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STUDIA MYTHOLOGICA SLAVICA | Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU |
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STUDIA MYTHOLOGICA SLAVICA 12, 2009
Nijole Laurinkiene:
Pig Sacrifi ce in Baltic Traditions
(Das Opfern des Schweins in der baltischen Tradition)
Abstract
The article analyzes pig sacrifi ce and the use of pork as a ritual dish in customs connected with sowing and practiced by descendants of the Prussians. The author explores the custom, which has been described by various sources and practiced in East Prussia in the second half of 17th – century, in relation to the data collected by Lithuanian ethnographers of the 20th century that link the pig to various agrarian processes.
Performed during the sewing period and oft en employing pig parts such as the head, legs, or the tail, the practice may be explained as an echo of sacrifi cing a pig to the earth and to Žemyna, the goddess of wheat who personifi es the earth. It may be presumed that Žemyna had the same function as Demeter had for the Greeks and Ceres and Tellus for the Romans.
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