The sacred code of Eurasian myths about a totem-ancestor

Archaic totemic myths as the reflection of a group mystical kinship with animals-ancestors are an integral part of world culture. A sacred code inherent in the myths is an important impulse in the development of literature. This paper is devoted to the evolution and the subsequent transformation of the totemic myths in the ethnocultural space of Russia. Special attention is given to consideration of the Celestial female elks / deer, grown out of some observations of the astral objects, which served as the space-time benchmark in the hunting and reindeer herding fields. These are the myths about the female deer, identified with the constellations of the Great and Little Bears; the Sunny moose and the Lizard; the heavenly hunting; the female deer who saved children; the moose, which showed the way to new lands and others. The plot variety of the myths considered attests to the polyphonic nature of the primitive culture embedded in them. The analysis of the mythopoetic heritage made it possible to trace the development and subsequent transformation of the sacred code, to reveal the general and specific in the archaic world picture of various Russian ethnic groups, and on this basis to restore the lost links in our cultural memory.

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