Khakass ritual folklore at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries: historiographical aspect

Abstract

In the traditional folklore culture of the Khakass, good wishes played an important role, with every custom or ritual accompanied by a verbal performance of good wishes. The Khakass people held the belief that the power of good wishes spoken aloud could bring a sense of well-being into one’s life. Of great value for the study are the records of the ritual folklore made by N. F. Katanov. These records are accompanied by a complete ethnographic description of the performed rituals, attributes used in the rituals, actions performed by shamans, and their spells addressed to the deities and spiritual masters of the terrain. The rite is regarded as the interaction of word and action, ritual and verbal text. This work analyzes the texts of the algas published in Volume 9 of “Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes” compiled by V. V. Radlov (1907). N. F. Katanov recorded about 70 unique cult texts. Of particular interest are the examples of cult poetry, such as good wishes, shamanic incantations of ancestral spirits, worship of Mother Fire, texts related to the veneration of the master spirits of nature and terrain, and curses. The analysis has revealed two main thematic variants of the algas genre in the ritual poetry of the Khakass, with the first one including the texts functioning as calls and requests for help and assistance and the second one representing good wishes, blessings, and parting words.