The problems of determining the canon in the plastic folklore of the Sakha (Yakuts)

Abstract

In the conditions of erosion of specificity and weakening of ethnic cultures identity, massive imitation of authenticity undertaken by the cultural bearers themselves with the aim of commercializing becomes an additional threat to its preservation. The authors believe that these threats can be minimized if “structuring elements” of this culture are determined. In particular, the popularization of canonical national forms of culture can contribute to this. The undividedness of oral folk art and decorative applied art is the basic characteristics of folklore. In addition to it, the structural and content components of the artistic canon in the folk art of Sakha (Yakuts) are named in the paper. In traditional culture, the thing made according to the canon, determines the behavior of its owner and makes him correspond to the expected visions of the ethnic community; moreover, it models the scenario of his fate. The problems of interaction between the evolution of style and the author’s deviations from the canon are partially touched upon in the article. With regard to the plastic folklore, these are the best, typical, and familiar features that are not presented as a sum of skills and techniques of craft, but as a creative interpretation of the national master. In the outstanding works of folk art, these ornamental forms are deliberately chosen, taking into account the chromatic code of culture, the composition of which refers to the national picture of the world. The pictorial canon in the plastic folklore captures and transmits the rules for visualizing the spiritual experience of the people from generation to generation. In fact, it forms the framework of culture, and it is the canon that provides for “not a common expression of faces” of each culture.