Potanin as a folklorist

At the beginning of a creative way G.N. Potanin suggested the idea of frontalwritings of Folklore in Siberia. And primarily to systematize archaic legends, mythological folklore of Aborigines. The siberian researcherhas made a significant contribution to the study and systematization of the mythological tales of Turks and Mongols. He was considered theundisputed supporter of Migration school of folklore, but he said critical comments: it does not describe the specifics of the national legends,doesnt see the organic development and the integrity of the artistic world view. The Mongolian hypothesis became the basis for Potanin'sbooks: «Oriental motifs in Western European heroic epic,» The Saga of Solomon»(in a controversy with Veselovskyi), Erke. The cult ofthe Son of Heaven in North Asia». Potanin was looking the matrix myth North Asias peoples, and he believed that the myth was saved thebest way by the Mongols, as far as Mongolia, due to the severity of their nature, they didnt know the big expansion from the outside, andthousands years the Mongolians lived in the situation of the people - isolate. However, Potanin allowed scythian influence on the culture ofancient nomads, he accepted the influence of climatic factors on the national image of the world. Although his views were considered bysome folklorists as «archaic» in the twentieth century, its main positions were continued by Russian folklorists of future generations and,mainly, concretized by the school of Eurasians.

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