Hozan tos: the hare fetish in mythological ideas and ceremonialism of the Khakas (the end of the 19th - the middle of the 20th centuries)

The aim of the work is studying of the spirits patron of the Khakas in its material manifestation as a Hozan / Ah tos fetish. To achieve this aim, the following tasks are solved: identification of its sacred significance and role in the worldview and ritual practices of the people, the analysis of its external characteristics, identification of the variations of its symbolic design, consideration of the ways of ritual interaction with this sacred object. The chronological scope of the work covers the late 19th - mid-20th centuries. The choice of these temporal boundaries is primarily caused by the state of the source database on the research topic. The main sources are archival 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: scientific description, concrete historical and relic methods. The tos cult is a phenomenon which arose and existed in the traditional environment where the form of relationship between the world, the visible (rational) and the invisible (irrational) is characterized by the lack of rigid insuperable borders. Moreover, in the religious and mythological consciousness of this people, the idea of direct crossing of these worlds and, as a result, their fixed inter-influence is essential. Periodic violation of these relations, as believers thought, led to an imbalance in the nature and life of people. For the latter, this led to various disasters and misfortunes. The ceremonial practice of the traditional society in this case aimed to recover the broken balance and, as a result, to solve the arising contradictions between the worlds and protect the vital interests of people. A significant role in this process was assigned to attendants of the cult, including shamans, and directly to toses. In the culture of the Khakas, the image of a hare was given a great value. It was vividly embodied in such a ritual product as Hozan / Ah tos. This fetish was perceived as one of the main and strongest spirits patrons of people and their households. In this connection, it was especially popular among believers. People had diverse versions of its image, names and places to keep it. It could be placed both inside and outside houses. Special ceremonies were created for it: periodic public rituals of sacrificial offering, initiation of yzykhs, individual acts of feeding and honoring. Specific ceremonial regulations and practices concerning Hozan tos were set by representatives of the sook Purut as they believed in its totemic essence. Local features of the veneration of the relics are found mainly in the Kyzylts: they used water in rituals. Analysis of religious and mythological ideas and ceremonies connected with the hare fetish reveals the elements testifying to the historical, cultural, and genetic links of the Khakas and the Altaians, the Tuvinians and the Buryats.

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