Eurasian constants in the view of the world ofthe peoples of North Asia

In the article the problems of the formation of mental attitudes which are common to the population of North Eurasia ("Eurasian constants") are discussed on the basis of the analysis of literary, written and archival sources. Natural features of the Eurasian steppe bordering Mongolia, which, in turn, bordered China, in the East adjoined the ancient civilization in the West. These natural features determined the migrations of Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Hunnic, ancient Turkic, Mongolian and Russian waves. The author supposes that depending on the time and ethnicity of migrants these migrations led to continuous contacts. Therefore, it is impossible to restore the original cultural models that interacted with each other. These cultural models created a kind of a "mix", in other words, the common Eurasian cultural heritage. Modern peoples do not realize this Eurasian cultural heritage as a common one but perceive it as their ethnographic characteristics. At the same time, it helps them to understand each other and adequately respond to emerging problems. The author considers that one of these Eurasian constants is the perception of Power as a moral principle. The origins of the relation between power and morality so vividly expressed in Confucianism, Zoroastrianism and the idea of "justice" of king in Russian folklore run deeply and are associated with the idea of the omnipotence and justice of Heaven. These attitudes were "native" for the early Indo-Europeans, the later Indo-Iranians, for Chinese from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty and for ancient Turks and the Mongols of Genghis Khan. The view of the world of the peoples of North Eurasia has the "layer" of the earliest comprehension of questions related to the "secret" of the origin of power, the concept of the ruler as the holder of perfection (as part of the perfect Heaven), the archaic understanding of the moral principle of power, the relation between the ruler and the people, the dependence of the ruler on the people. According to the author's opinion, the morality of the ruler and every person, but not the law, was the basis of a just and harmonious life in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and utopian ideas of Russian peasantry. The author considers that another important Eurasian constant which formed the mentality of the peoples of North Eurasia was land. Land could not be someone's or belong to someone from the profane world because land already had "masters". Since a person invaded land, it was necessary to make sacrifices (that was an archaic gift exchange) to spirits, owners of land. All the peoples of Eurasia understood land as "living, animate", which means it was possible to communicate with it. For this reason the author considers that there is a stable attitude that land could not be sold and could not be someone's property.

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