The Russian word "doll" is related to the Greek "kyklos" ("circle"), it means something rolled up, for example, a piece of wood or a bundle of straw, which girls have long swaddled and wrapped, obeying the instinct of motherhood.
Instructions
Step 1
It is difficult to say what the first purpose of the doll was - sacred or play, which was almost inseparable from each other. Giving the child a log doll, clay or wax figurine, the mother gave him a toy and a talisman at the same time. No wonder when making a doll, which was placed in the cradle of a child even before his birth, neither scissors nor needles were used, so that the child's life was "not chopped or cut." All play dolls of the ancient Slavs did not have a face, just a white flap without marking the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. A doll without a face was considered an inanimate object, inaccessible for the instilling of evil forces into it (which, as you know, enter through the eyes and mouth, less often through the nose and ears). Such a doll could not come to life and harm the child.
Step 2
Handicraft dolls have appeared since the 16th century, but up to the 18th century, even children from wealthy families played with wooden and rag dummies. The porcelain dolls that appeared at that time were very expensive. In Russia, for example, children from the royal family were given such dolls only on holidays. But the tsar's daughters, like girls from peasant families, were taught from childhood to sew dolls with their own hands. They played with what they made themselves. The only difference was that the grand duchesses sewed porcelain heads bought abroad to home-made outfits, and their peers from the people were content entirely with rag dolls. As a rule, such dolls were stuffed with straw, sawdust, leaves, feathers, scraps of fabric left by the mother after working on adult clothes. In fact, the clothes of the dolls, in general terms, repeated the clothes of the people who created them. Facial features were embroidered or applied with ink and painted with natural dyes - tea, berry juice or leaf juice. In the 19th century, factories for the manufacture of dolls began to open. This was preceded by the invention in the 1800s of two new materials: composite (a mixture of wood chips, paper, ash, eggshell) and papier-mâché (a mixture of paper, sand, flour and cement), which replaced expensive wood and significantly reduced the cost of production. In the early years of Soviet rule, the dolls were declared a "bourgeois relic". In the 1930s, factories began to produce only celluloid dolls, and in the 1950s, they were also removed from kindergartens: it was believed that they cultivated maternal feelings in babies. Instead of bobbleheads, dolls "with ideological content", "sportswoman", "schoolgirl", "doctor" appeared. For the production of dolls, rubber, plastic and vinyl were used, which were much more durable than composite and papier-mâché. At the end of the Soviet era, these were vinyl dolls with glass eyes that rolled up with each bow, and a battery that allowed the doll to "talk". Then the doll's "lexical stock" was often limited to one word: "mother", and modern analogues of this doll sing songs, offer to get to know each other and, judging by the children's reaction, they do it very naturally.
Step 3
Today in stores there is a huge selection of dolls for children and dolls for adults, with European, Slavic or Asian faces, from different types of materials. The interest in dolls is understandable. They provide an opportunity to learn more about history, look at the past, understand what tastes were and what was considered the true embodiment of beauty. Collectible dolls are a great gift. Doll collectors are very special people. For them, dolls are not only a collectible, but a kind of amazing creature that lives in their house and creates an aura of beauty around itself. The collector has a completely unique and warm feeling for each doll. After all, dolls are a small life!
