Традиции собирательства в фольклоре калмыков и тувинцев

Elza Petrovna Bakaeva; Aleksandra Tagirovna Bayanova; Viktoria Vasilevna Kukanova

doi:10.25178/nit.2020.4.20

Authors

Elza Petrovna Bakaeva Kalmyk Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5188-1202
Aleksandra Tagirovna Bayanova Kalmyk Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5689-6454
Viktoria Vasilevna Kukanova Kalmyk Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7696-4151

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2020.4.20

Keywords:

foraging; foraging tradition; “forest” economy; Kalmyks; Tuvans; Kalmyk folklore; Tuvan folklore; comparative study

Abstract

This article is devoted to foraging as a type of economy specific for certain peoples of Central Asia. Ancestors of Tuvans and Oirats followed the “forest” type of economy, and their descendants must have preserved some of the foraging traditions. The authors aim to analyze the Kalmyk and Tuvan folklore for surviving traditions of foraging as an ancient type of Central Asian economy. The article also describes foraging-related details of traditional worldview. The study focuses on folklore texts of various genres, largely on fairy tales and epic. The ethnographic materials which contain descriptions of foraging are quite abundant.

The study helped the authors arrive at a conclusion that although the folklore texts show only a few traces of foraging, some do indeed survive. Tuvans have preserved more of them, while Kalmyks both changed their climatic zone (from taiga to the steppe) and migrated far away from their ancestral lands, from Central Asia to the Lower Volga. This is the factor which must have removed most of the mentions of the old type of economy.

Tuvan folklore features some of the archaic traditions of foraging which the texts link to primitive society and the cultural heroes of the folklore traditions. Foraging is usually associated with female characters, and gathering plants for men was a reproachable activity, allowed only under special circumstances. Later foraging became typical for the poorest part of the population.

Kalmyk folklore texts feature a plot of a staying in archaic conditions in the original world, with its typical features, such as the scarcity of food, the ‘wagon of grass’, the reprobate state, or lack of social recognition. Characters had to cross the border between the original world and the social world in order to take up cattle breeding to achieve welfare and happiness.

In the folklore texts containing information on primeval hunting and foraging, welfare is linked to the domestication of animals, which reveals the influence of the values of Kalmyk and Tuvan culture.

References

Vainshtein, S. I. (1991) Mir kochevnikov tsentra Azii [The world of nomads of the center of Asia]. Moscow, Nauka. 296 p. (In Russ.).

Dashibalov, B. B. and Rassadin, V. I. (2004) Otkuda vyshli predki mongolov? [Where did the ancestors of the Mongols come from?]. Vostochnaia kollektsiia, Zima, no. 4 (19), pp. 34–41. (In Russ.).

Dashibalov, B. B. (2005) Na mongolo-tiurkskom pogranich'e (Etnokul'turnye protsessy v Iugo-Vostochnoi Sibiri v srednie veka) [On the Mongol-Turkic border: Ethnocultural processes in South-Eastern Siberia in the Middle ages]. Ulan-Ude, Izd-vo BNTs SO RAN. 202 p. (In Russ.).

Dushan, U. D. (1973) Istoriko-etnograficheskie zametki ob Erketenevskom uluse Kalmytskoi ASSR [Historical and ethnographic notes on ulus Erlenescar, Kalmyk ASSR]. In: Etnograficheskie vesti, no. 3. / ed. by N. Sh. Tashninov. Elista, Kalmytskii NIIIaLI. 229 p. Pp. 31–107. (In Russ.).

Kalmyki [The Kalmyks] (2010). Ed. by E. P. Bakaeva and N. L. Zhukovskaya. Moscow, Nauka. 568 p. (In Russ.).

Kalmytskie bogatyrskie skazki = Khal'mg baatrlg tuul's [The Kalmyk heroic tales] (2017) / prep., transl. by B. B. Mandzhieva, T. A. Mikhaleva and Ts. B. Seleeva. Moscow, Kalmytskii nauch. tsentr RAN. 560 p. (In Russ. and Kalm.).

Kalmytskie skazki [Kalmyk fairy tales] (1962a) / ed. by I. K. Ilishkin and U. U. Ochirov. Elista, Kalmgosizdat. 331 p. (In Russ.).

Kalmytskie skazki [Kalmyk fairy tales] (1962b) / comp. by B. Dzhibinov. Elista, Kalmgosizdat. 183 p. (In Russ.).

Kalmytskie skazki [Kalmyk fairy tales] (1978) / transl. from Kalm. Elista, Kalm. kn. izd-vo. 148 p. (In Russ.).

Kalmytsko-russkii slovar' [Kalmyk-Russian Dictionary] (1977) / ed. by B. D. Muniea. Moscow, Russkii yazyk Publ. 764 p. (In Russ.).

Kornievskii, V. N. (2017) Kalmyki Donskoi oblasti, Astrakhanskoi i Stavropol'skoi gubernii [Kalmyks of the Don region, Astrakhan and Stavropol governorates]. Elista, KalmNTs RAN. 85 p. (In Russ.).

Kyzlasov, L. R. (1992) Ocherki po istorii Sibiri i Tsentral'noi Azii [Essays on the history of Siberia and Central Asia]. Krasnoiarsk, Izd-vo Krasnoiarskogo universiteta. 224 p. (In Russ.).

Nebol'sin, P. I. (1852) Ocherki byta kalmykov Khoshoutovskogo ulusa [Essays on the life of the Kalmyks in Khoshoutovsky ulus]. St. Petersburg, Tip. K. Kraiia. 192 p. (In Russ.).

Nekliudov, S. Yu. (1988) Oirat-kalmytskaia mifologiia [Oirat-Kalmyk mythology]. In: Mify narodov mira [Myths of the peoples of the world]: in 2 vol. / ed. by S. A. Tokarev. Moscow, Sovetskaia entsiklopediia. Vol. 2. 671 p. Pp. 247–248. (In Russ.).

Ondar, A. U. (2018) Sistema pitaniia tuvintsev-todzhintsev [The diet of Tozhu Tuvans] In: Aktual'nye problemy issledovaniia etnoekologicheskikh i etnokul'turnykh traditsii narodov Saiano-Altaia [Urgent issues of research in ethnoecological and ethnocultural traditions of the Sayan-Altai peoples]. Materials of the V-th international scientific and practical conference of young scientists, postgraduates and students / ed. by U. V. Ondar. Kyzyl, Tuvinskii gosuniversitet. 235 p. Pp. 12‒15. (In Russ.).

Ostrovskikh, P. E. (1898) Kratkii otchet o poezdke v Todzhinskii khoshun Uriankhaiskoi zemli [Brief report on a trip to the Tozhu khoshun of Uriankhai territory]. Izvestiia IRGO, vol. XXXIV. Issue IV. Pp. 424‒432. (In Russ.).

Pallas, P. S. (1773) Puteshestvie po raznym provintsiyam Rossiiskoi imperii [A journey through various provinces of the Russian Empire] : in 3 vols. St. Petersburg, Imperatorskaya Akademiya Nauk. Vol. 1. 455 p. (In Russ.).

Potanin, G. N. (1881) Ocherki Severo-Khapadnoi Mongolii [Essays On Northwestern Mongolia]. Vol. 2. Materialy etnograficheskie [Ethnographic materials]. St. Petersburg, Tip. V. Kirshbauma. 182, 87 p. (In Russ.).

Potapov, L. P. (1953) Ocherki po istorii altaitsev [Essays on the history of the Altai people]. Moscow, Leningrad, Izd-vo AN SSSR. 445 p. (In Russ.).

Potapov, L. P. (1969) Ocherki narodnogo byta tuvintsev [The Tuvans: sketches of the folk lifestyle and related household activities]. Moscow, Nauka, GRVL. 402 p. (In Russ.).

Prokof'eva, E. D. (2011) Protsess natsional'noi konsolidatsii tuvintsev [The Process of National Consolidation of the Tuvans]. St. Petersburg, Nauka. 538 p. (In Russ.).

Sanchirov, V. P. (2003) O material'noi kul'ture oiratov XIII‒XVII vekov [On the material culture of the Oirats in the 13th – 17th centuries]. Mongolovedenie, no. 2 (1), pp. 203‒210. (In Russ.).

Sem' zvezd: kalmytskie legendy i predaniia [Seven stars: Kalmyk legends and traditions] (2007) / comp. by D. E. Basaev. 2nd ed. Elista, Kalm. kn. izd-vo. 415 p. (In Russ.).

Skazki i predaniia altaiskikh tuvintsev [Fairy tales and legends of the Altaian Tuvans] (1994). Comp. by E. Taube. Moscow, Vostochnaya Literatura. 410 p. (In Russ.).

Skazki narodov Sibiri [Tales of the peoples of Siberia] (1984) / transl. by A. L. Garf et al. Novosibirsk, Zapadno-Sibirskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo. 43 p. (In Russ.).

Tuvinskie geroicheskie skazaniya [Tuvan heroic tales] (1997) / comp. by S. M. Orus-ool. Novosibirsk, Nauka. 584 p. (In Russ.)

Tuvinskie narodnye skazki [Tuvan folk tales] (1988) / retelling and processing by M. Khadakhane. Moscow, Detskaia literatura. 111 p. (In Russ.).

Tuvinskie narodnye skazki [Tuvan folk tales] (1994a) / comp. by Z. B. Samdan. Novosibirsk, Nauka. 460 p. (In Russ.).

Tuvinskie narodnye skazki [Tuvan folk tales] (1994b). Ed. by V. M. Gatsak. Novosibirsk, Nauka. 460 p. (In Russ.).

Khal'mg tuul's [Kalmyk fairy tales] (1974) / Bart beldsn' B. B. Okonov, E. D. Muchkinova. Elista, KNIIIaLI. 4-gch bot'. 274 p. (In Kalm.).

Sharaeva, T. I. (2019) «I otkuda Vashi svaty?» (realii i mental'nye obrazy prostranstva v svadebnom obriade kalmykov) [‘So where are your in-laws from?’: Realities and mental images within the space of Kalmyk wedding rites)]. New Research of Tuva, no. 3, pp. 135‒148. (In Russ.). DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25178/nit.2019.3.11

Sharaeva, T. I. and Aiyzhy, E. V. (2019) Chai v traditsionnoi kul'ture kalmykov i tuvintsev [Tea in the traditional culture of the Kalmyks and Tuvans]. New Research of Tuva, no. 4, pp. 140‒153. (In Russ.). DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25178/nit.2019.4.12

Erdniev, U. E. (1970) Kalmyki (konets XIX — nachalo XX v.): istoriko-etnografieskie ocherki [Kalmyks (late 19th — early 20th centuries): historical and ethnographic essays]. Elista, Kalmizdat. 307 p. (In Russ.).