Totemic symbol, character of Russian tales – bear

Abstract

The research is about the most ancient symbolism of a bear in Russian folk tales, the analysis of the bear image anthropocentrism in these fairy tales is carried out, the results of the bear’s study as a totemic symbol and a Russian fairy tale character are presented, an attempt to prove cult significance of the bear for the society of the entire ancient Slavic ethnos and its status as an elder of the ancient Slavic ancestral family is made. In ancient times, people believed in the existence of a kinship between a human and a bear, since the behavior and appearance of a bear resembled a person more than other representatives of the animal world (this is because the Slavs were not familiar with primates, as in ancient India): according to a folk-belief, the bear loves and nurses his children, eats the same food as a man, he does not have a tail, like other animals; he walks on his hind legs and can dance, so in fairy tales he is assigned the role of a landowner and a defender. However, he is deceived in many fairy tales, because the bear is the owner, the king of the forest, so he is associated with the chief and the landowner, and according to Russian folk ideas, the chief, in fact, is more stupid than a simple man.