Ritual poetry of the Khakass in the materials of N. F. Katanov (to the 160th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

The paper describes the main milestones of expedition and research activities of N. F. Katanov (1862-1922) and his contribution to the collection and study of folklore material. With most of N. F. Katanov’s scientific works and field materials still unpublished, this work aims to attract the attention of researchers to the material of the outstanding scholar. A more extensive study and publication of N. F. Katanov’s works will contribute to the preservation of the unique folklore tradition of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Southern Siberia and expand the range of research based on the scientist's folklore materials. Ritual poetry reflecting religious and mythological ideas of the people is the least studied genre of the Khakass folklore. The paper analyzes the texts of the late 19th century, recorded by N. F. Katanov (1878-1892) and published in the “Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes”. The Khakass ritual poetry is considered as a part of the folklore heritage collection of the first Khakass scholar. N. F. Katanov collected a wealth of material on ritual poetry from the Kachin, Kyzyl, Sagai, and Shors. Of great value are records of ceremonial folklore with full ethnographic descriptions of rituals, attributes used in rituals, actions performed by shamans, and their incantations addressed to deities and spirits-masters of localities. The scholar was especially interested in a rite as a complex interaction of word and action, ritual and verbal text. Also, N. F. Katanov recorded and left to descendants a rich fund of records of shamanic folklore.