Hair & Dress in Imperial Russia

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

Dear colleagues,
Slavianskie drevnosti is indeed an important and rich source, and does  
have the limitations mentioned by Will Ryan.  The reference to  
Corinthians is quite interesting, and adds some historical and cross- 
cultural perspective.  Paul is thoroughly sexist: a man is but the  
image and glory of God ("obraz i slava Bozhiia" in the Synodal trans  
of texts going back to "eikon kai doksa Theou"), while a woman is but  
the glory of a man ("slava muzha" rendering "doksa andros").  Probably  
"doksa" is better rendered "reflection" (Oxford NRSV).  So a woman is  
but the reflection of a reflection.  What a woman has, however, in  
addition to her "glory"/"reflection" is her "authority on her  
head" ("znak vlasti nad neiu," rendering the "eksousian" she should  
have on her head) - i.e., her hair.  NRSV gives "a woman ought to have  
a symbol of authority on her head" (I Cor. 11:10), meaning roughly,  
she ought to have the freedom of choice regarding her head.  So Paul  
seems to want to have it both ways: women should be subordinate to  
men, but they are equal too.  The passage is obscure, and  
fascinating.  The OXFORD BIBLE COMMENTARY (2001, pp. 1125-1126)  
provides some insights, as well as the relevant historical literature  
on head-covering in the Graeco-Roman world.  Apparently worship in  
Corinth was, shall we say, pretty free and easy, and this provoked  
Paul.  Later Tertullian chimed in with a piece on the veiling of  
virgins.

The reason for going into this is that the biblical text has (for me)  
the same ambivalent feel about the hair on a woman's head which is  
expressed in those sad Russian peasant prenuptial bath songs.  In the  
"bania" the bride-to-be laments the loss of her "krasota" (stress on  
first syllable) and her "volia."  These are not merely "beauty" and  
"freedom," but items of headgear which will be lost when the girl  
effectively enters into a relationship of "nevolia" with the husband  
who will have the right to abuse her for the rest of her life.  See my  
SLAVE SOUL OF RUSSIA (1995, 193-201).

Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
UC Davis

http://Rancour-Laferriere.com



On Oct 15, 2008, at 1:02 PM, William Ryan wrote:

> I have only just seen this, but since I have been cited I would  
> recommend looking first at the 4-page entry 'volosy' in Slavianskie  
> drevnosti, vol. 1, Moscow, 1995. The only problem with it is that it  
> is anthropological and not historical in emphasis - but there is a  
> great deal about hair and magic, and short sections on unbound and  
> uncovered hair. You will find some references to hair and magic in  
> my own history of Russian  magic, The Bathhouse at Midnight, PSUP,  
> 1999, see index under 'hair' (or the rather better index in the  
> Russian version: Bania v polnoch', NLO, Moscow, 2006). The trouble  
> with folk beliefs is that most are recorded in the nineteenth  
> century and later and it is usually difficult to say much about  
> their history. Even so, many beliefs and practices recorded in the  
> nineteenth century are likely to have been prevalent in the  
> eighteenth century also, or even earlier.
> The Pauline injunctions (1 Corinthians 11:4-16) on covering hair,  
> and the Russian custom of cutting off the long hair of brides at  
> their wedding, would have been significant, and indeed affect the  
> kind of head covering which women wore.
> Will Ryan
>
>
> Allison Leigh-Perlman wrote:
>> Can anyone recommend some good source material regarding the  
>> covering of female hair and its 'magical' qualities in 18th-century  
>> Russia or earlier?  I'm also interested in histories of costume/ 
>> dress of the same time period.  Any recommendations would be  
>> greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Allison Leigh-Perlman
>>
>> Graduate Assistant Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
>> Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
>>
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