The article analyzes the use of the nominations of magical specialists in East Slavic mythological prose using the lexemes “sorcerer/witch” as an example. There is a clear tendency in the narrative to avoid the direct names of magical specialists at the first mention, to introduce text into the situation, which is a significant difference from the referential properties of functional names (names of people by profession and occupation) in Russian. The sign of a functional name in the nomination “sorcerer” appears in a situation of conventionally assigned status to the referent. In stories about personal experience, this is observed in the case of the image of a sorcerer-healer (assistant in domestic, medical and other matters). In other cases, the nomination is used not for identification, but only for characterization. In retellings of stories with a stable traditional structure, a malicious character is also introduced into the text with the help of the nomination “sorcerer” (in texts with a stable motive “the sorcerer spoils the wedding”). It is obvious that in such narratives the content and, accordingly, the status of the characters are known in advance and determined by tradition, and the narrator uses the appropriate names, while in personal narratives the speaker himself makes the choice of language means for nominating characters and objects, this is his area of responsibility. The observed regularity of assigning the name “sorcerer” to characters engaged in socially useful activities, and the absence of such in relation to harmful characters, indicates different mechanisms of meaning in axiologically different situations.

The article deals with rituals performed with the hair of a newborn; an attempt is made to semantic and functional classification. The key issue raised in the article is the question of the “asexual” nature of the child. The author tries to challenge the existing point of view and show that the “genderlessness” identified by the researchers characterizes the social and ritual status of the child, but is in no way its physiological characteristic in traditional culture. The idea of a newborn as a male or female being seems to be the initial given, which determines the content of the rite of the first hair cutting. There are three main options for correlating the sex of the child and the corresponding ritual actions with hair. The first group of cases – when boys and girls during the ceremony of the first haircut could perform the same action (put various objects under their heads), but these objects differed in their symbolism. The second group of cases is when the boys’ hair is cut, and the first braid is braided for the girls; or when boys and girls had different haircuts. The third group of cases is when a child, regardless of gender, was put on a fur coat turned inside out with fur, and a certain amount of hair was cut crosswise. It is concluded that the rite of the first tonsure is the first step in introducing the child to the culture of this community, when he is withdrawn from the chaotic realm and becomes part of an orderly society. However, hair, as an integral part of the human appearance, continues to be a symbol of a person’s connection with some otherworldly beginning.

In the second half of the 20^th century, numerous tales belonging to the “Open Sesame” type (AaTh 676) were recorded in China. Many of them contain some elements that can also be found in medieval Chinese narrative prose. In this context, the article examines some contemporary records of an 11^th – 12^th centuries urban legend associated with a rock near the Huanghelou, or Yellow Crane Tower in Ezhou (a prefecture within the boundaries of modern Wuhan city in Hubei province), including a short monorhymic poem written by the poet Su Shi (1037–1101). It has been argued that this urban legend combines motifs found in two different groups of medieval mythological stories. The first group is based on the motif of the treasure hidden in the mountain, while the second has as its main motif an underground Daoist paradise full of immortals that can be reached by means of an acoustic signal. A possible connection between the legend and the local tradition of aurifiction (the imitation of gold) is noticed. The article discusses also an early Chinese written source that contains both an occurrence of the motif “Door opens in mountain” (D1552.0.1 according to S. Thompson), common to both groups, and a mention of the acoustic signal required to enter a magical cave. This source is “Xi yu ji”, or “Records on the Western Regions”, the travelogue written in the 7^th century by the Buddhist monk and traveller Xuanzang. However, neither a treasure nor a Daoist paradise is mentioned in this text.

Traditional lullabies do not have a common plot – they are a bundle of a number of micro-plots that the performer “pulls” together, each time creating a new song. Each lullaby will be unique not only in the volume of the text, but also in the number of motifs, their coiled-uncoiled, their combination and sequence. Despite the improvisational nature of the genre, lullabies consist of motifs so stable and have such a rigid and clichéd rhythmic structure that these motifs can be called formulas. They can have both a rather capacious, brief form, and a more expanded structure – one of these forms of motifs the performer chooses during the creation, singing of the lullaby, and depending on the chosen form he chooses subsequent motifs belonging to the same “cluster”. Since the duration of the lullaby depends entirely on the addressee (i. e., on how long it will take him to fall asleep), there is no rigid order regulating the sequence of motif selection. Nevertheless, it is possible to trace some recurring “associations” – bundles of motifs that are more often next to each other.

This article presents the attempt in the classification of research approaches used by representatives of the so-called Russian Historical School in epic studies. The classification is based on the choice of material studied rather than on the methodological methods of the researchers. This principle of division aims to avoid confusion when the same researcher employs multiple mechanisms of “historical comparison” in the analysis of bylinas. The material for this study includes works by representatives of the Historical School (such as Vsevolod Miller, Alexey Markov, Vladimir Pimenov, and Yuri Novikov) and texts of byliny. Three main research approaches in the study of Russian epics are preliminarily identified and presented as material for further development: the “material” approach, the “substantive” approach, and the approach that studies the “social context”.

The article focuses on the social image of women in the demonological stories of the folklore sammlung “North German Legends, Tales, and Customs” edited by A. Kuhn and W. Schwarz in 1848. The author studies the image of the ordinary women, women with supernatural powers (Hexen, Mahrt, Walriderske), enchanted women, giantess and demonological women (water maidens, frau Holda, Old Frick, wild woman Hinnemutter). The image of the demonological woman, to some extent, is the reversal of the image of the common woman. The last one could be punished for some misconduct or immodest behavior, but the demonological woman is often shown in the texts as dangerous by itself. Still, ordinary and some demonological women are shown as sexual objects more often than male characters of the “Nordeutsche Sagen”.

A student song is one of the little-studied genres of song folklore, despite its wide popularity in the student community. The article is devoted to the most popular student song, the existence of which began in the 19^th century. The history of the song, its origin and further existence in the student environment are considered. The rare plot of the song allows to track all song changes from the original text to the present day. I will consider the process of song folklorization – how exactly the transition from a typical student song with details of the local city text to a full-fledged parodia sacra took place, and how much the text has changed in volume. Thus, the main vectors of the song analysis will be the presence of the local university and city text in it, as well as how parodia sacra develops in the text and what form it takes in various versions. The ethnographic context of the song’s existence and the reasons for the text popularity in various communities are also considered. The occurrence of the plot elements in other folklore genres is revealed: in fairy tales, chastushkas, as well as in other student songs that appeal to various holy personages.

This paper attempts to reveal the role of New Age practices among post-Soviet (mainly Russian) youth by looking at how New Age practitioners interpret them for themselves. The theoretical framework of the article was the conceptualization of Michel Foucault’s “the care of the self techniques”. The characteristics of the New Age practices as “the care of the self techniques” were highlighted: the absence of a monopoly on the truth, the emphasis on constructing the self, bricolage, the absence of the idea of self-denial, the absence of the need in the Other and the community, control over behavior through mantic practices, the use of techniques for examining consciousness and certifying emerging ideas. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 13 semi-structured interviews were collected with informants aged 17 to 40, residents of postSoviet countries (mainly Russia) and then analyzed. Based on the results of the analysis, three clusters of informants were identified (representatives of pure New Age, neo-pagans, representatives of Western esotericism) and a difference was revealed in the interpretation of New Age practices by representatives of these clusters. The author concludes that the magical practices of representatives of the “pure” New Age, neo-pagans and representatives of Western esotericism, fully correspond to the concept of “the care of the self techniques”, while the religious practices of neo-pagans cannot be attributed to “the care of the self techniques”. In addition, the main ways of introducing young people to the New Age culture, the role of the community for followers of the New Age, correlation among science, magic and religion in their worldview, and the opinion of New Age representatives about the stigmatization of their practices in society were identified.