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Mankurt is who? "The legend of the mankurt"

The term "mankurt" was put into circulation by Chingiz Aitmatov in his famous novel "And the day lasts for more than a century". In this artwork, the mankurt is a man who was captured, with the help of brutal torture, turned into a servile soulless creature who forgot everything about his past life and carried out any orders of his master. The word has become widely used in a figurative sense, has become a household name. The contemptuous nickname "mankurt" goes to those who forget the national language and disdain for the culture of their people.

Etymology of the word

There are several versions of the origin of the word. Presumably Chingiz Aitmatov, inventing the term "mankurt", took as a basis the ancient Turkic adjective mungul, meaning "stupid, unreasonable, devoid of reason". In the modern Kyrgyz language, munju is used to refer to a mutilated person. Taking into account the mutual influence of the Mongolian language and the Kirghiz one, it can be assumed that the noun "mankurt" comes from the "mangou" - a form of the word meaning "stupid, stupid, idiot" and "idiot". It is possible that the lexeme "mankurt" is formed by merging the ancient Turkic roots gurut - "dried" and man - "girdle, put on a belt."

The zhuanghuana tribe

In the fourth or fifth century of our era, East Asia was covered by the process of resettlement. During the turbulence in the steppes of Turkestan, Western Manchuria and Mongolia, an alliance of nomadic tribes, which included runaway slaves, impoverished peasants, deserters. Combined with a common unenviable fate, people were forced to drag on a miserable beggarly existence, so they strayed into gangs, plundering. Gradually, a band of bandits turned into a nation that went down in history under the name of Zhuanzhuang. This tribe was distinguished by primitive laws, the lack of writing and culture, constant combat readiness and cruel ruthlessness. Zhuanzhuang controlled the lands north of China and became a real curse for nomadic Asia and neighboring states. Mankurt is a man enslaved by this terrible people.

Description of torture

It is not accidental that in the legend described by Aitmatov, it is precisely about the zhuanghui. Only this innocent, ruthless, barbaric people were able to invent such a sophisticated, inhuman torture. This tribe treated the captives especially cruelly. In order to turn a person into an ideal slave, who does not think about insurrection and flight, he was deprived of memory by putting on him breadth. For the procedure, young and strong warriors were chosen. First, the unhappy head was completely shaved, literally scraped away every hair. Then the camel was hammered and the most dense, horny part of the skin was separated. Split into parts, it was pulled on the heads of prisoners. Skin, like a plaster, stuck to the freshly shaven skull of people. This meant putting on the width. Then the future slaves were put on their pads to prevent them from touching the head of the earth, tied their arms and legs, took them out to the bare steppe and left them there for a few days. Under the scorching sun, without water and food, with a gradually drying skin, a steel hoop tightening its head, the captives often died from unbearable torment. Within a day the hard straight hair of the slaves began to germinate, sometimes they penetrated the rawhide, but more often they bent and pierced the scalp, causing burning pain. At that moment the prisoners finally lost their reason. Only on the fifth day Zhuangzhuang came for the unfortunate. If at least one of the prisoners remained alive, it was considered luck. The enslaved was released from the bonds, allowed to get drunk, gradually restored strength and physical health.

The value of a slave-mankurt

People who do not remember their past, were valued very dearly. They had a number of advantages from an economic point of view. Mankurt is a creature not burdened with the consciousness of its own "I", attached to the owner, like a dog. His only need is food. He is indifferent to other people and never thinks of fleeing. Only mankurts, not remembering kinship, could withstand the endless desolation of the Sarozek, did not bother with the wild, did not need rest and help. And they could do the most dirty, tedious, painful work for a long, unswervingly, monotonously. Usually they were put to the camel herd, which they guarded vigilantly day and night, in winter and summer, without complaining of deprivation. The command of the master was for them above all. Mankurt was equivalent to ten healthy slaves. It is known that for the accidental killing of such a slave in internecine wars, in order to compensate for the damage, the guilty party paid a ransom three times more than for the destruction of a free tribesman.

The legend of the mankurt

In the novel "And the day lasts for more than a century," one chapter is devoted to an ancient legend. About the unfortunate fate of a woman named Naiman-Ana tells in her tradition Aitmatov. Mankurt, about which the heroine of the narrative accidentally heard, was her missing son in battle. Usually, even if the relatives of the mutilated captive knew about his terrible fate, they never tried to save him. A person who does not remember kinship retained only the outer shell. Nyman-Ana reasoned otherwise. She decided to return her son home by all means. Finding him among the endless Sarozek, the woman tried to restore the memory of the youth. However, neither the warmth of the mother's hands, nor her insistent speeches, nor the lullabies that were familiar from childhood, nor the food cooked under the native shelter helped the prisoner remember his past. And when the insidious zhuangzhuangi persuaded the mankurt that Naiman-Ana wanted to deceive him, take off his hat and strip off his exhausted head, the slave with an unstoppable hand shot an arrow into his mother's heart. From the hair of a dying woman, a white kerchief fell, turned into a Donenbai bird, which continued to scream, reminiscent of the mankurt about his father and his forgotten native land.

Folklore source

The author of the legend, as already mentioned, is the famous writer Chingiz Aitmatov. The legend of the mankurt, in turn, comes from a real folklore source. The writer in one of the interviews tells that in the epic "Manas", one of the greatest legends of the Kirghiz people, there is a mention of the threat of one of the warriors to another in case of victory to slap him on the head of the width in order to take away the memory. The author did not find other information about this cruel violence over the human intellect either in folklore or in literature. Researcher K. Asanaliev, studying the epos "Manas", found in it the lines in which the enemies try to put on the young Manas width.

Historical authenticity

Shiri is the rawhide leather of large cattle, from which nomadic peoples in ancient times made pottery. The Kirghiz also had a funeral custom associated with the use of width. If, due to unfavorable circumstances, it was necessary to postpone the funeral of the deceased in another locality, his body, with observance of all the prescribed rites, was wrapped in width and hung on a tall tree. In the spring the deceased was taken to a family cemetery and buried there. It is known to mention the word "width" in the meaning "a hood of rawhide, put on the head of the punishable." This kind of torture was widely used by nomadic peoples. The drying skins of the animal shrank, causing unbearable pain to the person. Mankurt is a person who lost his memory under the influence of such torture, according to Aitmatov. If we assume that the term "width" of Mongol origin, its meaning is "skin, skin, rawhide." In the Kyrgyz language, along with the "width" lexicon, the derivatives are used: "shiresh" - "to grow together, to stick together" and "width" - "to put on the head width".

The meaning of the legend

The legend of the mankurt is closely connected with the main theme of the narrative of the novel "And the day lasts for more than a century". It describes the modern mankurts. Chingiz Aitmatov sought to convey to his readers the idea that a person deprived of historical memory becomes a puppet, a slave of concepts and concepts imposed on him. He does not remember the instructions of his father and mother, he forgets his real name, loses touch with the national culture of his tribe and loses his identity. Of particular importance in the legend is attached to the fact that the unfortunate mankurt, who lost information about his human nature, preserved the memory of how to shoot from the bow, and therefore - to kill. And when the enslavers set up the young man against his mother, he destroyed it with his own hands. Historical memory is the basis of the human soul, an inoculation against immorality and amoralism. Naiman-Ana is a symbol of this memory, tirelessly reminding people of the lessons of the past.

The use of the word

According to the journal Science and Life, mankurt is an example of a lexeme introduced into Russian recently. At the present time, the meaning of this word has narrowed to the notion of a man who does not remember a relationship that has forgotten about his ancestors. The information that this loss has occurred as a result of external influence on the psyche and turns the subject into the slave of his master, in the sense of the noun "mankurt" is gradually lost.

The term has acquired great popularity in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan. In these countries, the word "mankurt" has a negative meaning, they are called people who forget the national language and culture.

Other authors

Publicist Vertiporokh Lilia calls mankind a man, "whose empire has removed the heart and brains, leaving only the stomach." Konstantin Krylov describes the use of the term "mankurt" in the eighties of the last century as an unfair and contemptuous description of a man who is not very interested in "the day before yesterday's news" about Stalin's repressions and other events in Russian history, but more thinking about the present and the future of his country. Publicist and journalist Solovyov Vladimir calls mankind of citizens, dismissive about their homeland. He considers people for whom respect for the memory of ancestors are empty words, a genetic mutation.

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