“To do something when something is forbidden” — The clean, the sacred and the forbidden in Synya Khanty culture

Abstract

Khanty culture in its present state — in the process of language loss and acculturation — still offers a wide field for the examination of notions related to everyday and sacral purity and their embodiment. Earlier research has explored certain details of these notions (e.g., regulations related to animals of mythological role, nutrition taboos and linguistic restrictions), it seems, however, that the concept of purity is more complex than that: it is a fundamental system which plays a central role, encompassing the whole of the traditional Khanty world, which ultimately defines the order of the world. This fact about the Khanty culture has practically not yet been articulated. The present research aims to explore the intersections of notions of purity and order in Khanty culture and to analyze the individual sub-fields.