Sacred cults in the legends about the histories of villages in northwestern Bashkortostan

Abstract

Legends about the histories of villages in northwestern Bashkortostan are characterized by a strong influence of traditions, plots and motifs of both Tatar and Bashkir oral non-narrative prose, which is due to the centuries-old neighborhood of representatives of the two peoples in this territory. The motif of the origin of the geographical name in many such works is plot-forming. Unfortunately, the area of existence, historical foundations, mythological roots, plot composition, regional and local features of legends about the stories of villages are still insufficiently researched. Of particular interest is the study of the issue of naming villages from the point of view of its combination of historicism and mythological traditions, namely, sacred cults reflecting totemic, animistic and fetishistic beliefs of the ancient population of the region. The relevance of the presented article is determined by these factors. The novelty of the proposed work is that for the first time an attempt has been made to systematically analyze the motifs of “donation of land to the first settlers by the animals – owners of the area”, “construction” and “substitute” sacrifice, “divine predestination” or “sign” on the folklore material of northwestern Bashkortostan. The purpose of the proposed work is to analyze the features of the reflection of sacred cults in legends, their functional role in the naming of villages. To achieve it, we conducted a review of the special literature on the topic, determined the source base, identified the main sacred cults in the folklore of the studied region, conducted their diachronic analysis. In their work, the authors adhere to comparative-historical and historical-typological research methods with elements of hermeneutics. The authors come to the conclusion that these works are a synthesis of totemic, animistic and anthropomorphic views with the real history of the people, which is why the stories of villages acquire a legendary character.

Acknowledgements: The study was carried out at the expense of the Youth Scientific Grant of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan (agreement No. 19-59-YaG dated 11.05.2023).

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