A Contribution to the Study of the Folklore Ritual Substratum in the Balkans

Abstract

Substratum is a problem that in recent folkloristic and ethnographic literature has been ever more frequently discussed. Attempts are being made to find out points of departure and to establish the continuity of various folkloristic and ethnographic phenomena, to acquire information about the past events which are connected with the present, and to underline the decisive role they play in the contemporary trends. In making inevitable references to the past we have often found out that we cannot be restricted by the »from — to« limits, because some folkloristic phenomena are rooted into the past much more remote than it can appear at first glance.