RU | EN
Submenu

Stepanova O. The Image of a Dog in the Worldview of the Selkups

Olga Stepanova
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-2130-2695
E-mail: stepanova67@mail.ru

 

  Download  |  Go to Issue #1. 2023

 

ABSTRACT. The aim of the study was to consider the image of a dog in the worldview of the Selkups. This problem is still poorly understood, which emphasizes its relevance and significance. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were drawn. The mythological dog of the Selkups in its image reflected all the concepts of the animal that stand out in the Selkup worldview, namely: animistic, according to which the animal is a spirit, a creature of the other world; totemic, whose postulate is that all Selkup clans are descended from animals; world-forming, which determines that the animal-ancestor creates the elements of the universe and postulates the laws of the life of society; the concept of combining anthropomorphic and zoomorphic appearance in the animal-spirit; the concept of duality, according to which animal spirits are characterized by actions of a polar orientation; the idea of the embodiment of the universe in a giant animal ancestor with the mechanism of crossing the border between the earthly and other worlds combined with it and the principle of circulation between the worlds of the human soul, in the area of otherness acquiring the features of an animal ancestor. The dog was not a wild, but a domestic animal, therefore, in mythology, the language of metaphors emphasizes its special features: a dog lives with a person, is equal to a person in mental abilities, but at the same time is forced to serve him hard and disinterestedly. A special quality of the dog is also indicated by its ability to smell spirits and enemies and report their approach to a person. The mythological representations of the Selkups reflected the role that the dog played in their economic activities.

 

KEYWORDS: Selkups, mythology, worldview, dog, animal concepts

 

FOR CITATION: Stepanova O. The Image of a Dog in the Worldview of the Selkups. Kunstkamera. 2023. 1(19): 44–54. (In Russian). doi 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-44-54  

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-44-54
УДК 39(=511.2)

 

REFERENCES

  • Adrianov A. V. Zabytye liudi zabytogo kraia [Forgotten people of the forgotten land]. Russkie vedomosti, 1889, no. 9, pp. 2–3 (In Russian)
  • Baidak A. V., Maksimova N. P., Tuchkova N. A. Sobaka v iazyke i mifologii sel’kupov (The dog in the language and mythology of the Selkups). Kul’tura kak sistema v istoricheskom kontekste: opyt Zapadno-Sibirskikh arkheologo-etnograficheskikh soveshchanii. Materialy XV mezhdunarodnoi Zapadno-Sibirskoi arkheologo-etnograficheskoi konferentsii, Tomsk, 19–21 maia 2010 goda. [Culture as a system in the historical context: the experience of the West Siberian archaeological and ethnographic conferences. Proceedings of the XV International West Siberian Archaeological and Ethnographic Conference. Tomsk, May 19–21, 2010]. Tomsk: Agraf-Press Publ., 2010, pp. 96–99. (In Russian)
  • Van Gennep A. Obriady perekhoda [Rites of passage]. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura RAN Publ., 1999. (In Russ.)
  • Gemuev I. N. Sem’ia u sel’kupov (XIX — nachalo XX veka) [The family of the Selkups (XIX — early XX centuries)]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1984. (In Russian)
  • Golovnev A. V. Govoriashchie kul’tury: traditsii samodiitsev i ugrov [Speaking cultures: traditions of the Samoyeds and Ugrians]. Yekaterinburg: UrO RAN Publ., 1995. (In Russian)
  • Donner K. U samoiedov Sibiri [At the Samoyeds of Siberia]. Tomsk: Veter Publ., 2008. (In Russian)
  • Kuznetsova A. I. Kanak (kanak) — sobaka [Kanak (kanak) — the dog]. Mifologiia sel’kupov. Seriia “Entsiklopediia ural’skikh mifologii” [Mythology of the Selkup. Series “Encyclopedia of Ural mythologies”]. Tomsk: TGU Publ., 2004, pp. 142–144. (In Russian)
  • Levi-Strauss K. Strukturnaia antropologiia (Structural Anthropology). Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1985. (In Russian)
  • Narody Zapadnoi Sibiri. Khanty, mansi, sel’kupy, nentsy, entsy, nganasany, kety. Entsiklopediia serii “Narody i kul’tury” [Peoples of Western Siberia. Khanty, Mansi, Selkups, Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Kets. Encyclopedia of the “Peoples and Cultures” series]. Ed. I. N. Gemuev, V. I. Molodin, Z. P. Sokolova. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2005. (In Russian)
  • Pelikh G. I. Proiskhozhdenie sel’kupov [The origin of the Selkups]. Tomsk: TGU Publ., 1972. (In Russian)
  • Pelikh G. I. Sel’kupskaya mifologiya [Selkup mythology]. Tomsk: TGU Publ., 1998. (In Russian)
  • Prokofiev G. N. Sel’kupskii (ostyako-samoyedskii) yazyk. Sel’kupskaia grammatika. Chast’ 1 [Selkup (Ostyak-Samoyed) language. Selkup grammar. Pt. 1]. Leningrad: Institut narodov Severa Publ., 1935. (In Russian)
  • Prokofieva E. D. Predstavleniia sel’kupskikh shamanov o mire (po risunkam i akvareliam sel’kupov) [Representations of the Selkup shamans about the world (based on the drawings and watercolors of the Selkup)]. Sbornik MAE. Moscow–Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1961, vol. 20, pp. 54–74. (In Russian)
  • Propp V. Ya. Istoricheskie korni volshebnoi skazki [The historical roots of fairy tales]. Moscow: Labyrint Publ., 2005. (In Russian)
  • Skazki narodov Severa [Tales of the peoples of the North]. Ed. by M. G. Voskobinikov and G. A. Menovshchikov. Moscow – Leningrad: Goslitizdat Publ., 1959. (In Russian)
  • Stepanova O. B. Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie sel’kupov: predstavleniia o krugovorote zhizni i dushe [The traditional worldview of the Selkups: ideas about the cycle of life and the soul]. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Oriental Studies Publ., 2008. (In Russian)
  • Stepanova O. B. Motiv rodstvennoi vrazhdy v fol’klore severnykh sel’kupov [The Motif of Kinship Enmity in the Folklore of the Northern Selkups]. Oriental studies, 2022, no. 1, pp. 169–178. (In Russian)