The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between sacral components and magical functions of the alimentary culture of the Tungus-Manchu and Paleo-Asian peoples of the Far East and the mechanism of anthropological and ethnocultural identity. In the traditional food model, the indigenous peoples of the Far Eastern region fully provided themselves with products of animal and plant origin, which were obtained by hunting, fishing, sea trapping, and gathering in the taiga, tundra, and sea coast. As a result of ethnic contacts, exchange and trade, certain types of food and spices began to gradually but inevitably penetrate into their alimentary institution: flour and dairy products, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, etc. In a complex of beliefs and rituals till the present time there are many plots connected with food taboos, with magic influences after the use of some kinds of food. Food taboos are classified according to a person's age, gender, social status in society, observed in all spheres of life, in life cycle rituals, in a complex of holidays and shamanism, in the system of folk pedagogy and ethnic identity. The novelty of the research is based on the author's concept, according to which the violation of prohibitions in the sphere of traditional and modern food model, the magical properties of certain types of food, are associated with the potential possibility of destructive transformation not only of ethnic, but, in general, of the human image. The consumption of certain kinds of European foods, especially carbohydrates, is considered the beginning of irreversible processes in the body, leading to the appearance of European ethnocultural and even physiological characteristics. A man abducted by mythical taiga giants and tasted their food loses his human appearance and transforms into a similar creature. Traditional food is an important resource that preserves ethnic identity and socio-cultural stability, a mechanism of adaptation to borrowing, providing the necessary balance of «materiality» and «spirituality» of the alimentary sphere.
Keywords: Far East, Tungus-Manchu peoples, Paleo-Asian peoples, alimentary sphere, prohibitions, magic
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2022_3_77
About the author
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Sergey V. Bereznitsky – Advanced Doctor of Historical Sciences, Leading Researcher of the Department of Ethnography of Siberia, |