RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT THE WOLF AND ITS GENESIS

Abstract

This article reflects the different religious beliefs and their genesis of the Turkic nations to wolves. These beliefs are analyzed in direct connection with totemism. The roots of the totemistic view of the wolf are explained by the myth that the ancestor of the Turkic peoples came from the mother wolf. This legend is even confirmed by the historian N.Y. Bichurin in the first volume of his three-volume work “Collection of information about the peoples living in Central Asia in ancient times.” The evolution of mythological notions about the birth of a particular lineage ancestor as a result of direct contact with the totem ancestor is analyzed on the basis of two different beliefs: totemistic beliefs based on the phenomenon of reincarnation and incarnation and their transformation into a symbolic ritual. Confidence and belief in the wolf also play an important role in Roman and Scandinavian mythology, and in the imagination of many peoples it is reflected in the symbolism of the community. The cult of the wolf is also analyzed through the epic “O’g’uznoma" and examples of folklore, excerpts from the "Devoni lug’otit turk".  The function of the image of the wolf is studied comparatively in the “Qissasi Rabg’uzi” and in the medieval urban literature on the basis of the play-morality of a moral character, the differences and similarities are identified.