94 chapter two
is from another world. And because of that kind of notions the con-
tacts with such kind of women had to be ‘sanctified’ by special rituals.^32
Notions of this kind have at the base most probably both cosmological
and mythological projections since, generally speaking, projections of
this type were indeed modeling the social relations of the so-called
pre-modern societies and had their repercussions upon social ‘bod-
ies’ of this type. There are enough such examples characteristic to the
Turks, namely some of those which have their origins from the world’s
directions North and West and their marking by different values. For
instance, since East has always been regarded as the most sacred direc-
tion of the world, it was believed that a person looking to East had
South on his/her right side and North—on his/her left side, and ‘up’
and ‘down’ respectively. This was the “picture” if the space was looked
at according to the vertical projection. Among the Altaic people both
the yurt and the Sky were split into male (to the South) and female
(to the North) sides (or halves). Not coincidentally, in some South-
Siberian dialects ‘right’ marked a spectrum of positive qualities such
as ‘rightful’, ‘good luck/success’, ‘frontal/facial’, ‘favourable’ and alike,
and ‘North’ had usually meanings such as ‘irregular’ or ‘anomalous’,
i.e. there everything was viewed in total, absolute opposition to the
‘nice’ South. Moreover, North is also ‘left’ and it is hardly a coinci-
dence that the shamans used to hold their drums (“buben”) with the
left hand.^33 However, as regards the Bulgar pre-Christian society, it can
be taken for granted that the notion of the woman seen from the point
of view of the lower levels of mythology is not totally negative, that
is in accordance with the well-known scheme of oppositions where
‘female’, as a rule, is marked by ‘left’ and ‘bad’/‘wrong’; rather, the
woman here was marked indeed by ambivalence and was linked as
much to ‘positive’ as it was to ‘negative’ as well.^34
Difficulties again arise when someone tries to present in details the
female Otherness and its perception in the ‘Steppe Empire’ during the
sixth–ninth centuries from the point of view of the afore-mentioned
term “qut”. Having in mind these difficulties, we should at least try to
(^32) Sagalaev and Oktiabr’skaia 1990, 155. Barfield 1989, 26, however, claims that,
after the death of her husband, the widow retained significant influence over her
sons, and, if the latter were quite young boys, she had the right to be the head of the
household. 33
Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie 1988, 43.
(^34) Georgieva 2001b, 122–123.