"Everything is Upside Down": Semiotics and the Reality of the "Third Wedding" in Udmurt Culture

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2026-3/48-58

Authors

Keywords:

Udmurts, memorial rite, third wedding, yyr-pyd soton, symbolic anthropology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the existence of the «yyr-pyd soton» memorial rite (also known as the "third wedding") in modern Udmurt culture. The rite is considered as a liminal practice that completes a person's life cycle and symbolically marks the transition of the soul to the afterlife. The study is based on field materials collected in 2023–2025 in various regions of the Udmurt Republic, as well as on early ethnographic sources. The ritual is examined and deconstructed from the perspective of symbolic anthropology and V. Turner's approach. The article analyzes the main stages of the ritual, including sacrifice, feasting, and festivities, as well as its temporal and spatial aspects. A separate section of the article focuses on the current state of the ritual, its vitality, and the trends in its transformation. The authors use E.A. Yagafova's concept as a model for analysis. The influence of Christianization, the internal tabooing of the ritual, and others are highlighted as the main factors affecting its current state in modern Udmurt society. Despite this, it is noted that the local tradition still maintains a stable perception of the yyr-pyd soton as a sacred act.

Author Biographies

  • Artem Ananev, Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова

    Ananev, Artem A. — Postgraduate Student of the Department of Ethnology, Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: An.artem02@mail.ru ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6923-3784

  • German Ustyantsev, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology; Lomonosov Moscow State University

    Ustyantsev, German Yu. — Ph.D. in History, Senior Research Fellow, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation); Assistant at the Department of Ethnology, Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: ustyan-93@mail.ru ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0655-3127

    For citation: Ananev, A. A., and G. Yu. Ustyantsev. 2026. "Everything is Upside Down": Semiotics and the Reality of the "Third Wedding" in Udmurt Culture. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 3: 48–58.

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Published

21.09.2026

Issue

No. 3 (2026): Vestnik antropologii (Herald of Anthropology)

Section

Ethnography of the Urals–Volga Region