Zoomorphic Images in Bulgarian Women’s Ritual Dances in the Context of Old European Symbolism

Anna Ilieva and Anna Shtarbanova (Bulgaria)

Abstract

Before the cultural and historic upheavals of the 1940s, Bulgarian folklore functioned as a relatively independent cultural system within the framework of traditional life in rural Bulgaria. Old village people still remember and are able to tell about this disappearing way of life.

This research is guided by the holistic study of dance. This is an ambitious and voluminous task, since Bulgarian folklore dance culture is distinguished by an amazing diversity of dance patterns, dance rituals, concepts and beliefs. Towards this aim, we have created our own interdisciplinary approach to the study of the numerous dances performed on every holiday, as well as the many ritual dances that have been preserved in Bulgaria.

The external simplicity of the ritual dance hides a complex world, a message from antiquity, having reached us not in material form, but in the living experience of dance passed down through generations. One of the main functions of ritual dance in folklore culture is to convey knowledge: knowledge about the structure of the world, about how to live in community, self-knowledge, knowledge about the order, laws and government of society, and knowledge of a mythological worldview.

Our interest in this subject was sparked first by current recognition that an enormous number of ritual dances had survived in different versions and, second, by our realization that the Bulgarian folk-Christian festive calendar is dominated by women’s rituals, with their corresponding music and dance ritual activities.

In this article we have chosen to approach this phenomenon through several zoomorphic figures found in Bulgarian women’s ritual dances—the snake, bee, butterfly and frog—which correspond directly to Old European Symbolism, as described by Marija Gimbutas. This approach reveals only one aspect of the functions and meanings of women’s ritual dance that have survived into the twentieth century.

Dance is a living, developing organism, containing influences from subsequent cultures. We have consciously refrained from an exhaustive tracing of the transformations of meanings and symbols, since our purpose here is to discuss the imagery of the most archaic layer to be discovered in women’s rituality.