FOOD IN THE MYTHOLOGICAL IDEAS OF THE SELKUPS

Stepanova Olga Borisovna

DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2022-2-149-159

Information About Author:

Stepanova Olga Borisovna, Candidate of science in history, senior researcher. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Peter the Great (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. 3 Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034. E-mail: stepanova67@mail.ru

As a result of the semantic analysis of the materials of Selkup folklore, beliefs, rituals, the study of food preferences and prohibitions, several ancient religious ideas were revealed that made food the most effective magical means in the Selkup mythological field. Among them, the idea of eating a deceased person, crossing the border of the earthly and otherworldly worlds, by an ancestor animal, later grew into ideas about the connection between eating and crossing the border, as well as death; a view of food as a benefit sent to a person by spirits, and a view of spirits as material beings who eat and drink, and who need to be fed, appeasing; the idea of similarity, according to which a person who has eaten meat or some part of the spirit acquires the same properties that the spirit or this part of it has, etc. Each of the ideas is universal and characteristic of all peoples of the world at the early stages of the development of culture and religion. This is the first time such a study is carried out on the basis of Selkup religious beliefs, which is its novelty and scientific significance. The relevance of the study is given by the process of the formation of a new ethnicity among the modern Selkups and the resulting demand for any developments on the issues of Selkup history and culture.

Keywords: Selkups, mythological concepts, rituals, food prohibitions and preferences, magical properties of food

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Issue: 2, 2022

Series of issue: Issue 2

Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY

Pages: 149 — 159

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