Қазақ халқының әдет-ғұрыптарында от құбылысының символдық мәні

Аннотация

The article presents the fire («ot») as a socio-cultural phenomenon, which has not only an economic importance, but also a symbolic significance. Since ancient times, the fire was revered as a natural element, the role and significance of fire in the traditional society was important. The scientific and practical significance of the study lies in the application of contemporary anthropological theories to examine the relationship between traditional rituals and worldview traditions.  So, the purpose of this article is to reveal the symbolic meaning of fire in the rituals of the life cycle of the Kazakh people, such as maternity and childbirth rituals, wedding and funeral ceremonies. In the course of the research, general scientific and special methods were applied. General scientific methods include description and analysis; special methods include historical-genetic, comparative historical and historical-typological methods.

The novelty of this research is that the materials on traditional rituals of the Kazakh people were examined on the basis of analogues of other Turkic and Mongolian peoples. The results of the research included the following provisions: 1) the fire in the traditional rituals of the Kazakh people was an embodiment of feminine origin, in comparison with rites of Mongolian peoples, where fire was a symbol of masculinity; 2) the  fire had creative, destructive and apotropaic functions (each of the functions was manifested in a particular type of ritual of the life cycle); 3) the fire was a part of the binary opposition (according to C. Levi-Strauss’ theory), symbolizing ‘‘the equivalence’’ of death and birth.