Time and space in the Samoyedic tradition: the calendar and the sledge

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the time and space conceptions generated in the depth of Samoyedic cultures from the position of the interpretative anthropology. The study methodology consists of the propositions concerning the specific character of the mythological mind: it is situated halfway between percepts (sense units) and concepts/notions (thinking units) in the process of the generalization of the information coming from without, and a mediator between an image and a notion is a symbol - a material object acting as an other item, phenomenon or event and serving for the information transmission. Relying on the thing language the authors realize the world-view reconstructions concentrating on the Selkup calendar and Nenets sledge. The objectified and subjectified culture forms are analysed in the process - language units, customs, rituals, traditional beliefs, folklore, prose of national writers. The process of the forming of the abstract notions and time conception was revealed on the consideration of the nominations typical for time units in the traditional Selkup calendar. Observations of concrete natural and cultural events are the basis of this process. The following conclusion is made: the Selkup traditional calendar is based on the principle of the cycling. First of all it indicated the recurrent succession of the natural and cultural events in the framework of time cycles and included periods of different protensions - day, month, season, microseason, year. The duration of these periods was not regulated and could vary within the cycles. The fullness with the concrete events actual for the people's life was important for the Selkup calendar rather than the exact time reckoning. Time was imagined as an alternate beginning and the event-trigger set was invariant. This event-trigger set of the nature and culture was a basis of the Selkup calendar. The specificity of nomadism of Nenets- reindeer breeders denotes the constant migrations by means of reindeers sledges. Therefore the sledge was involved into the regular movement rotation and served as indispensable attribute. The movement expands in the space and acts as a means of its learning and awareness. The following fundamental space conceptions were inserted inside the sledge image by the Nenets tradition: movement as its determinative attribute; pulsative character consisting in constant reduction and widen ing of the cultural area during the migration; irregularity expressed in the parallelism of worlds: on the one hand there are visible, local, humanized things, on the other hand there are invisible episodic things and beyond, independent of the man and belonging to spirits; stratification of the social space; connection with time, natural and social events. In general time and space were conceived and expressed in the culture of Samoyeds by means of objects, phenomena, events inserted into their life activity, so they were socialized. The developed nature and obscurity area were viewed as an integral part of life activity in this case.

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