FELT IN TRADITIONAL CULTURE AND FOLKLORE OF BASHKIR

Abstract

The article examines features of making felt, as well as the practical and symbolic significance of felt products in everyday life and the ritual culture of the Bashkirs, and reveals their reflection in folklore. The relevance of the study is due to the need to identify and record modern felting masters in order to preserve unique ethnic traditions. Analysis of folklore materials in order to discover ethnographic information in them also actualizes the topic and emphasizes the interdisciplinary approach of the research. In addition, many aspects of the topic under study remain unattended by previous scientists, and previously recorded materials need to be rethought from the point of view of modern scientific achievements. The work is based on unpublished field materials, published folklore texts, and on the records of Russian scientific travelers of the 18th–19th centuries. Traditions of making felt are described, the significance of felt products in the everyday and ritual culture of the Bashkirs is revealed. It has been determined that qualitative characteristics of felt cloths are reflected in different genres of folklore, and the symbolic meaning of felt is more often traced in the ritual folklore of the Bashkirs.