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THE SUN AND THE MOON IN TURKIC PEOPLES FOLKLORE FORMULAS: ORIENTATION PROJECTIONS
Abstract
The article analyzes the folklore formulas of the Turkic peoples of Siberia, describing characters with images of the Sun and the Moon on their bodies. In addition to the portraits, there are similar formulas that also mention the images of the celestial bodies when describing a character in motion; thus, the author distinguishes two types of portraits, static and dynamic. At first glance, static portraits are semantically related to the well-known motif of a wonderful appearance; however, as evidenced by the material, the structure of both static and dynamic portraits is based on general spatiotemporal structures, namely, the relationship of orientation projections between the character's body and the celestial bodies, the microcosm and the macrocosm. Without refuting the connection of the analyzed formulas with the system of symbolic classifiers, the present study draws attention to the syncretic nature of the folklore text. The author aims at showing that the formulas encode not only mythological classifications, but also the following protoscientific information: in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere the Sun, making its way from east to west, passes through the southern sky, reaching the zenith at noon; the Sun never appears in the northern sky. In addition, there are the space and time coordinates of the appearance of the month from human vision in the formulas: the "newborn" crescent appears in the western sky at night. Thus, the above formulas, only at first glance, represent a description of the character's portrait; a deeper analysis of the text reveals information of a different kind.
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