Water-Bulls and Water-Cows in Oral Traditions of the World

• Main Author: Trubarac Matić, Djordjina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Beograd : Udruženje foklorista Srbije 2023
• Subjects: water creatures; water bull; Khanty tradition; Mansi tradition; Ob-Ugric tradition; Yakut tradition; Bulgarian tradition; Serbian tradition; daemons of nature; water cows; khanty; Yakuts; Mansi
• Online Access: https://folkloristika.org/lat/arhiva/2017/water-bulls-and-water-cows.pdf; https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/123456789/15575; http://dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/id/61981/bitstream_61981.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_15575

The text is the editor's introduction to the first part of the thematic issue dedicated to the topic of water bulls and water cows in the folklore around the world. Beliefs in water-bulls and water-cows have been ethnographically attested in a relatively limited number of traditions scattered throughout the world. So far, they have been mostly studied from a closed, national, ethnic or regional perspective, within mutually isolated circles of scholars researching one specific tradition. The results of their work remained locked among each one of these circles, inaccessible for a broader number of researchers interested in the same topic. Therefore, there was no mutual dialogue, wider scholarly discussion, nor deeper comparative insights. The desire is to change this situation led us to edit this thematic issue in order to provide a framework for tracing the initial platform for future comparative studies of the topic, which could inspire further research both on local and on international level. In the first part of this thematic issue – the second will appear in the next number of Folkloristika – there have been brought into focus the narratives and beliefs in water-bulls documented among several Siberian peoples (Khanty and Mansi of Ob-Ugric and Yakuts of Turkic group) and those recorded in the Balkans (Bulgarian and Serbian tradition).