The Motive of Childlessness in the Myth of the Ancestors of the Buryats

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Abstract

On the base of the numerous variants of the myth of the origin of the ancestors of the Buryats, the author analyzes episodes concerning the motive for punishing a childless shaman (two shamanesses), and the rituals associated with receiving a child. The composition of folklore discourse reveals the semantic and semiotic specificity of variable texts. Methods of comparative, semantic-hermeneutic and semiotic analysis to identify the features of the text structure and definition of transformations of text and context at different times and in different ethnic traditions are used. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the original plot outline and characters remain unchanged in the structure of the text: the shaman as a mother, the bull as a father and the children – the first ancestors of the Buryat tribes. The motive of punishment and description of the rite for obtaining a child is present in all versions of the myth, except for the brief Selenga version. In the invariant of the motive of punishment, variants of the motive of exile, mortification, and strangulation are revealed. In different versions of the myth, recoding, transformation and refinement relate to images, motifs and mnemonic symbols. In the composition of the analyzed episodes, the author reveals the transcoding of mnemonic symbols, which are deciphered in the context of traditional stories and legends related to ritual events. From a semiotic point of view, it has been established that sparks from a flame / embers from a fire, a bone and an arrow in this case are the receptacle of the souls of future children.

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About the authors

L. S. Dampilova

Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: dampilova_luda@rambler.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0917-5432

Doct. Sci. (Philol.), Head Researcher

Russian Federation, Ulan-Ude

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