late XIX – early XX century)

Abstract

Introduction. The paper considers the Mari clothing for funeral and memorial rituals, its specific features, and functions. The purpose of the research is to define a role and application that clothes have in ceremonies. Materials and Methods. As the research materials for the article, the author used ethnographic sources published in the XIX and early XX centuries, field journals by Tatyana Kryukova belonged to the Archive of the Russian Museum of Ethnography, as well as the author’s personal field research materials, collected during personal expeditionary activities in the Mari El Republic. The structural-functional and comparatively historical methods were the major methods for the research. The research materials were collected by means of participant observation and semi-structural interview methods. Results and Discussion. The Mari clothing during the funeral and memorial ceremonies marked two core functions, being represented by a costume of the deceased person and as an independent ritual object. Dressing the deceased person entailed a number of taboos whereas some clothes of the deceased were used to fill up the coffin. During the memorial rituals, the clothing of the deceased became a part of the «substitution» ritual when the role of the deceased was taken on by living people who were present at the ceremony. Apart from that, the clothing served as a present for the participants of the ceremony. Conclusion. A change of clothes in the lifecycle rituals marked a transfer of the clothes’ owner from one condition to another. A deceased person was a key figure during the funeral rite, while a change of his clothes facilitated their separation from the living ones. The costume itself was characterized by the inversion of the details and revealed its reference to wedding items. In the context of the memorial ceremonies, the clothing functioned as means of communication between a deceased and living ones, whereas its prolonged use accepted as a gift allowed maintaining the communication.