SACRIFICES IN KAZAKH CULTURE: IN ITS PAST AND PRESENT

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of traditional and modern sacrifices of the Kazakh people as important rituals of traditional and modern culture. The author of the study draws attention to the fact that the concept of sacrifice is a central theme (‘ethos’) of many Kazakh rituals. Sacrifices have played and continue to play an important communicative role in the worldview of Kazakh people. The main parties in the communication process are the spirits of ancestors and their living relatives.

The author of the study classified traditional Kazakh sacrifices, focusing on the bloodless types of sacrifices – consecration with dairy products, pouring sacrificial oil into the fire – the hearth, baking flatbread (bread), tying white cloth, cloth scraps, horsehair (i.e. votive objects) on the tree branches, etc. In addition, the researcher proposed characteristics of traditional and modern societies based on gradations of ritualization, level of religiosity, and cohesion of social ties.