The ideas of traditional Yakuts about animals reflected in folklore texts about clothing

This article presents the raw materials of Yakut clothing and its symbolic meaning based on the materials of Yakut traditional folklore (Olonkho texts, proverbs and sayings). In all cultures, archaic ideas about clothing are associated with sacred ideas about the surrounding world, space, apothecary, social, aesthetic meanings are put into the costume, and animals play an important role in this phenomenon, acting here not only as material resources, but also carrying mental content, endowing a garment with special meanings, and a person special qualities. The costume is in direct contact with the human biological body, which is perceived in all cultures not just as a biological object, but as something related to the human personality. The main text of the article is divided into two semantic parts: folklore data revealing the social significance and material value of animal skins, and ideas about the apotropaic, magical functions of animals transmitted to humans through clothing. Previous studies of the traditional Yakut costume have been devoted to issues of visual appearance, sacred functions, and costume transformation. In this article, an attempt will be made to consider the ideas of the Yakuts about animals reflected in the materials of traditional clothing, which is the novelty of the study. The considered ethnographic data, texts of epic folklore and Yakut proverbs and sayings showed that animal motifs in clothing definitely carry sacred functions: animal morphological motifs are used in Yakut traditional clothing not only for aesthetic, but also for apotropaic purposes. Proverbs and sayings, along with descriptions of the clothes of mythical characters of Olonkho, show that the ranking of valuable / not valuable, sacred /ordinary is reflected in everyday vocabulary and folklore. These data allow us to evaluate not only the attitude towards fur as a material, but through them we can trace the spiritual attitude towards animals expressed through the costume.

traditional Yakut costume, Yakut clothing, folklore, animal representations, fauna, proverbs and sayings, clothing materials, Yakutia, Olonkho, natural resources