HISTORY OF “AT IB” HOUSINGS OF THE KHAKASS
Y.V. PRISHCHEPA
Khakass Research Institute of Language, Literature and History, 23 Shchetinkin str., Abakan, 655017, Russian Federation
Keywords: Хакасия, хакасы, традиционная культура, жилище, номинация, генезис жилища, ат-иб, поселенческий комплекс Торгажак, Khakassia, Khakass, traditional culture, dwelling, nominations, housing genesis, at-ib, Turgozhak settling complex
Abstract
The dwelling in the human traditional culture is a model of the world and has all its features. The folk housing shows the people’s worldview, it is the main element of human life support system. In the early XVIII century, the indigenous population of Khakassia - the Khakass - created traditional dwellings different in design and architecture, their appearance was determined by environmental features, the lifestyle and economic activities. An archaic type of Khakass dwelling was “at ib” of frame structure with a truncated-pyramidal shape. The paper is devoted to studying this type of dwelling. The research relevance is due to the fact that “at ib” has been poorly studied in the Khakass material culture. The work objective is to investigate genesis and problems of existence of “at ib” in the system of traditional life support. The study tasks are to reconstruct the genesis of “at ib” dwelling, to describe in details the housing design for classification purposes, to give full characteristics of its structure, to solve the issue of interpretation of “at ib” nomination, and to define its autochthonous nature. The work is based on a comprehensive and systematic historical approach using historical and ethnographic methods. Chronologically, the study covers the period of XVIII-XX centuries. The initial time frame of research is a period of existence of main traditional types of housing of the indigenous population in Khakassia. The study results are: a detailed description of “at ib” design features, its variations and dwellings classification. The questions of “at ib” chronology, evolution and existence in the Khakass people material culture. The author gives his own variant of interpreting the problem of “at ib” nomination. According to the author’s view, the origin of the dwelling’s nomination has an ancient pre-Turk history and semantics reflecting the dominant cult place of the “horse” in the worldview and material culture of Khakassia’s ancient population. In the ethnographic time - the first half of the XVIII - early XX centuries - the nomination perception was already associative, that was due to semi-nomadic nature of Khakass culture and their cattle-breeding orientation. As for “at ib” genesis and origin, its design features allow speaking about the autochthonous housing and about convergence with the ancient population’s dwellings of the Karasuk archaeological culture of X-IX centuries BC in Khakassia based on research of Torgazhak settling complex by archaeologists.
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