Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Astana the Capital of Kazakhstan and Astanas in Siberia as a Linguistic-Cultural Aspect  

 

27

things piled on top of each other, devoid of organisation. Myth reduces 

complex reality to a simplified picture. Onomastic myth has an impact on 

the consciousness of the addressee such that it encourages certain actions 

and, ultimately, the implementation of joint activities. The astana has 

become just such an onomastic myth. We assume that folk etymologies of 

toponyms arise from structured toponymic myths, allowing the name to be 

kept as long as possible in the memory of native speakers. 

The authors believe that astana sacral complexes are not just objective 

but subjective-objective, not just natural and hereditable but historically 

derivative and mediated by media phenomenon. From many aspects, the 

concept of astana contains auto-stereotypes of the social, ethno-cultural and 

lingual behaviour of individuals as representatives of a certain ethnos and 

reflects the constants of the national personal identity of Turkic peoples in 

Siberia and Kazakhstan. 

 

Conclusions 

The associative value of an onym consists of associative fields, i.e. 

structured associative responses to that onym in modern society. The nature 

of the association, as a rule, undulates - it is in constant motion from the 

nucleus to the periphery and back again, while being in accord with the 

actualization of those or other characteristics of the communicative 

situation. Fragmentation of associations can shift the focus of attention of 

modern human consumer society to the highest spiritual values, transferring 

it to the mythologized “dream society.” Here myth becomes the salvation 

for man, tired of the lack of a stable system of spiritual origin, of living in a 

situation with elusive properties.

33

 

In other words, we can talk about post-modernist trends in 

contemporary onymo-formation and onymo-pragmatics, which, according 

to Jean Lyotard, represent a special worldview today.

34

 For example, it is 

rational; it has always been dominant in the category of toponymical 

objects, but this principle isnow receding and new values come to the fore 

in the form of new meanings given to famous quotes from world folklore, 

literature and science. Thus, toponymic space arises as a new interpretation 

of known facts. Jean Baudrillard wrote with great love and emotional 

warmth,

35

 that the “culture of structures is the qualitative state of a 

particular ethnic group in a particular social space and time.”

36

 These texts 

allow us to establish connections and reconstruct an ethno-genetic 

                                                 

33

 Gerashchenko 2006, p. 50. 

34

 Lyotard 1979, p. 100. 

35

 Baudrillard 2000, p. 184. 

36

 Karabulatova 2009, p. 181. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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I. S. Karabulatova, E. N. Ermakova, G. A. Shiganova 

 

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mythological synopsis from the toponymic legends of astanas. These 

legends reveal the sacred meaning of the name Astana. Foremost are the 

legends about terrible punishment and miraculous healing, as well as 

legends of the appearance of holy spirits in these places. 

The study of such communication comes naturally when we consider 

formalizing the regulatory mechanisms of life, culture, strategy and everyday 

human behaviour. The authors believe that the sacred complexes known as 

astanas occupy a key position in the process of understanding the traditional 

culture of the Siberian Turkic peoples. 

On the one hand, popular myths about astanas affect the underlying 

mechanisms of humanity, promoting the formation of ethnic and religious 

consciousness. On the other hand, the mere presence of sacred astana 

complexes and the presence of legends about astanas creates favourable 

conditions for the reproduction of sacred tradition. 

 

 

Astana the Capital of Kazakhstan and Astanas in Siberia as a Linguistic-Cultural 

Aspect of the National Islam of Eurasia 

 

(Abstract) 

 

By the time Islam penetrated into the Siberia and Kazakhstan, these territories were 

inhabited by various Turkic nomadic tribes whose spiritual and religious life was very 

varied. From the earliest age, a variety of cultural and ideological systems coexisted, 

including huge range of autochthonous ancient beliefs based on nature worship and 

ancestor worship, involving magic and the deification of the sky (Tengrism). After 

unification with Islam, these beliefs could later be found in the culturally-based traditional 

lifestyles of Siberian Tatars and Kazakhs. This is particularly true in the peripheries of the 

spread of Islam - in Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan, with their largely nomadic ways of 

life. The authors speculate on the name, astana, given to a succession of topographical 

objects, suggesting it represents a method for concealing the sacred in the profane. 

In modern socio-cultural reality, considering the mythological potential of a name 

involves examining fundamental characteristics of the culture such as 1. the interactive 

nature of culture itself, 2. its mythology, 3. its appeal to the potential of the past in search 

of the lost eternal values, and 4. the primacy of cultural interactions with respect to social 

processes. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with this, one thing is clear: everything, 

even the tiniest shades of meaning that may arise in the human mind, must be considered.  

The vivid, powerful, multifaceted image that arises from the valuation of 

toponymical objects is valuable for the modern man; it rebuilds the ruined individualism 

and immensity of the world, thus broadening our own cultural space. The sacral complex 

of an astana can be understood as a kind of socio-cultural communication which provides a 

record of a collective tradition. 

 

 

 

 

 

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