An Ethno-folklore Symbol in Zeinolla Sanik’s Story “Shashtagy sharapat” (“The Power of Hair”)

Abstract

The article scientifically and comprehensively analyzes the meaning of ethno-folklore concepts related to human hair, based on the story of the writer-ethnographer Z. Sanik “Shashtagy sharapat” (“The Power of Hair”). In the course of a comparative analysis of the author's scientific conclusions in the field of ethnography and folk concepts in a work of art, the author's own style in the use of ethnographic material was revealed in accordance with the characteristic patterns of each branch of science. In accordance with the Kazakh worldview, the essence of concepts, techniques, and rituals is considered in relation to the ethnographic data of the peoples of the world, and the peculiar features of the creative development of these concepts by the writer are determined. Along with the nature of ancient magical, ritual, and reverent ideas about hair in the genres of funeral songs, fairy tales, and stories, the relationship between artistic reality and the reality of life in the manifestation of nature, which is the basis for genuine scientific experiments, is revealed. Creating a story composition in the form of a dialogue between a teacher and a student is a kind of artistic method used by the author. Historical knowledge and modern understanding of the main idea of the story are supported by exhaustive examples of interconnection and artistic value. The interdisciplinary continuity of fiction in the writer's work with such fundamental sciences as history, ethnography, chemistry, archeology, and pedagogy was scientifically studied in a new way in the presentation on examples of the lives of historical figures, in addition to the power of one strand of hair in determining the main causes of life and death of a person, as well as the uniqueness of human nature, on examples from the lives of historical figures. The analysis also took into account the works of other writers who supported the traditional worldview. The article uses the methods of description, comparative research, analysis, and hermeneutics.