The aim of this article is to give an anthropological description of verbal magic. The magical utterances are present in the following areas of traditional culture: folk medicine, family and annual rituals. They focus on a formula which, in the opinion of people expressing them, have some magical powers which cause positive effects in the real world. The empirical material, which constitutes the basis for the description, derives from the questionnaire interviews with inhabitants of the rural communities of Lublin voivodeship. The author focuses on the elements that must be satisfied that the words gained causative power. These elements are situational context (which includes time and place of activity, sender, recipient, symbolic attributes), repeating, fidelity playback, optional confidentiality.
This article seeks to apply a cognitive definition to describe the symbolism of numbers. First, the theoretical aspects of the ethno-linguistic research method are outlined. This part presents the main foundations of the method, in particular, a cognitive definition as a mean of reconstructing the linguistic and cultural imaginary from the anthropocentric perspective. The concept of a symbol is presented as well, as a fundamental category in deciphering the meaning of the world by traditional culture bearers. The second part of the article presents a practical application of the theory, the cognitive definition of the number seven. The pre-existing sources (data from published dictionaries and monographs), as well as data collected by the author in the course of fieldwork, are ordered using “facets”, which reflect the semantic structure of the number seven in the folk culture. The cognitive definition of the number seven consists of the following facets: “name”, “collections”, “equivalences”, “number as a measure”, “semantics of the seventh item”. The proposed definition is not yet a completed project and can be extended by other domains.
The purpose of this article is to present the semantics and functions of numbers in folk culture. The analysis and interpretation of numeral operations include counting and measuring, binary opposition and parity, parity and the number three and seven. The article is largely based on field research conducted by the author and other source materials in the context of Slavic. The emphasis is placed on universal and distinctive elements of the symbolism of numbers.