Looking For A Changing Tradition: Kazakh Traditional Doll In Cer-emony, Rite, Game And Art Practice

Abstract

The study of the doll and its place in the lives of children allows us to more deeply realize its role in any traditional culture, as well as to comprehend the reasons for the modern "doll boom." The Kazakh traditional doll "quyrshaq," balancing between ritual and play practice, has always been the prerogative of the institution of female subculture. Starting from early childhood, transforming, it accompanied its mistress in direct and indirect form up to the very old age. The traditional Turkic doll, considered on the example of Kazakh "quyrshaq," demonstrates not only the chronology of women's life but also characterizes the purely female process of communication with higher powers - deities and spirits of the dead from the perspective of the aforementioned aspects. Consideration of "quyrshaq" as an integral part of women's subculture in the historical retrospective through the prism of sacred and secular will reveal its peculiarities, specify the historical and cultural interrelations between neighboring and related peoples, as well as trace the transformation of this tradition. In order to reveal the designated topic, the research utilized retrospective, comparative, structural-functional, and semiotic approaches. Additionally, a cross-disciplinary analysis was incorporated to enrich the understanding of the cultural nuances surrounding the traditional doll. Nowadays, the traditional doll has fallen out of use due to the extinction of ritual and ceremonial tradition, as well as the appearance of industrial samples of children's dolls of European type in the middle of the twentieth century and their complete dominance in the market in modern times. Information about the Kazakh doll and domestic idols as its cultural prototypes was collected by the authors during the study of archaeological and ethnographic museum exhibits, as well as during field research among the residents of Almaty, Karaganda, and other regions of Kazakhstan in 2017-2019. Thus, the present study has shown that the doll has always reflected certain ethnic and regional traditions or innovations in culture. Through playing with a doll, children reproduced various life situations in accordance with the socio-normative culture of the Kazakh ethnic norms and rules of behavior of the ethnic group. Children through playing with dolls received vital lessons of socio-psychological harmony of personality with the outside world, which in a broad sense can be interpreted as the basis of ritual and ceremonial practice in traditional society. In the present period, designer or art dolls are one of the markers of national revival, characteristic of the whole artistic life of modern Kazakhstan. This resurgence is indicative of a broader cultural renaissance, with these dolls serving as symbolic artifacts embodying the rich heritage and artistic identity of the nation.