Magic Journey of Serbian Subjects of Traditional Birth Ceremony. Theoretical Assumptions

Abstract

Awareness of ubiquity and unusual activity of ancestors spirits leaves its lasting mark on the form of accepting to the community its new member and re-aggregation of the old one. An image of Serbian traditional birth world is closely dependant on accepted form of communication with the deceased and communicating with them is done mainly by offering a sacrifice. As an outcome of the awareness of a need of their help without which the birth rite could not be fulfilled, it is also a form of emphasizing by people the memory of the ancestors souls and continuous search for their acceptation.Magical journey of the objects of the Serbian traditional birth rites, is possible thanks to a defined set of magical oral behaviors and magical ritual acts, it is therefore submitted to chthonic realm, from which a new born child comes. Its presence is an outcome of a fact, that a baby must part with it in a defined way and get a permission to cross to the world which will teach it the ways of communicating with the “old community.”