World-modeling natural images in Nanai folklore

Regional folklore texts contain cultural and ethnic meanings, the interpretation of which reveals the perception of the surrounding world by the population of this or that locus, their religious and mythological beliefs and national spiritual values. This paper studies the images of the river and taiga presented in the folklore of the Nanai people, one of the indigenous peoples of the Amur region. These natural images are world-modeling, as they construct the world picture of the autochthonous population of the region. The analysis demonstrates the ambivalent feelings of the Nanai toward the Amur River and the taiga surrounding their camp, which are both natural treasures and formidable destructive forces. The main river of the region and the taiga are anthropomorphic in the indigenous population’s perception. The world-modeling function of natural images is also manifested in the Nanai people’s recognition of the role of ancestor for the inhabitants of these landscape phenomena of the Far East.