Article

Name: Cultural codes in the ritual tradition of the Tuvans of China

Authors: Zhanna M. Yusha

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of folklore

Abstract: types of actions in the birth rite, wedding, New 16 Year and summer rituals have been identified. The personal code is /determined by the function and role of participants in the performance of a particular rite, with important parameters being assigned to gender, age, marital status, the presence of healthy children, the relationship of kinship, ritual functions. The spatial code reveals the horizontal and vertical structures of space, the loci of the house/yurt, the micro-locations accentuated during the rituals. The object code includes obligatory ritual objects having different semantic fullness. The time code has the main condition of choosing a favourable date for the lunar calendar, as well as the annual season. The food code is associated with the semantics of dairy and meat products, which are both daily and festive meals. In traditional rituals these same products, as ritual food, were given a special sacral meaning. The game code is presented in the structure of family and calendar rituals by traditional competitions (horse races, wrestling, archery). The characteristic feature of the numerical code is the use of some well-established numbers that have a certain symbolism: 15 (full moon day as a favorable date for performing rituals), 3 (three rounds of the ritual place), 4 (four sides of the world), 5 (five types of color scheme used in rituals), etc. The colour code has the stable semantics, expressing the functional orientation of the ritual. The spectrum of the established colour scheme of rituals has been determined. The music code has been found in the calendar and some family-household rites because it depends on the semantics of a particular ritual. However, some cases with the music code being absent have been revealed. A characteristic feature of the sound code is the presence of binary oppositions, representing loudness – noiselessness.

Keywords: Tuvans of China, Tuvan folklore, ritual tradition, cultural codes, folklore and ritual, unified cultural text

Bibliography:

Bayburin A. K. Ritual v traditsionnoy kul’ture. Strukturno-semanticheskiy analiz vostochnoslavyanskikh obryadov [Ritual in traditional culture. Structural and semantic analysis of the Eastern Slavic rites]. St. Petersburg, Nauka SPB, 1993, 237 p.

Bingsheng G.中国 图瓦 演 就 (Zhong guo Tuwa ren yan jiu). Beijing, 2011, 380 p.

Gura A. B. Sootnoshenie i vzaomodeistvie aktsional’nogo i verbal’nogo kodov svadebnogo obryada [The correlation and interaction of the actional and verbal codes of the wedding ceremony]. In: Slavyanskiy i balkanskiy folklor: Semantika i pragmatika teksta. Vyp. 10 [The Slavic and Balkan folklore: Semantics and pragmatics of the text. Iss. 10]. Moscow, Indrik, 2006, pp. 268–279.

Lotman Yu. M. Semiosfera [Semiosphere]. St. Petersburg, Iskusstvo, 2000, 704 p.

Lotman Yu. M. Struktura hudozhestvennogo teksta [The structure of the artistic text]. Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1970, 270 p.

Neklyudov S. Yu. K voprosu o folklore i obryade [To the question of folklore and ritual]. In: Mif, simvol, ritual. Narodi Sibiri [Myth, symbol, ritual. The peoples of Siberia]. Moscow, 2008, pp. 11–22.

Tolstoy N. I. Vvedeniye [Introduction]. In: Slavyanskiy i balkanskiy fol’klor. Etnogeneticheskaya obschnost’ i tipologicheskiye paralleli [The Slavic and Balkan folklore. Ethnogenetic community and typological parallels]. Moscow, Nauka, 1984, pp. 3–4.

Tolstoy N. I. Yazyk i narodnaya kul’tura: Ocherki po slavyanskoy mifologii i etnolingvistike [Language and folk culture: Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics]. Moscow, 1995, 509 p.

Uzeneva E. S. Bolgarskaya svad’ba: Etnolingvisticheskoye issledovaniye [Bulgarian wedding: ethnolinguistic research]. Moscow, Indrik, 2010, 280 p.

Yusha Zh. M. Kak vstrechayut Novyy god kitayskiye tuvintsy [How do the Chinese Tuvans celebrate the New Year]. Asia and Africa today. 2014, no. 12, pp. 67–70.

Yusha Zh. M. Sedogolovym pust’ budet! Detstvo v sovremennoy kul’ture kitayskikh tuvintsev [Let him be gray-headed! Childhood in the modern culture of Chinese Tuvinians]. Science First Hand. 2015, no. 3, pp. 64–73.

Yusha Zh. M. Obryadovyy fol’klor tuvintsev Kitaya v sravnitel’nom osveshchenii: zhanrovyye priznaki [Ritual folklore of the Tuvans of China in a comparative perspective: genre signs]. Siberian Journal of Philology. 2017, no. 3, pp. 19–28.

Zhukovskaya N. L. Kochevniki Mongolii: Kul’tura. Traditsii. Simvolika [Nomads of Mongolia. Culture. Traditions. Symbolism]. Moscow, Vost. lit. RAN, 2002, 246 p.