STRUCTURE AND SEMANTICS OF ORNAMENTS OF SLEEVES OF FOLK WOMEN'S SHIRTS

Abstract

There are considered two principles of modeling of the Body of the Goddess in archaic symbolism – three symbols (rhombuses), that denote the buttocks, abdomen and head, and four symbols, that denote the buttocks, two breasts and head. The four symbols model of the woman-Goddess image of the Late Paleolithic has been analyzed as well as the model in folk ornaments too. A comparison is made between the placement of symbols on the Body of an archaic Goddess and ornaments on folk women's clothing. It is hypothesized that the ornament on the sleeves of women's shirts replaces the symbolism that was placed on the breasts of archaic Goddesses. It follows from the hypothesis that the seven symbols on the breasts of the Goddess, which conveyed the seven spheres of the Cosmos, must also be present in the structure of the ornaments on the sleeve. The analysis of the bands of ornaments on the sleeves of shirts from Podillia, Bukovina and Prykarpattia showed that they are inherent in the modeling of the spheres of Space – the presence of bands that convey the dungeon, the sphere of life and the sky is traced. The analysis shows that the patterns of ornaments on the sleeves of women's shirts are deeply rooted in the structures of archaic symbolism.