Kunt Ernő szerk.: Kép-hagyomány – Nép-hagyomány (Miskolc, 1990)

I. RÉSZTANULMÁNYOK - Lyubomir Mikov: Rituális emberábrázolás - Jel: jelkép: művészi hasonmás

principles, as well as generally of the androgynous nature, of "marriage" and of "death"

, as well as of the sacrifice or the act of sacrificing; of the "vorld tree" and predominantly of its derivative - the "tree of life". In their extreme functional and semantic generalization, this type of images are characterized by a sign ambivalence that has accumulated on its part the polysemantism of their rich and complex symbolism. In this sense the anthropomorphic plastic images are ritual symbols of the life-giving or of the reproducing principle, of the fertilizing power, of youth and of "marriage", of the social and natural (agrarian) rejuvenation. On the other hand, they are imposed as symbols of impotence and old age, of the lifeless and non-creative principle, of harmful forces and of daemonic creatures, of chaos, of sin and of "death". Moreover, they are symbols of the necessary sacrifice, of the promised hope of the sacrificial offering and of sacrificing in general. It is important to point out that this type of images have cosmogonie dimensions as well, as a result of which they are also peculiar symbolizations of the "world tree" of of the "tree of life". The above-mentioned aspects of the symbolism of anthropomorphic plastic images exist in parallel, simultaneously and through active interaction and interpénétration. On the other hand, they bear proof that the symbolism of this type of images is rather varied, multidirectional and polysemantic. However, no matter how polysemantic their symbolism may be, in the long run it gravitates towards the fruit-bearing aspects of the opposition between the male and the female principle, sublimating in the binary nature of the mythologems of "marriage" and "death", together with the context of their sacrificing and cosmogonie dimensions. In other words, the sign ambivalence of the images incarnates their entire polysemantic nature at the respective levels. There does not exist an image in which the female and the male principles are not depicted in some joint form of manifestation. At a technological level this combination of the two principles stands out in the plastic rendering of the images, as the structure of most of them includes elements of the opposite sex. Here also belong the cases of nomination with opposite designation with respect to the sex of the images. The two principles are also combined in the sphere of game situations, typical predominantly in rituals connected with the annual calendar cycle and much more rarely in family rituals. There are several variants in this respect. First - the real intervention of men in women's game situations, which is expressed in their active attitude both to women as actual subjects of the actions, and to the attributes associated with them. Another typical example is the relatively independent, simultaneous performing of male and female game situations, most often combined in the finale, using anthropomorphic attributes belonging to either sex. Of particular interest are some rituals in which male anthropomorphic images are the main attributes in female game situations. In addition to the above-mentioned variants, the following explanations should be made: (1) the agents are predominantly non-socialized representatives of the community (unmarried young girls or men), although there are some exceptions; (2) the anthropomorphic attributes depict with the highest degree of approximation the social and the anthropoligical nature of the agents; (3) all game situations comprise the theme of love and marriage, which is reproduced through social symbolism in this case. The technological and game combination of the female and male principles in anthropomorphic images are essential prerequisites for their semantic generalization in that respect. There is no doubt that from such a viewpoint anthropomorphic images are a typical example of the simultaneous manifestation of the two sexes. However, this fact should by no means be reduced to the essende of biological bisexuality or of hermaphroditism. The unification of the two sexes or the combination of their life-bearing and fertilizing symbolism in the images is reflected in their specificity as types. Consequently, it is difficult to claim that one image is only female and another one is only