TRAVELLING HEROINE AND HER SIBLINGS: AN UNNOTICED SIBERIAN TALE

Berezkin Yuri Evgenievich

DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2018-3-67-75

Information About Author:

Berezkin Yu. E., Doct. hist. sc. Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Science. Kazanskaya str., 23, Apt. 29, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 190000. E-mail: berezkin1@gmail.com

After analyzing S. Thompson’s views on the study of folklore (Siberian and Central Asian data and historical problematic ignored) and presenting results of statistical processing of data on distribution of folklore motifs in Eurasia, the author describes a previously unnoticed tale widespread across Siberia from Lower Amur to Western Siberia with weak parallels among European Finno-Ugric peoples. The protagonist is a travelling girl who competes successfully with her rival, often a frog-woman. In the beginning the heroine parts with her brother(s) or sister who later appear again to help her. This motif is absent in the New World and could spread across Siberia only in the Holocene. Most of the other motifs found in correspondent tales have extensive parallels in North and some of them even in South America. Many of such episodes are absent, however, across the Northeastern Asia and Northwestern North America and had to be brought to the New World at a rather early stage of its peopling. This set of motifs is absent among the Turkic and Mongolian people.

Keywords: Siberian folklore, Finno-Ugric folklore, big data on folklore, Stith Thompson’s views on folklore, peopling of America

References:

Aarne A., Thompson S. The Types of the Folklore. – Helsinki, 1961. – 588 p.

Anderson J. From Alaska to Greenland: A comparison of the Arctic Small Tool and Thule Traditions // Totem: The Uni-versity of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology. – London (Ontario), 2011. – Vol. 12, issue 1. – P. 6–15.

Arsen’yev V. K. Iz nauchnogo nasledia V. K. Arsen’yeva [From the scientific heritage of V. K. Arsen’yev] // Krayeved-cheski b’ulleten'. – Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1995. – Vol. 1. – P. 111–131. (in Russian)

Baulo A. V. (ed.). Synskie Khanty. – Novosibirsk, 2005. – 352 p. (in Russian)

Berezkin Yu. Vymanivaniye i poimka Batradza. Sibirsko-severoamerikanskiye paralleli k motivu nartskogo eposa i genezis geroicheskih obrazov [Luring and catching of Batradz. Siberian-American parallels for a motif of the Nart Epics and the genesis of heroic imagery // Vlast' v aborigennoi Amerike. Problemy indeanistiki [Power in Native American. The Problems of American Studies]. – M., 2006. – P. 410–422. (in Russian)

Berezkin Yu. Rasprostranenie fol’klornyh motivov kak obmen informatsii, ili Gde Zapad granichit s Vostokom [Spread of folklore motifs as information exchange, or Where the West meets the East // Forum for Anthropology and Culture. – Saint Petersburg, 2015. – Vol. 26. – P. 153–170. (in Russian)

Berezkin Yu. Folklore and mythology catalogue: its lay-out and potential for research // The Retrospective Methods Network Newsletter. – Helsinki, 2015. – Vol. 10. – P. 56–70.

Berezkin Yu. Athabaskan – Siberian folklore links: in search of Na-Dene origins // Folklore (forthcoming). – London, 2018.

Dumond D. E. A Naknek Chronicle. Ten Thousand Years in a Land of Lake and Rivers and Mountains of Fine Katmai National Park and Preserve. – King Salmon (Alaska), 2005. – 112 p.

Golovnev A. V. Kochevniki tundry: nentsy i ih folklor [Nomads of Tundra: The Nenets People and their Folklore]. – Yekaterinburg, 2004. – 344 p. (in Russian)

Kert G. M. Obraztsy saamskoi rechi [Samples of Sami Talk]. – M., L., 1961. – 216 p. (in Russian)

Khodjer A. P. Stekl’annaya verandah [The Glass Verandah]. – Khabarovsk, 2011. – 114 p. (in Russian)

Koptelov A. L. Skazki narodov Sibiri [Folktales of Siberian Peoples]. – Novosibirsk, 1950. – 192 p. (in Russian)

Krjukova E. A. Hun and Kolbassam lived. Ket tekst // Annotated Folk and Daily Prose Texts in the Languages of Ob-Yenissei Linguistic Area. – Tomsk, 2013. – Vol. 3. – P. 202–294.

Kupriyanova Z. N. Nenetski folklor [The Nenets Folklore]. – L., 1960. – 93 p. (in Russian)

Kuzakova E. A. Fol’klor mansi [Mansi Folklore]. – M., 1994. – 207 p. (in Russian)

Lebedeva E. P., Khasanova M. M., Kialundziuga V. T., Simonov M. D. Fol'klor udegeitsev [The Udeghe Folklore]. – Novosibirsk, 1998. – 560 p. (in Russian)

Lehtisalo T. Juraksamojedische Volksdichtung [Samoyed Folktales]. – Helsinki, 1947. – 615 s. (in German)

Lukina N. V. Mify, predania, skazki khantov i mansi [Myths, Legends, Tales of the Khanty and Mansi]. – M., 1990. – 568 p. (in Russian)

Lukina N. V. (ed.). Skazaniya zemli tomskoy: khrestomatia [Tales of the Land of Tomsk: a reader]. – Tomsk, 2004. – 187 p. (in Russian)

Margaritov V. P. Ob orochakh Imperatorskoi Gavani [On the Oroch of Imperatorskaya Gavan’]. – Saint Petersburg, 1888. – 56 p. (in Russian)

Nenyang L. P. Fol’klor taimyrskih nentsev [Folklore of Taimyr Samoyeds]. – Book 1: Skazki [Folktales]. – M., 1994. – 174 p. (in Russian)

Nikolaeva I. Ostyak Texts in the Obdorsk Dialect. – Wiesbaden, 1999. – 279 p.

Paasonen H. Mordwinische Volksdichtung [Mordvinian Folktales]. – III Band. – Helsinki, 1941. – 343 s. (in German)

Plesovski F. V. Komi narodnye skazki [Komi Folktales]. – Syktyvkar, 1975. – 143 p. (in Russian)

Porotova T. I. (ed.) Skazki narodov sibirskogo severa. [Folk-Tales of the Peoples of the Siberian North]. – Tomsk, 1980. – Issue 3. – 190 p. (in Russian)

Pukhnachov V. M. Skazki starogo Tyma [Folktales of Old Tym]. – Novosibirsk, 1966. – 80 p. (in Russian)

Rombandeeva E.I. Mify, skazki, predania mansi (vogulov) [Myths. Folktales, Legends of Mansi (Vogul)]. – M.; Novosi-birsk, 2005. – 475 p. (in Russian)

Sorokina I. P., Bolina D. S. Enetskie teksty [The Enets Texts]. – Saint Petersburg, 2005. – 350 p. (in Russian)

Thompson S. The Folklore. – New York, 1946. – 510 p.

Tsintsius V. I. Negidal’ski yazyk. [The Negidal Language]. – L., 1982. – 311 p. (in Russian)

Tuchkova N. A. Mifologia sel’kupov [Sel’kup Mythology]. – Tomsk, 2004. – 382 p. (in Russian)

Uther H.-J. The Types of International Folktales. – Parts 1–3. – Helsinki, 2004.

Vasilevich G. M. Materialy po fol’kloru evenkov Sibiri [Materials on the Folklore of the Siberian Tungus] // Materialy po evenkiiskomu (tungusskomu) fol’kloru, compiled by G. M. Vasilevich. – L., 1936. – Issue 1. – P. 1–136. (in Russian)

Voskoboinikov М. G., Menovschikov G. A. Skazki narodov severa [Folktales of the Peoples of the North]. – M.; L., 1941. – 669 p. (in Russian)

Yevsev’yev M. Ye. Mordovskiye narodnye skazki i zagadki [Mordovian Folktales]. – Saransk, 1964. – 412 p. (in Russian)

( 880.46 kB ) ( 848.8 kB )

Issue: 3, 2018

Series of issue: Issue 3

Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY

Pages: 67 — 75

Downloads: 906