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Duvakin E. The Swallow and the Snake: Abaza Mythology in the World Context

Evgeny Duvakin
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the RAS
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-3464-6902
E-mail: e.duvakin@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. For a wide range of researchers, the mythology of the Abazins, one of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus, remains largely terra incognita. This article contains the first results of its study in a global perspective and in a broad historical context. The systematic processing of the data from more than a thousand traditions of the Old and New Worlds has allowed us to trace the distribution of the etiological motif “Whose Blood is Sweeter?” that is attested among the Abazins at least twice. In Eurasia, it occurs in the territories between Ireland and Manchuria. In the New World, the corresponding tales are shared among the indigenous peoples of Alaska, California, the Great Lakes, and several other regions. The pattern of distribution suggests that this motif was already known in the eastern areas of Eurasia at the time of the initial peopling of the Americas, which began more than 16 thousand years ago, so its relative age may be the same. In the Caucasus, “Whose Blood is Sweeter?” most likely appeared as a result of cultural and migratory impulses from Central Asia. They can be traced back to at least the 9th–8th centuries BC and became especially intense since the Migration Period. One of the Abaza versions finds a close correspondence in Rabghūzī’s “Stories of the Prophets” (1311) and has its roots in the oral and written Muslim tradition, that included some pre-Islamic Turkic beliefs. Another variant, recorded among the Abazins, tells how a dragon wanted to find the most delicious blood in the world. It may have an earlier origin and has a high degree of originality in the global context.

 

KEYWORDS: Abazins, Caucasus, folklore, mythology, mapping, ethnic history

 

FOR CITATION: Duvakin E. The Swallow and the Snake: Abaza Mythology in the World Context. Kunstkamera. 2025. 1 (27): 79–99. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-1(27)-79-99

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-1(27)-79-99
UDC 7.046.1(470.6)

 

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