A twig across a road: magical means of blocking a path in the context of the Russian road tradition

This article examines ritual practices of magical path blocking, which were widespread among Russians and other Eurasian ethnic groups in the 19th and 20th centuries. The research reconstructs a complex of beliefs and ritual actions associated with the creation of symbolic barriers. Drawing on ethnographic, folkloric, and dialecto-logical sources, the author examines such actions within the framework of key rites of passage (such as weddings and funerals), as well as in the context of protection against diseases and evil spirits, the search for missing per-sons, and the identification of individuals accused of sorcery or witchcraft. The study positions these rituals as one of the elements of the road tradition in Russia — a system of stable behavioral stereotypes associated with travel on foot or by horse-drawn transport. Until the first half of the 20th century, the road tradition constituted a signifi-cant aspect of everyday life in Russia. This area of scientific knowledge obviously intersects with ethnography, anthropology, and cultural studies. Symbolic path obstruction had different forms. The article examines such va-rieties as “cutting off a road”, “closing a road”, “chopping the cholera”, “throwing the crosses”, etc. These actions were typically accompanied by the recitation of incantations. The article considers such rituals as performative expressions of cultural meanings rooted in the collective worldview. Analysis reveals that such rituals were grounded in the universal principle of demarcating “one's own” and “other's” space.