Ethnopedagogical Potential of the Chuvash Culture: From Ancient Turkic Runes to Modern Literature

Abstract

This work is devoted to the study of the educational potential of the Chuvash traditional written culture. The main aspect on which the conclusions of the study are based is ethnopedagogical one. The authors study the cult images of the ancient Turkic era in their application to the verbal culture of the Chuvash people and the possibility of using archetypal representations in pedagogical practice. Samples of Turkic peoples" oral folk literature, mainly of the Chuvashes, as well as texts written in the Orkhon-Yenisei runic tradition were used as the research material. The authors turn to methods of comparative analysis of the studied material. The worship of the sky and the female deity is quite well known in ancient Turkic culture. Traces of respect for them are found even in runic monuments. Their direct analogs are found in Chuvash legends, fairy tales and songs. The mention of the goddess Ama "mother" is most often found in prayers. Her image of the Chuvash was also compared to the image of fire, naming the goddess Vut ama "Fire mother". The Chuvash people also preserved the veneration of land and water, which is observed in mythology, religious rites and cultic literature. These images are one of the central elements in the value picture of the Chuvash people"s world. They are used in the system of preschool and primary education for teaching and educational purposes. From this work authors" point of view, mythological representations are essentially an ancient layer that unites the Chuvash with other Turks and at the same time gives an original sound to modern Chuvash culture. The transformation of the ancient Turkic worldview into artistic images should be considered as a deep specificity that emphasizes the unique features of the Chuvash ethnos. Thus, especially revered phenomena among the ancient Turks are the sky and the female deity. Their veneration was clothed in expressive forms. With the passage of time, poetic images and traditions were woven into religious rituals and oral literature of the Chuvash, and then passed into the artistic elements of modern Chuvash literature.