Abkhazian Folklore as an Expression of the National Worldview

Abstract

Every nation has proverbs, sayings, legends, and myths shaped by cultural tradi­tion and understood only by those who speak the language or are familiar with it. At the same time, alongside national and cultural experiences, folklore incorpo­rates a rational (mostly philosophical) interpretation of the reality that surrounds human. Worldview evolves over centuries, as a value system of perspectives on the surrounding world – a combination of ideas, concepts, and beliefs. The dis­tinct features of the Abkhazian national worldview are in many ways tied to vari­ous stages in the formation and development of the ethnic group, with the diverse dramatic events in its centuries-long struggle for survival and self-preservation. The goal of this article is to present the millennia-old experience of coexistence of the ancient people, encapsulated in various forms of Abkhaz folklore, using the Russian philosophical language, which in turn allows for the actualization of worldview constants of traditional Abkhaz wisdom in the contemporary Ab­khaz language, which even today regulates to a significant extent the everyday life of the Abkhaz ethnic group and the Republic of Abkhazia as a whole. The solution of this task gains particular significance against the background of intensifying globalization processes that, on one hand, blur the specificity of a people, eroding their traditional moral compass, and on the other hand, they stimulate the unveiling of modern philosophical meanings within traditional wisdom that enables the peo­ple to survive and maintain their identity in various historical conditions.