The Opposition of “Kindred / Alien” in Small Genres of Buryat Folklore

The paper reveals the peculiarities of the opposition of friend / foe (or kindred / alien) in the family-kinship relations of Buryats on the example of Buryat proverbs and sayings in the aspect of semantic content of the text. It is relevant to study the role of the universal opposition of one’s own / another’s in the formation of people’s interaction in society, to identify national specifics in the use of mechanisms of identity and differences in paroemias. The work involves the materials of field research of recent years, archival and published sources proving the stability and preservation of small genres of folklore. It is revealed that in the local tradition, formulaic expressions similar in meaning can change their semantics, complementing and expanding the functions of the main character. It is established that the most common and preserved are proverbs about the maternal uncle with a positive connotation. It should also be concluded that in Buryat proverbs, the duality of the position of the maternal side and the recognition of the paternal, then maternal side of one’s close to a certain extent influenced the modification of oppositional markers of relatives-nephews.

Buryats, relatives, opposition of one’s own / another’s, small forms of folklore, proverbs, sayings