The time when the Mansi people kept the fire in a nāy sānyt ‘a box of fire’ (based on handwritten materials by P. E. Sheshkin)

Abstract

Introduction: the article is devoted to the study of religious ideas and events of one of the periods of the Mansi people’s life, which is designated by Sheshkin as nāy sānyt jis ‘the ancient time of fire [stored] in a box’. The article presents information about the family and public fire storage, construction of the box, the use of fire in different situations, its keepers. Ideas about fire are considered from the point of view of its personification (Fire-Mother, Fire-Woman); embodiment (it is alive, can talk, visit, revenge); mythologization (deity, special spirit of fire voytyl); object of veneration (holy mothers, dedication, sanctuaries). Folklore plots reflecting the ideas about «living» fire are revealed. Objective: to reconstruct the events and ideas of the northern Mansi group about fire in the era nāy sānyt jis. Research materials: handwritten texts of P. E. Sheshkin, published materials of the XIX–XXI centuries. Results and novelty of the research: the analysis reveals historical information on the way of life and organization of the Mansi during the period «the time when the Mansi kept fire in the nāy sānyt ‘box of fire’». The features of storing and using of family and collective fire are analyzed. The awareness of fire as a value is transmitted in the ideas of its supernatural essence, in the veneration of the Fire-Mother. The past fire, lost by people, is perceived as a super-fire (more powerful in brightness and heat, it lives together with a man and takes care of him). The attitude to fire as a shrine is reflected in the prohibitions, the dedication of it to animals (cat, frog), the construction of temples (sanctuaries). The novelty lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of the traditional ideas of the Mansi about the early stage of their ethnic history