Article

Name: On an episode of a funeral ritual associated with a dog in the Teleut epic “Keziyke”: To the problem of Turkic (Oghuz) and Indo-Iranian cultural heritage

Authors: E. E. Yamaeva

Independent Researcher, Gorno-Altaisk, Russian Federation

In the section Обрядовый фольклор

Abstract: A dog plays a significant role in the world mythology. The Teleut epos “Keziyke” presents the motif of a dog being killed during the funeral ceremony. Also, this motif can be seen in the text of “Avesta” telling about bringing a dog to the funeral ceremony to help the soul reach the world of the dead safely. Teleuts are considered descendants of the ancient Oguz, an ethnic group of Turkic origin. The oral folklore provided us with the idea of a dog state and people born with a dog body and a human head. The analysis of the Chinese chronicle allows assuming that a habit of people’s feeding the dogs from their plate was despised by representatives of the official religion of the Turkic Tengrism. This information can serve as a chronological marker, suggesting confidently that the dog was not a deity in the religious-mythological pantheon of the Turks around the sixth century. Nevertheless, the Turks had neighbors, perhaps even Turkish-speaking people, greatly respecting. In the Teleut epic, the traces of the dog cult appear in the context of afterlife representations. The presence of the dog cult in the epic of Oguz indicates their worship of this creature. They were also close to the Siberian peoples with the most prominent dog cult. The motifs similar to the Iranian and their ethnographic sources indicate that the ancestors of several Altai ethnic groups (Tele / Oguz) were part of the ancient Turkic-Iranian cultural community.

Keywords: dog, mythology, funeral, rite, Teleuts, Oghuz, Samoyeds, Turkic-Iranian world

Bibliography:

Abramzon S. M. Kirgizy i ikh etnicheskie i istoriko-kul’turnye svyazi [Kyrgyz and their ethnic, historical and cultural ties]. Leningrad, Nauka, 1971, 403 p. (In Russ.).

Atebekov A. K. O pogrebenii sobaki v usun’skom kurgane v Chuyskoy doline [On the burial of a dog in the Usun barrow in the Chui Valley]. In: Kratkie soobshcheniya. Rannie kochevniki [Brief Reports. Early nomads]. Moscow, Nauka, 1978, no. 154, pp. 59–71. (In Russ.).

Baulo A. V., Kulemsin V. M. Mirovozzrenie i kul’tovaya praktika [Khanty Worldview and religious practice]. In: Narody Zapadnoy Sibiri. Khanty. Mansi. Sel’kupy. Nentsy. Entsy. Nganasany. Kety [Peoples of Western Siberia. Khanty. Mansi. Selkups. Nenets. Enets. Nganasans. Kets]. Moscow, Nauka, 2005. Khanty [Khanty], chapter 7, pp. 166–183. (In Russ.). (Narody i kul’tury [Peoples and cultures]).

Bichurin N. Ya. Sobranie svedeniy o narodakh, obitavshikh v Sredney Azii v drevnie vremena [Collection of information about the peoples who lived in Central Asia in ancient times]. Moscow, Leningrad, Nauka, 1950, pt. 1, 471 p. (In Russ.)

Butanaev V. Ya., Mongush Ch. V. Arkhaicheskie obryady i obychai Sayanskikh tyurkov [Archaic rites and customs of the Sayan Turks]. Abakan, Katanov Khakass State University Publ. House, 2005, 200 p. (In Russ.).

Davydova A. V. Ivolginskiy kompleks (gorodishche i mogil’nik) – pamyatnik khunnu v Zabaykal’e [Ivolginsky complex (ancient settlement and burial ground) – monument to the Huns in Transbaikalia]. Leningrad, Leningrad State University Publ. House, 1985, 111 p. (In Russ.).

Dyrenkova N. P. Tyurki Sayano-Altaya. Stat’i i etnograficheskie materialy [Turks of Sayano-Altai. Articles and ethnographic materials]. St. Petersburg, MAE RAN, 2012, 408 p. (Kunstkamera – Arkhiv. T. VI [Kunstkamera – Archive. Vol. VI]). (In Russ.).

Khangalov M. M. Sobranie sochineniy [Collected works]. Ulan-Ude, 1959, vol. 2, 444 p. (In Russ.).

Kiryushin Yu. V. Eneolit i bronzovyy vek yuzhno-taezhnoy zony Zapadnoy Sibiri [Aeneolithic and Bronze Age of the South-Taiga zone of the Western Siberia]. Barnaul, Altai State University Publ. House, 2004, 293 p. (In Russ.).

Kiryushin Yu. V. Eneolit i rannyaya bronza yuga Zapadnoy Sibiri [Aeneolithic and early bronze of the south of Western Siberia]. Barnaul, Altai University Publ. House, 2002, 292 p. (In Russ.).

Kubarev G. V. Kul’tura drevnikh tyurok Altaya. Po materialam pogrebal’nykh pamyatnikov [Culture of the ancient Turks of Altai. According to the materials of funerary monuments]. Novosibirsk, Publ. House of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, SB RAS, 2003, 400 p. (In Russ.).

Kuznetsov N. A., Khudyakov S. Yu. O zakhoroneniyakh sobak na Srednem Enisee po chelovecheskomu obryadu [On the graves of dogs on the Middle Yenisei on the human rite]. In: Sibir’ v panorame tysyacheletiy (Materialy mezhdunarodnogo simpoziuma) [Siberia in the panorama of millennia (Materials of the international symposium)]. Novosibirsk, Publ. House of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, SB RAS, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 308–316. (In Russ.).

Litvinskiy B. A. Drevnie kochevniki “kryshi mira” [Ancient nomads of the “roof of the world.”]. Moscow, 1972. (In Russ.).

Mogil’nikov V. A., Surazakov A. S. Raskopki pamyatnikov Yabogan-III [Excavations of the monuments of Yabogan-III]. In: Arkheologiya i etnografiya Altaya [Archeology and Ethnography of Altai]. Gorno-Altaisk, Printing house of Gorno-Altai State University, 2003, iss. 1, pp. 26–63. (In Russ.).

Moshinskaya V. I., Lukina N. V. O nekotorykh osobennostyakh v otnoshenii k sobake u obskikh ugrov [On some features of the attitude to the dog in the Ob Ugrians]. In: Arkheologiya i etnografiya Priob’ya [Archeology and ethnography of Priobye]. Tomsk, 1982, p. 46–60. (In Russ.).

Potapov L. P. Etnicheskiy sostav i proiskhozhdenie altaytsev [Ethnic composition and origin of the Altaians]. Leningrad, Nauka, 1969, 196 p. (In Russ.).

Radlov V. V. Iz Sibiri [From Siberia]. Moscow, Glavnaya redaktsiya vost. lit., 1989, 749 p. (In Russ.).

Sel’kupskaya mifologiya [Selkup mythology]. G. E. Pelyh (Comp.). Tomsk, 1998. (In Russ.).

Shatinova N. I. Sem’ya u altaytsev [Family of the Altaians]. Gorno-Altaisk, Altayskoye knizhn. izd. Gorno-Altayskoe otd., 1974, 240 p. (In Russ.).

Viktorova L. L. Rannie formy religii kidaney [Early forms of the Khitan religion]. In: Bronzovyy i zheleznyy vek Sibiri [Bronze and Iron Age of Siberia]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 1974, p. 261–265. (In Russ.).