Once Again about the Origin of the Sponsorship at a Wedding among the Bulgarians

Authors:

Pages: 252-264

Abstract:

Traditional Bulgarian sponsorship at a wedding is a lineal institution that emerges after the fulfillment of certain ritual activities. According to the traditional believes these are the ritual activities that accompany the Orthodox Christian ceremonies baptism and nuptials. In this paper an attempt has been made at tracing the origin of the sponsorship at a wedding in view of its manifestations in the sphere of kinship ties. In structural aspect the contents of the paper is divided into three parts. In the first one the main opinions on the sponsorship at a wedding in ethnology have been presented; in the second part the author has presented the stands on the epoch in which the prototype of the traditional sponsorship at a wedding emerged; and in the third part the available historical and ethnographic sources have been analyzed. In conclusion it has been accepted that the sponsorship at a wedding as a traditional institution was connected by origin with the patrilineal organization in which the prototype of the sponsor was the uncle on the mother’s side (avunculus), i.e. the mother’s brother of the groom.

Keywords:

sponsorship at a wedding, uncle, nephew, marriage relationship

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