The Image of the Universe in the Folklore of the Nenets: Systematic and Phenomenological Analysis

The book examines folklore materials, such as examples of epics (syudbabts, syudbabtsarka, yarabts, yarabtsarka, khynabts and lakhanako), both sung and chanted (performed in recitative form), gathered on the territory of the contemporary Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets, Taimyr (Dolgan-Nenets) Au¬to¬nomous Okrugs and of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. The analysis of the folk¬lore publications from different years, and also of the author’s personal field notes, is done in accor¬dance with real worldview beliefs of the profane world and the knowledge of the people from the circle of the “dedicated” and the “initiated” (the shamans and those persons close to them). The research focuses on eliciting the picture of the world, the descriptions of the cosmos and its inhabitants, represented in folklore on the one hand, and in the worldview of our contemporaries on the other. The work introduces new materials on the sphere of the sacred (rituals using a tambourine) and on the ordinary tradition of the Nenets, tied to the sacred knowledge (the khasavadyova pheno¬menon; the dwelling as an embodiment of the sacred cosmos). It also offers an analysis of unique perceptions of the living word, reflected in folklore.