Solar-lunar mythology of North and Eastern Asia. Several correlations

Abstract

In the article I will try to prove the existence of the correlation between the occurrence of mythological motifs of opposite content (“Sun – man, Moon – woman”, “Sun – woman, Moon – man”, “Sun and Moon – men”, “Sun and Moon – women”, “Sun – woman”, “Ambiguous Sun”, “Ambiguous Moon”) and the characteristics of the category of grammatical gender in the languages of the peoples of Mongolia, Southern, Western and Eastern Siberia and the Far East. An attempt was made to identify the reasons for the coexistence of motifs of opposite content within the mythological systems of the mentioned peoples. Also, the characters’ nominations were analyzed and compared with the grammatical gender (if exists) of the words “sun” and “moon”. The roles played by the Sun and Moon in specific motifs were analyzed as well. The study is based on the index of mythological motifs by Yu.E. Berezkin (https://ruthenia.ru/folklore/berezkin/). The work considers the peoples of the Altai (groups: Manchu-Tungus [Evens, Evenks]; Mongolic [Buryats, Oirats, Mongols, Daurs]; Turkic [Tuvans, Khakas, Altai, Teleuts, Yakuts]), Uralic (groups: Samoyedic [Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups]; Finno-Ugric [Khanty, Mansi]) families, as well as Palaeo-Siberian languages (Yenisei family [Kets, Yughs]; Chukchi and Kamchatka group of languages [Koryak, Chukchi, Itelmen]; Yukagir family [forest Yukagirs]). As a result, based on the selected material, it was not possible to unambiguously establish or refute the presence of this correlation. Among the studied peoples, only in the languages of the peoples of the Yenisei language family, the Kets and the Yughs, there is a category of grammatical gender. But the gender of the celestial body in the mythology of these peoples does not coincide with the grammatical gender of the denoting it in their languages. In the mythological systems of more than half of the other peoples there are motifs of opposite content. The inability to say precisely whether this correlation exists is also confirmed by analyzing the roles played by the studied characters.