The ideas of traditional Yakuts about animals reflected in folklore texts about clothing

Fedorova Aitalina Rodionovna Junior researcher, Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North of Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 677000, Russia, respublika Sakha (Yakutiya), g. Yakutsk, ul. Petrovskogo, 1 aytap@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction. An important area of direct human interaction with the animal world is the costume. To a certain extent, traditional clothing is never just a "thing", its shape is able to transform the body, create an image. In any culture, archaic ideas about clothing are associated with sacred ideas about the surrounding world, space, apothecary, social, aesthetic meanings are put into the costume, and animals play an important role in this phenomenon, acting here not only as material resources, but also carrying mental content, endowing a garment with special meanings, and a person special qualities. The costume is in direct contact with the human biological body, which is perceived in all cultures not just as a biological object, but as something related to the human personality. As the historian of everyday life N.B. Lebina notes, clothing for a historian embodies not only materiality, but also represents a material expression of a social norm, a symbolic expression of bodily and everyday practices ^{[1, 205]}.

Yakut traditional clothing as one of the important elements of material culture has been the subject of study by travelers and ethnographers more than once. The first ethnographic descriptions of Yakut traditional clothing date back to the XVIII century, when the first studies of ethnographers and travelers were made. Ides ^[2], J. Lindenau ^[3] and I.G. Georgi ^[4]. More detailed and in-depth descriptions of the Yakut costume were later reflected in the studies of N.S. Shchukin ^[5], A.F. Middendorf ^[6], R. Maak ^[7] and V.L. Seroshevsky ^[8]. A new stage of deeper research and understanding of the previous material begins in the Soviet era in the works of A.P. Okladnikov ^[9], M.M. Nosov ^[10], I.A. Khudyakov ^[11]. E.D. Strelov ^[12], I.V. Konstantinov ^[13], R.I. Bravina ^[14], and the Sakha-French MAFSO expedition ^[15] were engaged in an important direction of studying archaic costume from archaeological sources. The first modern in-depth study of the Yakut archaic clothing complex and its classification was made in the work of R.S. Gavrilyeva "Clothing of the Sakha people of the late XVII - mid XVIII century" ^[16], a look at the traditional costume of the XIX century, the ritual and ceremonial function of clothing, modern interpretations of folk clothing were reflected in the works of S.I. Petrova ^{[17, 18, 19]}.

These studies have made an invaluable contribution to the study of the Yakut traditional costume. In them, the authors' attention was paid to the issues of the visual appearance of Yakut clothing, sacred functions, and the transformation of an archaic costume into a classic, in today's understanding, traditional canonical costume of the XIX century. In this article, an attempt will be made to interpret the raw materials of Yakut clothing and its symbolic meaning, the role of animal fur in social reality.

The main part. Ideas about costume materials in folklore can be divided into two thematic groups: (1) folklore data revealing the social significance and material value of animal skins, and (2) ideas about the apotropaic, magical functions of animals transmitted to humans through clothing. Folklore sources can be attributed to the first group, reflecting the mental division of one or another fur by the Yakuts into the number of valuable and less valuable. Next, it is proposed to assess the attitude of the Yakuts to animal fur through folklore data, which could indirectly inform us about their own perception of the value of a particular material.

Perhaps the main indicator of the importance of animal fur is its use in describing the attire of divine beings. The Yakuts' respectful attitude towards the supernatural world was expressed, among other things, by awarding images of deities and spirits with the best manifestations of the spiritual and material. Here is how the description of the costume of the spirit-mistress of the earth Aan Alakhchyn Khotun is given in the texts of Olonkho Er-Sogotokh: She threw on silver sables, threw a cap on one side to a spotted lynx; the knees are covered with trousers of the best wolf skins, the sleeves are put on to the spotted lynx; the boots are shod with silver sables of the hind legs ^{[20, p. 56]}. A similar detailed description of the materials of the costume can be found in the images of the spirit-master of the Bayanai forest: "The spirit-master of the rich dark forest, who rides on a runner horse, steps on insoles from the backs of a blue squirrel, shod in stockings made of fluffy sable nags, dressed in a dokha made of shiny fur from the rump of a sable, a bib made of tails he dresses foxes, wears a horned hat made of the paws of a silver fox, who is arrogant in disposition, but generously gives, Baai Barylah, my grandfather!" ^{[21, pp. 66-70]}.

Interesting data can be obtained by referring to Yakut proverbs and sayings, which can act as good sources for the views and everyday life of the Yakuts. Proverbs and sayings are the type of sources used by researchers, they, according to researchers, represent a macrotext in which the everyday and socio-historical experience of the language collective is captured ^{[22, p. 15]}.

In Yakut proverbs and sayings, clothes most often appear as an allegorical phrase or metonymy, with which they describe a person's wealth:

Satabyllaah—sahyl sa5alaah – A skillful and resourceful fox collar. (Meaning: he is not poor) ^{[23, p. 56]};

Siegen syha buorga haalbat, buobura syha buorga haalbat — The shreds from the skins of wolverine and beaver do not throw themselves on the ground. (Meaning: Expensive and useful things are always expensive and useful, and the children of good people are always good) ^{[24, p. 68]};

Manik Manigiyen bader sagynagyn okko is a mask of yyabytygar dyli —like Manik Manigiyen, who hung his trotting dokha in parts on the tops of plants. (The autology is taken from a legend where the hero, seeing the reeds swaying in the wind, thought that they were begging him, cut his lynx dokha into pieces and hung them on each reed. They talk about frivolous people who recklessly scatter their goods ^{[24, p. 55]};

Urde uus berge h e, anna adyr uu —from above—a lynx hat, from below—menacing water. (They talk about beautiful and well-dressed women with bad morals) ^{[24, p. 115]}.

All these examples show how the presence of clothing made of a certain fur (in this case, fox, beaver, lynx, wolverine) is an analogy for determining wealth and prosperity, and sometimes a positive assessment of a "good person". V.F. Troshchansky also noted that according to the ancient ideas of the Yakuts, the indicator of a decent life and afterlife bliss was material prosperity, not moral values, in this he saw remnants of their old, pre-Christian ideas ^{[25, p. 2]}.

The use of the description of clothes made of expensive hides as a definition of beauty is found in the folk epic Olonkho. In the text "Ala Bulkun" recorded by V.N. Vasiliev in 1906, the clothes of the hero Ala Bulkun are described in this way:

"They say he was richly dressed then

In clothes made of sable furs,

They say he was dressed smartly then

In clothes made of sable skins,

They say he was all dressed up then

In furry fluffy robes.

They say the clothes are strong

From the moose police department he wore,

They say the clothes are thick

From the reindeer rovd, he wore ..." ^{[19, p. 37]}.

This description is intended to introduce the listener to the hero and is a literary device aimed at demonstrating the noble origin of the hero, his strength and beauty. A similar description occurs when describing the betrothed of the hero of Er Sogotoh Yuryumechchi-Yukeideen, when, in addition to praising her beauty, a description of clothes is given:

"Furs from those valleys collected,

Wrapped in lynx furs,

Grown up in sable furs

Yuryumechchi-Yukaideen by name,

— He planned to take her as his wife" ^{[20, p. 58]}.

A number of proverbs, on the contrary, are designed not to demonstrate wealth, but to define poverty, ruin, insignificance:

Bege dieri yt butun ytyra syldybytyn, bugun sahyl kuturugun tuta syldagyn – Until yesterday you carried a dog's thigh in your teeth, and today you carry a fox tail in your hands. (This is how a recently rich man is scolded in a quarrel) ^{[24, p. 28]};

Haya do5oor, kugas yt holun kybynaayagyn – Take care, comrade, so that you do not carry the front leg of a ginger dog under your arm. (They speak in the sense of a warning against final ruin, as a result of the business started) ^{[23, p. 85]}.

Omollon yty sulbutuger dyl y – Just like Omollon tore a dog's skin. (Autology: Omollon is a legendary hero. Whether he really tore the dog's skin is unknown, but it is possible, since the hero was going crazy. Tearing a dog's skin was considered the most despicable thing among the Yakuts. The proverb is used when someone is engaged in an insignificant and ugly business ^{[24, p. 58]}.

Yraakhtaagi syldyar siriger yt syldyar—where there is a king, there is a dog. (Meaning: a bad person can also be where a good or honorable person is) ^{[24, p. 104]}.

Interestingly, in cases where it is necessary to show poverty, only the analogy of a dog's skin is used. There are no options for using other materials in this sense. The image of a dog in the Yakut traditional culture is quite polar: on the one hand, it was perceived as a guard, an assistant in hunting, sometimes even a spirit assistant to a shaman, and on the other hand, we can sometimes observe a disdainful attitude towards it, which is reflected in similar everyday expressions. The dog could not be present at tyusyulge during the Ysyakh – the summer solstice holiday, and the word "yt" is also used in the Yakut vocabulary as a variety of swear words ^{[26, stb. 3839]}. This may also be evidenced by the domestic practices of keeping dogs described by V.L. Seroshevsky, judging by which dogs were kept in fairly strict conditions, lived mainly on the street and looked for food themselves ^{[8, p. 137]}.

Data on the use of dog skins in a costume is extremely limited. There are several copies of traditional Yakut clothing in which small decorative elements were identified as dog fur: (1) A 19th-century Hotoydooh son, whose hem and side were trimmed with black dog fur ^{[27, p. 102]}, (2) winter gloves made of horse paws are trimmed with dog fur ^{[27, p. 63]}, (3) a cap made of red fox fur of the XIX century, was also decorated with dog fur in addition to fox and lynx fur ^{[27, p. 419]}. These examples create some contradiction between the folklore manifestations of a negative attitude towards the skin of a dog and its use in decorating rather expensive listed products. Nevertheless, apparently dog fur was used extremely rarely in tailoring, and if it was used, then applicatively. We have not found any products that would be completely or more sewn from this fur, its use was limited to decoration. It is interesting to note that in the scientific literature on traditional costume, there is no data on the use of dog skin in clothing, the listed specimens using dog fur are obtained from descriptions of Yakut collections of American museums.

The second group of folklore data reflects in its content more complex forms of semantic attitudes, according to which clothing has not only a physically saving and status value, but also carries magical functions, and animals play a significant role in this phenomenon. In general, ideas about the sacredness of a costume and an animal as a carrier of magical power are found in almost all traditional cultures. Similar ideas are vividly reflected in the Yakut spiritual culture. In ancient times, fur and animal skins were not only utilitarian, but also an important function of a talisman. Petrova S.I., as an example of the protective function of clothing, cites examples from the Olonkho "Nyurgun Botur the Swift", where Mrs. Sabyya Baai Khotun hides her daughter Tuyaarym Kuo in a sable skin to protect her unearthly beauty from the sun god, and son Kyun Jiribine wraps in the skin of a bear and a wolf so that he becomes brave, strong and a great hero ^{[19, p. 36]}.

She also cites the text of P.A. Oyunsky, according to which a fur coat made of sable skins, gloves made of wolf fur, and shoes made of bear paws, with which Saha Saaryn toyon intends to plug "drafts" from the Upper and Lower World are designed not only to protect from the cold, but also have powerful magical power from the effects of upper and lower spirits-abaasy [c. 51]:

"If suddenly the Spirit of death

My middle world

It will come unexpectedly from the side

I'll cover it with a fur coat dear –

So to speak, he hung up

On a spreading tree

Your traveling fur coat,

Sewn from sable skins...

From the scary Underworld,

If there is a sudden draft,

I'll cover it with my shoes

From the skins of a big bear,

- So to speak, he put

To his high shelf ... ^{[28, p. 71]}.

Thus, the costume and its decorations, according to the views of the Yakuts, have the opportunity to protect a person from negative effects, to transfer certain qualities to the wearer. The shamanic costume demonstrates especially vividly the manifestations of such views. In the ethnographic literature, there is information that the old Yakut shamans had a costume made of a whole animal skin ^[29] or wore a whole bear and wolf skin along with a removed head during the kamlaniy mysteries ^{[30, p. 126]}. The animal in this role is not only a physical garment, but also a zoomorphic helper. Researchers associate this phenomenon and define it by the plot of the transfer of the shamanic gift to people from a totemic ancestor. A similar motif was described by V.Y. Propp, where the heroes of a fairy tale wrap themselves in animal skins to get to Another world. Such an action, which has parallels in funeral rites, symbolized the swallowing, "ritual death" of a person by a totem as a way to reach the "land of ancestral spirits" ^{[31, p. 20]}. This mythical pattern and its everyday use can symbolize clothing as a means of introducing a person to the natural world, endowing it with special sacred properties.

Conclusion. In addition to the rational economic factor, the value of animal fur can be identified through the perception of this value by the people themselves – through oral folklore and ethnographic materials. The conducted research of ethnographic data, Olonkho texts, Yakut proverbs and sayings showed that animal motifs in clothing definitely carry sacred functions: animal morphological motifs are used in Yakut traditional clothing not only for aesthetic, but also for apotropaic purposes. Proverbs and sayings, along with descriptions of the clothes of mythical characters of Olonkho, show that the ranking of valuable / not valuable, sacred /ordinary is reflected in everyday vocabulary and folklore. These data allow us to evaluate not only the attitude towards fur as a material, but through them we can also trace the spiritual attitude towards animals expressed through the costume.