A Sacred Place near Kashel'kovo Village

Village sacred places—revered stones, springs, trees, stone and wooden crosses, and so forth—have recently attracted attention from Russian scholars (Aleksandrov 1983; Zolotov 1981; Kurbatov 1995; Makarov and Chernetsov 1988; Panchenko 1996 a and b; Shorin 1991; and others). They, however, usually regard these monuments as "sources for studying paganism," as opposed to analyzing Russian folk culture of the late Middle Ages and modern times. In addition, "interdisciplinary" methodology for studying local sacred places, despite some declarations, has often been undermined by source inaccuracies and analytical sloppiness. Only by carefully drawing on data from various disciplines, archeology, ethnography, folklore studies, and so on, can more light be shed on village sacred places in Eastern Slavic folk culture. Moreover, Slavic archeologists studying sacred places should pay more attention to these monuments as opposed to ephemeral "traces of paganism."

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Christianity · Ephemeral key · Ethnography · Folklore · Geography · Paganism · Slavic languages · Classics · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices