Belova  A.V.

WEDDING RITES AT THE RUSSIAN NOBLES IN THE 18TH – THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURIES: RITUALS AND PRACTICES

Authors

Belova A.V.

Keywords:

historical ethnology, wedding rites, traditional household components of noble culture, wedding, church wedding, matrimony, marriage of a no-blewoman, Russian nobles

Abstract

The article is devoted to the wedding rites at the Russian nobles as a traditional community in the 18th – the middle of the 19th centuries. Based on the study of unpublished archival documents from the personal funds of noble families and published auto-documentary evidence, the author reconstructs the main elements of the wedding ceremony, including the lengthy procedure that preceded the direct marriage during the church sacrament of the wedding. The article analyzes the cultural and anthropological nature and functional purpose of the social ritual, reveals the conjugation of collective practices and individual preferences. Particular attention is paid to the problems of the noble ethos and the reproduction of ethical norms recorded in ego-documents, as well as the gender aspects of ritual actions. In conclusion the author claims that wedding rituals belong to the sphere of men’s prestigious interactions and practices of an expressive order, in which the women’s role is reduced to instrumental mediation in strengthening of the inter-clan ties.

WEDDING RITES AT THE RUSSIAN NOBLES IN THE 18TH – THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURIES: RITUALS AND PRACTICES