Abstract:
The article discusses the treatment of fertility and the means of its expression in traditional culture. The relevant questions include: how to speculate about fertility, how to protect and stimulate it in communal and family customs, how to hinder fertility and cause infertility through word and gesture. The author argues that the verbal code as the carrier of symbolic meanings is inalienably linked with other cultural codes: material, personal, actional, involving music and dance, temporal, and locative. The codes function interchangeably, replacing and complementing one another.
