Abstract
The paper considers the Nanai legend about Three Suns in the oral and written dimensions of the Lower Amur peoples’ cultures. Initially, the legend consisted of several variations that can point to the specifics of migrating processes on the Amur territory. Each group of immigrants brought own stories’details to the general legend plot, and thus they had built the storyline. The Nanai people used to perceive the mythical characters as their ancestors and distant relatives. That idea rather reflects spiritual and moral guidelines of their traditional society, which consisted in harmonizing human actions with the Mythical Universe laws. The shaman was responsible for observing these ethical standards. In the 20th century, a textual form of the legend about Three Suns appeared as result of developing the literary Nanai language. The national intelligentsia developed a new interpretation of the legend. Some archaeological discoveries made by A.P. Okladnikov led to the connection between the legend and the historical background. At the same time, a simplified version also appeared. The Nanai people have begun to compare their family history with the information providing the legend about Three Suns as a starting point. Since the second half of the 1980s, increasing interest in the shamanic heritage among the Nanai people resulted in the philosophical and theosophical versions of the legend. The legendary earthly places were reinterpreted. They were embedded in the contemporary symbolic ethnic and cultural space of the Nanai people, inside of which their identity is being formed.
Keywords
the Nanai people, legend, plot, oral variations, literary language, intelligentsia, archaeological discoveries, shamanism
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