Motherhood and maidenhood in Bashkir mythology and folklore: roots and transformation

The paper reviews the origins, mythological features of the cults of motherhood and maidenhood, covering the concepts of the holiness of a mother and mother’s milk, life force of a father, fertility, virginity. These significant cultural units are united by the idea of sacred purity serving as a background for structuring myths, rites, beliefs, etiquette measures, healing acts, as well as plots and figurative treatments in folklore genres. The sacred “ҡоt” (power, the seed of life) and “һөt” (milk) mark the primordial moral principles in the birth of a strong Batyr-demiurge and women of high status in the “Ural-Batyr” epic, while the evil and deceit (the image of Shulgen) are akin to the desecration of mother’s milk. The astral symbolism of milk reveals a particular archaic character of the original tradition associated with celestial moisture, rain, the appearance of the Milky Way constellation. The archetype of the fertility cult goes back to the tradition of obtaining the seed by the Batyr (three marriages of Ural Batyr). The categories of fertility and virginity are transformed, defining the dominant images of wedding folklore (wishing well-being to the bride). Virginity, the main sign of a woman’s personal viability and prosperous future, is fully protected through rewards and punishment. Ritual rewards included the tradition of offering a fee for the marriage bed, virginity of the bride, giving presents to the bride’s mother and daughters-in-law. The complex of sacralization of motherhood, virginity, and their components opens up a value database of socio-anthropological, ethnopsychological studies of man and his nature.

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