Abstract
The Chuvash people paid special attention to the construction of the house choosing the safest place of the yard and performing certain ritual actions. In a residential building, as well as in many other buildings, according to the ideas of the Chuvash people, otherworldly creatures lived. From the beginning of the building of a house plants, animals and other sacrifi ces were made for the spirits and deities. Positive and negative characters regulated the domestic life. The Chuvash people thought a man to be the keeper of the hearth, but he had the female hypostasis. The locus of the placement was considered to be a stove, that’s why coming back from the outings the owners of the house threw some pieces of food on the stove, behind the stove and in the stove. With the stove the deity of fi re, the oven’s mother and numerous good and evil spirits were also associated. Deities and spirits di not only protect the house from miseries and troubles, but also did harm to the members of the household, if they were displeased with their behavior and the offertories. Malicious creatures used various objects of the house for the invasion into the domestic space. The house was a complex organism, corresponding to human needs and refl ecting the world outlook. The elements and home space had an individual sign-symbolic meaning. Giving special features to the details, combined into a single unit, was directed to the well-being and a decent life for the members of the household. This perception of the house confi rms the idea, that it was not only considered as a place of family residence, but also as a temple for the deities, where the host served a priest. In the article deities and spirits occupying the space of the Chuvash house are briefl y systematized.
Keywords
Ethnography, the Chuvash people, religion, customs
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