The fortune telling in the Siberian Tatars culture

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe, study and analyze traditional methods of divination in the culture of the Tatars of Western Siberia. Such practices occupy an important place in the spiritual heritage of the people. They are valuable material for studying the traditional culture of the people, their worldview. They allow us to highlight the transformation of the worldview of the people under the influence of different cultures. These methods of divination were widely used by the people in the past, and some of them have been preserved and used to this day. The research was based on ethnographic sources and field materials collected by the author in 2002-2023. The works of domestic researchers in the field of history and traditional culture of Turkic and Muslim peoples served as a methodological basis for the article. The paper gives a historical and comparative analysis of traditional rites of divination widespread among the Tatars of Western Siberia. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that the article is the first to record and describe the method of divination among Siberian Tatars called "tastar tartu", which, according to the available information at the moment, was widespread only among the Tatars of Western Siberia. In addition, the article provides a historical and comparative analysis of such methods of divination as "nogyt bulu", "kitap atsu", with other Turkic and Mongolian peoples. The study has shown that some of the described methods of divination among Siberian Tatars, having arisen on the basis of the common Altai, Turkic tradition in the early period, were transformed under the influence of the Muslim worldview in the later period. Also through the Islamic culture the methods of divination of other Muslim peoples began to spread among Siberian Tatars.