Space of a Peasant House in Beliefs and Ceremonies Associated with Spirits-“masters” of Loci (Russian Mythological Texts of Perm Region)

A reconstruction of the traditional mythological ideas of the Russian inhabitants of the Perm region about the peasant house is carried out. The structural elements and premises of the hut are considered, which are perceived by the bearers of the tradition as places of contact with the spirits — “owners” of the loci. The analysis of the mythological texts recorded on the territory of the region about the bannik, the brownie, the domovoy, the leshy and the mermaid has been carried out. This material reveals a circle of rooms and elements of the Russian hut, in which, according to legend, spirits live. Permian beliefs are compared with common Slavic ones. It is concluded that the places of contact between a person and the “host” spirits are those elements of the house that are the sacred centers of the hut (oven, table) or represent its periphery (attic, golbets, closet, kitchen, bathroom, corridor, corner) or borders (door, threshold, porch, window, roof, floor, ceiling, mat). At the same time, such characteristics of these elements as “internal — external”, “upper — lower”, “central — peripheral” turn out to be important, reflecting the opposition “one’s own — someone else’s” that is basic for Slavic culture. There is a partial modernization of the spatial code in the beliefs of the Russians of the Perm region, which leads to a slight transformation of the tradition. New ideas are built into existing cultural models (the bathroom is on a par with other non-residential premises)

Leshy’s “Wardrobe” (by Material of Perm Region Russian Mythological Texts)

The article deals with folk ideas about leshy’s clothes. The material included mythological texts from the archives of the Perm State National Research University and folklore and ethnographic collections of the Perm region. The authors proceed from the position that clothing within the traditional culture is perceived as a semiotic system that provides a variety of information about a person: indicates gender, age, family status. The paper shows that the interpretation of clothing as a cultural code is projected on the inhuman, demonic world. It is proved that leshy’s clothing is also semiotically significant: firstly, it helps to emphasize the sex of the character and some of “social” characteristics (for example, “married” female leshy wears a handkerchief), and secondly, it marks the character’s belonging to the demonic world (at the same time certain items of clothing (sheepskin coat, coats in summer, elements of a military wardrobe, high hat), the color of suit (red, black or white), as well as the lack of necessary items of clothing, for example shoes can be considered as a sign of the “inhuman” nature of leshy. Particular attention is paid to the nominative combinations that describe leshy, which include the names of garments. The analysis shows that the elements of such combinations are usually the designations of such items of clothing, which are “standard” for men’s and women’s clothing. It is established that on the territory of the Perm region there is a tendency to “modernization” of the “wardrobe” minimum of leshy

Optical bench development for LISA

For observation of gravitational waves at frequencies between 30 μHz and 1 Hz, the LISA mission will be implemented in a triangular constellation of three identical spacecraft, which are mutually linked by laser interferometry in an active transponder scheme over a 5 million kilometer arm length. On the end point of each laser link, remote and local beam metrology with respect to inertial proof masses inside the spacecraft is realized by the LISA Optical Bench. It implements further- more various ancillary functions such as point-ahead correction, acquisition sensing, transmit beam conditioning, and laser redundancy switching. A comprehensive design of the Optical Bench has been developed, which includes all of the above mentioned functions and at the same time ensures manufacturability on the basis of hydroxide catalysis bonding, an ultrastable integration technology already perfected in the context of LISA's technology demonstrator mission LISA Pathfinder. Essential elements of this design have been validated by dedicated pre-investigations. These include the demonstration of polarizing heterodyne interferometry at the required Picometer and Nanoradian performance levels, the investigation of potential non-reciprocal noise sources in the so-called backlink fiber, as well as the development of a laser redundancy switch breadboard