Smith Cult of the Kazakhs: traditional concepts, ritual, mythological and folklore aspects

Based on the written historical, folklore sources and field data, it was attempted to produce a culturological reconstruction explaining the origin of cultural practices and foundations related to the process of metalworking practiced by the Kazakhs. The field data testify of the fact that in the recent past, opening of a new smith, beginning of the operation of a Kazakh smith, and the actual smith reflected magical manipulations and archaic beliefs in industrial rites. The semantic circle of Turkic words defining the notion of a “smith” indicates numerous of cultural layers and changes in the history of metalworking of steppe Eurasia, their desacralization. In the contemporary world, the patron favoring the smiths and jewelers of the Kazakhs, as well as for other Islam peoples of the Central Asia, is Prophet Dā'ūd (Dāwūd) (equivalent in English: David). Fairytale prose, mythology and ritual practices of the Kazakhs feature earlier characters, including forgotten female characters related to the notation of the word “copper” (mys, zhez), master of the underworld Bopy khan, who, perhaps, has even more ancient roots originating from the cult of the Earth Mother. The Turkic ethnogony demonstrates that the ancient Turks originated from the steel workers and horse-breeders. An eloquent testimony of the paleometal era in the traditional worldview of the Kazakhs remains the tales, myths, lexical facts and sacral and ritual practices which have survived until today.