In the culture of the Khakass people trees are not only the most important economic resource, but also a key structuring symbol. The tree has extremely wide semantic field. In the traditional consciousness of the Khakass people, the symbolic status and functions of the tree are determined by its perception as an object endowed with special properties, belonging simultaneously to the profane and...
Horse is a domestic animal of great importance in the economic life and spiritual culture of the Khakas, in particular, in shamanism. In the Khakas ethnography, the question of the meaning of the horse in the ritual practice of the shamans remains little studied. Due to this, the purpose of this article is to characterize the image of a horse in the shamanic attributes of the Khakas. The...
On the basis of folklore and ethnographic data, some of which are introduced in this article, the Khakass mytho-ritual complex relating to the snake is reconstructed. It is demonstrated that these beliefs were central to the traditional Khakass worldview, and the snake was endowed with elaborate symbolic meanings. It was a sacred animal, associated with ideas of life and death. It played a key...