Semiotics of Insanity in the Yakut Folklore
The key issue of the article is comprehension of the phenomenon of insanity in folklore and post-folklore of Yakutia. Madness appears as a consequence of illness or old age (in rare cases), or as a consequence of the curse of the shaman and deities of the upper world, or the result of a meeting with the deities of the lower world and the middle world (in most cases). On the material of folklore and modern Internet folklore a steady motive of the posthumous transformation of a madman into an evil spirit is described. The authors underline the connection between suffering and gaining power in the mythological worldview of the Yakut. In the context of discussion of emiryachenie, Yakut ethnospecific mental illness, an assumption is made that that the mythologization of insanity fulfills the functions of a protective myth and is necessary for the regulation of relations in the Yakut traditional society.