Myths and tales about the animals of the Oirats of Xinjiang

Abstract

The subject of the study is the fabulous folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The object of the study is the specificity of mythological and fairy-tale texts about animals. It should be noted that the fabulous folklore of the Oirats still remains little known to domestic researchers, despite the fact that attempts to study it began in the middle of the last century. The study of Oirat folklore is especially relevant for domestic Mongolian studies, since it is historically connected with the folklore tradition of Russian Kalmyks and Altaians. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the study of fairy-tale texts and the identification of common artistic means, which allows us to establish and explain the general systemic connections between these ethnolocal folklore traditions. The research methods are comparative analysis and the method of interpretation of fairy tale text. For the study of fairy tale narrative, this approach turns out to be potentially heuristic: both directions mutually determine each other, revealing multidimensional connections of the once unified folklore tradition. Myths and tales about animals represent the ancient genre of fairy tale folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The main contribution of the study consist in the statement the myths and tales' content retains mythological elements associated with the archaic ideas of the ethnos about living beings of the world around them. Particular attention is paid to figurative language, rich in expressive poetic expressions, an abundance of figurative means, and a large volume of vocabulary of the original language of the Oirats. All this testifies to the preservation of the fairy-tale-mythological fund and performing tradition of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that during the analysis of fairy tales and myths about animals as a special genre, it was established that there is no allegory in the content of the archaic animal tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang, despite the fact that its main characters are animals. According to archaic views, man believed that animals were once people. Therefore, in many ways, the animal world was perceived as a reflection of the human world, and the morals of animals were equated with the same qualities of humans.