Folklore of Northern Selkups: The Motif of Familial Hostility Analyzed

Abstract

Introduction. One specific feature to distinguish Selkup folktales is that the main character and his opponent are usually relatives. So, a positive character kills a relative of his (referred to as devil) and/or the latter’s relatives — daughters and mother, and all that done with particular cruelty. The devil usually kills the positive character’s parents, which is not a hindrance to the marriage of the hero to a daughter of the devil. As is known, folklore reflects a certain historical reality, stage-by-stage ideas of an ethnos about structure of society and its morality. And the question is why Selkups of the past had had such ethical norms, and how they had been explained. Goals. The study seeks to explore the motif of familial hostility in folklore of the northern Selkups, and the research objectives include identification and explanation of Selkup folklore plots where relatives act as opposing parties. Methods. The main research methods are semantic analysis (and its analogues — abstraction and reading of metaphors), integrated approach, typological and historical methods, modeling and theorizing. The theoretical basis of research logic is compiled from the concepts by K. Levi-Strauss, A. M. Zolotarev, and A. Gennep. Results. The study concludes that in the past Selkups had a dual social organization, the whole ethnos having been divided into two phratries, two exogamous halves for their members to enter into marriage unions. The war waged by folktale heroes emphasizes the division of the people into two parts and delineates the ‘abyss’ that lies between the halves of one ethnic community. In the Selkup motif of familial hostility morality goes second. The motif is to describe — through the language of metaphors — the model of standard social structure, social organization of the Selkups at a certain historical stage.