The Taiga Agon and the Talking Gods: the situations of narration and transmission of Altaic eschatological knowledge

Abstract

The paper dwells on the “lived eschatology” of the Altaians. Its primary goal is to study of the social contexts of the existence of eschatological texts. The author has chosen the pragmatics of mythological text, as well as situational approach and microethnographic description in sociocultural anthropology, to act as methodological framework of the research. The concept of the situation of narration / storytelling of eschatological knowledge is defined as central. The main research problem is unfolded upon through typological analysis of situations of narration in which an eschatological message is transmitted. The author distinguishes between two main groups of situations of storytelling - namely, the “mythological” and “real” situations, and then analyzes their variations and draws a typology of them. Steady transmission of “lived eschatology” is carried out by interrelated processes of legitimation and storytelling. The main role in the legitimation of eschatological knowledge is born of “mythological” situations of storytelling.