Conceptul de pîine în mentalul romînesc (în baza experimentului asiciativ)

Choosing bread as the main food which accompanies different rites is the result of a long process of discernment of values and of symbolic tools. The vivacity of a culture is maintained through the synchronization of the two elements. The bread – the basic instrument of the food system - carries a value connotation of ethnicity. Bread rites are the expression of national character. The method of the Associative Experiment has allowed us to reveal the way bread is shaped, the meanings it has, the relations it forms and the way it emphasizes the value of the world structure. The associative reactions which we have recorded for the word-stimulus bread prove that bread is deeply ethnic as food ritual, as objectified symbol which unites all of the value vectors of society.