Cultural and Historical (Chronological) Periodization of S. Kondybai in the Context of Modern Theories of Turkic Myth

Abstract

The article is devoted to the scientific work of the historian of myth, linguist, one of the founders of mythological science, semiotics, mytholinguistics and historical geography of Kazakhstan Serikbol Kondybay, developer of the new history and theory of Turkic mythology.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the significance of the scientist in Kazakh mythological science; compare the novelty of his achievements with the contribution of his predecessors – Ch.Ch. Valikhanov, A.S. Amanzholov, E.D. Tursunov, Parry and Lord, who stood at the origins of mythological science.

The scientific and theoretical significance of the study lies in the objective assessment of the scientist’s works in national mythological science and the description of his practical application of methods and achievements for their implementation in scientific research, teaching in schools and higher educational institutions.

The review-analytical and comparative-contrastive methods used by the authors of the article revealed his laboratory and showed that the scientist used a wide variety of methodological approaches in the study of myth - hermeneutic, mytholinguistic, comparative-typological, structural-semantic. Reconstructing the Turkic mythological model, he creatively implemented his original concept, which adequately reflected the historical process of liberation of the Kazakh national identity from the previous centered attitudes that had long dominated science.

The results of the study showed that S. Kondybai’s methodology, based on mytholinguistics, hermeneutics and semiotics, seems to be the most productive today and corresponds to the holistic nature (continuity) of the centuries-old Kazakh traditional culture, the syncretism of its ancient structure, its deep metaphorical multi-layeredness.

The main conclusion of the study is the statement of the authors of the article that the creative personality of S. Kondybai for the first time raised Kazakh mythological science to a qualitatively new and high theoretical level of its research, despite all its complex and largely controversial aspects.

The value of the study lies in the description of the scientist’s personality in the context of personology, the assessment of his works, ideas, methods and their significance for Turkology and mythology.

The practical significance of the results of the work lies in the publication by the authors of the article of a monograph on Turkic personology, on Turkologists who made a significant contribution to Kazakhstan and world mythological science.

Key words: myth, mythological system, mythological-linguistic method, theory.