“SIGNS OF NEWLYWEDS”: PECULIARITIES OF WEDDING PARAPHERNALIA DECORATION AMONG TURKIC PEOPLES

Abstract. The complex of wedding attributes of Turkic peoples includes: yurt, carriage or riding animal, as well as the costume of newlyweds. Sufficient attention has been paid to the decoration of the wedding costume in science. However, the other attributes have not received due comprehension and illumination. We are sure that artistic and aesthetic labelling of wedding attributes in traditional culture was undoubtedly made with a special intention and carried certain information, representing the status of newlyweds. Hence, the purpose of this article is to investigate the meanings and values of the decoration of wedding paraphernalia in Turkic peoples, which is considered as visual “signs of newlyweds”. The sign nature of wedding attributes is investigated from the point of view of color symbolism, constructive features and ornamentation. The sources of different periods (pre-revolutionary and modern), as well as archival photographs and artefacts from museum collections (late 19th - early 20th centuries) served as materials for the study. The main methods of research are comparative, semantic and art history analysis. In the opinion of the author of the article, the synthesis of these approaches in the future may contribute to the analysis and reconstruction of the lost meanings of the decoration of other traditional products. The study allowed us to find out some features of the decoration of wedding paraphernalia, reflecting layers of archaic beliefs and ideas about the universe in Turkic culture, characterized by a common fundamental basis and differing in ethnic variants. The article was prepared within the framework of the project of the Committee of Science Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan AP23488164 “Traditional and modern art of Kazakhstan in the focus of visual studies: iconography, semiotics and discourse”.