Culture Hero Sartakpai: The Image in Altaian Folklore Revisited

Introduction. Altaian mythology is a distinct religious and mythological system, since historical and cultural ties of the Altai people go deep into the ancient and medieval history of Central Asian Turks and Mongols. The article analyzes Altaian myths centered around the culture hero Sartakpai whose image is widely known in folklore traditions of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Goals. The work aims to identify mythological foundations in the system of cultural landscapes (or ethnocultural space) inherent to the Altai people. Materials and methods. To facilitate this, it is urgent to reveal mechanisms that sustain the religious and mythological tradition, and serve to select, preserve or remove certain elements in plots of myths, folktales, and legends. So, it is a combination of traditional folklore research methods and an interdisciplinary approach that proves instrumental therein. The paper examines multi-genre texts of Altaian folklore from a comparative perspective, and involves comparative materials of related cultures. This makes it possible to consider the Altaian religious and mythological system in its close relationship with the mythological world view, identify some new dimensions, and actualize relations between its ‘ancient’ and ‘new’ layers. Results. It is generally agreed that Altaian mythology is largely etiological by nature and tends to express worldviews and attitudes of the people’s distant ancestors. The Altaian system of cultural landscapes (or ethnic space) comprises a concept of its mythological development. Hierarchically arranged deities and spirits — each occupying a special niche in three-dimensional space — co-exist with culture heroes that had arranged (developed) certain places, rivers, lakes in the Middle World. And it is Sartakpai who proves a most popular hero of Altaian folklore and whose name is associated with origins of some natural objects. In Altaian mythology, he is viewed as a most active builder of the human-inhabited Middle World — and a native of the Altai. His image is creative, and it is him who had left behind lots of productive evidence in cultural heritage of the Altai people that survive to date, the culture hero himself being still perceived as a glorified historical figure rather than a mythological character. Therefore, the image of Sartakpai persists in present-day ethnocultural processes and discourse.