The study of the cult of fetishes - tös of the Khakas people in Russian ethnography (late 18th - second half of the 20th centuries)

The work aims to systematize and analyze materials on the historical and ethnographic study of sacralized masterworks - tös (fetishes) in the religious-mythological system of the Khakass people. To achieve this aim, the following tasks were solved: the definition of fetish and fetishism in social sciences was made, their sacral importance and role in the worldview and ritual practices of the Khakass people were identified, the academic discourse in relation to the problems in Russian historical science was overviewed. The chronological scope of the work covers the end of the 18th - the second half of the 20th centuries. The choice of these temporal boundaries is caused primarily by the state of the database sources on the research topic. The main sources are historical and ethnographic materials. The work is based on complex, system and historical approaches to the study of the past. The research methodology is based on historical-ethnographic methods: of scientific description, concrete historical and relic. The period from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th centuries is characterized as a stage of initial accumulation of information about the phenomenon of fetishism in this nation. Materials on the problem were collected by amateur researchers, service people, Orthodox priests and scholars who first learned this ideological phenomenon. The latter did not set the main goal to study the phenomenon of the veneration of these ritual items. Scholars recorded information in line with the overall study of ethnic communities and their cultures. In this connection, information about tos obtained at this time is often incomplete and extremely fragmented. The next step in the examination of the relevant religious objects was the end of the 19th - the second half of the 20th centuries, it is characterized by the systemic approach in the study of the traditional philosophy and rituals of this nation, including the tos cult. It should be noted that in the writings of scholars, fetishism was considered from different angles, but the key aspect was to analyze it as a vestigial phenomenon. The focus was only to study separate aspects of this cultural phenomenon. The fact is that many studies were one-sided and ideologically biased. Meanwhile, works by S.V. Ivanov, M.S. Usmanova, V.Ya. Butanaev, A.M. Sagalaev show the most objective and balanced approach to this topic and focus on the culturological approach. They interpret honoring sacralized items as the most important element of the spiritual life of this nation. The study of the Khakass tos cult is far from being complete and the reason for it is the lack of an information base, which does not give comprehensive answers to researchers' many questions.

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