Mankurt

Mankurt is a term that refers to unthinking slave in Turkic mythology, similar to a zombie.

According to Chinghiz Aitmatov, there was a Kyrgyz legend, according to which mankurts were prisoners of war who were turned into slaves by having their heads wrapped in camel skin. Under a hot sun these skins dried tight, like a steel band, thus enslaving them forever. This, he likens to a ring of rockets around the earth keeping out humankind's higher civilisation. A mankurt did not recognise his name, family or tribe — «a mankurt did not recognise himself as a human being».[1]

Discussion is open about the origin of the word 'mankurt.' It was first used in the press by Aitmatov and he is said to have taken the word from the Epic of Manas. 'Mankurt' may be derived from the Mongolian term "мангуурах" (manguurah means "stupid"), Turkic mengirt (one who was deprived memory) or (less probably) man kort (bad tribe).

In literature

Chinghiz Aitmatov draws in his book, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years heavily on the tradition of the mankurts.

The legend is about a Turkmen who defends his homeland from invasion. He is captured, tortured, and brainwashed into serving his homeland's conquerors. He is so completely turned that he kills his mother when she attempts to rescue him from captivity.

N. Shneidman stated "The mankurt motif, taken from Central Asian lore, is the dominant idea of the novel and connects the different narrative levels and time sequences".[2] In the later years of the Soviet Union Mankurt entered everyday speech to describe the alienation that people had toward a society that repressed them and distorted their history.[3] In former Soviet republics the term has come to represent those non-Russians who have been cut off from their own ethnic roots by the effects of the Soviet system.[4]

In cinema

In 1990 the film Mankurt (Манкурт) was released in the Soviet Union.[5] Written by Mariya Urmatova, the film is based on one narrative strand from within the novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years.[6] It represents the last film directed by Khodzha Narliyev.[7] Its main cast was the Turkish actors tr:Tarık Tarcan, tr:Yılmaz Duru and the Turkmen actors Maýa-Gözel Aýmedowa, Hojadurdy Narliýew, Maýsa Almazowa. The film tells about a Turkmen who defends his homeland from invasion. After he is captured, tortured, and brainwashed into serving his homeland's conquerors, he is so completely turned that he kills his mother when she attempts to rescue him from captivity.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Excerpt from: celestial.com.kg
  2. ↑ Shneidman, N. N (1989). Soviet literature in the 1980s: decade of transition. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5812-6.
  3. ↑ Horton, Andrew; Brashinsky, Michael (1992). The zero hour: glasnost and Soviet cinema in transition (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 131. ISBN 0-691-01920-7.
  4. ↑ Laitin, David D. (1998). Identity in formation: the Russian-speaking populations in the near abroad (illustrated ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-8014-8495-7.
  5. ↑ Oliver Leaman (2001). Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film. Taylor & Francis. p. 17. ISBN 0-415-18703-6, 9780415187039
  6. ↑ Andrew Horton, Michael Brashinsky (1992). The zero hour: glasnost and Soviet cinema in transition. Princeton University Press. pp. 16, 17. ISBN 0-691-01920-7, 9780691019208
  7. ↑ P. Rollberg (2009). Historical dictionary of Russian and Soviet cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 35, 37, 482. ISBN 0-8108-6072-4, 9780810860728

External links

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