The hair is a military, or even knightly trait. The cossacks considered
themselves knights.
Its origin is definitely eastern, and the purpose is similar to the one
HKrishnas also claim: the battle-dead are transported to Eden by it.
The figure itself arises in the 17th century, in the Vertep, itinerant
puppet theater, and eventually starts reflecting some particular bloody
events in the 18th century.
Researchers theorise that the origin of Cossack Mamai might be among the
buddist Kalmyks along the SouthEastern edge of Europe. But the symbolism is
hotly debated, likely that of "evenhandedness" or "justice".
I actually brought back a huge illustrated scholarly study of CMamai.
RT
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: "Lutelist" <[email protected]>; "Roman Turovsky"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 7:59 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Il Viaggio d'Ulisse in Patria
Roman,
Interesting pics. What's the significance of the shaved hairstyle
and mustaches? (It almost looks like one guy tethered his horse to his
hefty 'stache!)
Chris
--- On Sun, 5/17/09, Roman Turovsky <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Roman Turovsky <[email protected]>
Subject: [LUTE] Il Viaggio d'Ulisse in Patria
To: "Lutelist" <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2009, 1:23 PM
Dear e-friends,
I've just returned from a voyage to Ukraine, my first in literally 30
years.
I had an opportunity to see the torbans in the museums, as well as some
breathtaking iconography, some of which I have begun to upload to
[1]http://www.torban.org/mamai/mamai1.html
and the following pages.
the photoreportage (there is one video as well) is at my blog at
[2]http://masaccio.livejournal.com/
Enjoy,
RT
To get on or off this list see list information at
[3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. http://www.torban.org/mamai/mamai1.html
2. http://masaccio.livejournal.com/
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
