The key issues of the article are the ideas of academician S.M. Tolstaya, who claims that “the symbolism of an object can be motivated by its various qualities and features” and that “one and the same feature can bring forth several different symbols”, and also that “not necessarily all the objects that a man has learned to use should be involved into the system of symbols and rituals”. This accounts for the selectiveness with which culture endows some terms with the ability to exist in cultural contexts, while others are bereft of both cultural functions and symbolic meanings. The authors’ aim was to reveal cultural contexts, cultural semantics and functions of such an element of a traditional culture as (a) hair, whether it is involved in the system of symbols and rituals, in what symbols this natural realia is expressed and whether the primary symbols, images and allegories, secured in the symbols of (a) hair have been preserved in the perception of modern people. The research was based on the works of ethnographers, on popular scientific literature and on field data gathered by the authors themselves.

Keywords: magic views, cultural semantics, symbolic function, symbol, genetic code, mascot, beliefs, system of beliefs.

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