Human body fluids in the context of social interpretations: sacred mother's milk

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the perception of the image of mother's milk in the traditional worldview of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples of Inner Asia. The chronological framework of the article covers the end of the 19th — 20th centuries. The main sources are ethnographic and folklore materials. The work is based on an integrated, systemic-historical approach to the study of the past. The research methodology is based on historical and ethnographic methods.

A human's system of ideas about society, about the place that a person occupies in it, is one of the key elements of the traditional worldview. The most important tool in the development of the social sphere of traditional society is the human body. Bones and internal organs of the human body are the main ones in the anthropomorphic model. This study shows that body fluids, in particular breast milk, are equally important. It is shown that mother's milk is extremely important in understanding the relationship between a mother and her children, forming in the traditional worldview of nomads the concept of filial and daughter duty to the mother, the idea of the "curse of milk" or "curse of the breast" as a punishment for disrespect not only to your own mother, but also to any other nursing woman in general. Such a social phenomenon as "milk kinship" reveals another important function of breast milk — to establish kinship.