Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences: The Image of Geolandscape Representations in the Ornamental Culture of the Evens and the Evenks of Yakutia

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The Image of Geolandscape Representations in the Ornamental Culture of the Evens and the Evenks of Yakutia

Issue: Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2018 11 (4)
Authors: Varavina, Galina N.
Contact information: Varavina,Galina N.: Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North SB RAS 1 Petrovskogo Str., Yakutsk, 677027, Russia;
Keywords: Yakutia; the Evens; the Evenks; northern nomads; world outlook; ornamental culture; geospatial images; sign-symbol; semantics of ornament; mental worldview; cultural heritage
Abstract: Based on the ethnographic and field data in the context of the semiotic approach and the geospatial theory, the article analyzes the ornamental culture of the northern Tungus, namely the Evens and the Evenks. It is shown that ethno-local models of the northern landscape are represented through visual-imagery perception (art, ornamentation). An ornament is considered a symbolic “language” associated with a wide range of “texts” – beliefs and rituals. It acts as a special kind of the “language” of the world outlook, a mental worldview and the culture of the ethnos. The ornamental language of the Evens and the Evenks acts as a symbolic formation, where the symbols of Nature, Mother Earth, fertility, the symbolism of the ancestral tree (“unity of the genus”), water, fire, the symbol of the cyclic life and a spatial code function
Pages: 663-669
Paper at repository of SibFU: https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/71063