Oriental Studies (Sep 2020)
Image of Fox in Khakas Culture: Late 19th – Mid-20th Centuries
Abstract
Introduction. The article analyzes a key zoological image of fox in everyday life, socioregulative, and ritual practices of the Khakas people. Goals. The work aims at delineating the image of fox in respective ethnic cultural contexts, and seeks to identify its role in everyday life and household activities, estimate significance of the animal manifested in Khakas worldview and ritual practices. Materials and Methods. Analyzed are late 19th – mid-20th century published ethnographic, lexical, and folklore materials. The key research principle employed is that of historicism which helps view each cultural phenomenon as an extensive process determined by respective actual conditions. History and ethnography research methods include those of relict examination and semantic analysis. Results. The paper is the first attempt to systemize and analyze historical, ethnographic, folklore, and linguistic materials dealing with the topic. It introduces some folklore texts, such as Russian translations of fragmented Khakas heroic tales ― alyptyg nymakh, characterizes the role of fox image in mundane and ceremonial practices of the ethnos. Conclusions. The study concludes the fox used to be essential enough to Khakas culture, which was due to its valuable fur and related symbolic (social status) advantages. Fox skins were used for traditional clothing and as a means of exchange. The Khakas people endowed the fox with high semiotic ranks, largely determined by its biological properties, such as zoological characteristics, acute mind, behavior, and living environment. The mythological image of fox is closely related to the Heaven and celestial objects, being simultaneously associated with lower (underground) realms and their demonic inhabitants. So, according to religious and mythological beliefs, the fox would often act as mediator. However, the cultural tradition tends to identify fox with woman and female principle at large, the latter including both positive and negative features attributed.
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