Образы рыб и водоплавающих птиц в традициях изготовления "канклес" народов Балтийского региона: вопросы семантики
ENThe shapes of the string instruments kanklės of the peoples of the Baltic Sea region are usually similar to the forms of relict fishes, which are included in the Red Book of Lithuania. Very often we can see the features of waterfowls in the construction of these instruments. Regarding the fact that the "first" kanklės / kantele of the Karelian epos "Kalevala" were produced from the jaw of the pike, and this instrument served a magic purpose, the hypothesis is formulated that the forms of ethnographical samples of musical instruments could have preserved the ancient function of these instruments connected with the ancient totemism. Although the primitive tribes had created a verbal image of "a big pike", which was a characteristic feature of the fishing culture, most probably, kanklės in the shape of the relict fishes could be the "material" image and symbol of "a big pike" or "a big fish". The shapes of the instruments could be treated as the signs of the "nether", whereas the elements of waterfowls - as the "middle" and "upper" spheres of the ancient mythology. According to the latest research of Lithuanian archaeologists, hunting and fishing, instead of agriculture, were the prevalent forms of the ancient rural economy of the peoples living in Western and Northern Lithuania, which was the area of spreading of the kanklės. Although the area of using these instruments stretches away to Finland and Karelia where the nature and living conditions were almost the same as in the territory of the present-day north-western Lithuania, we can make a presumption that the kanklės could be related to the ancient fishing culture as a significant feature of this very ancient form of rural economy, which was formed at the end of the Mesolithic and at the beginning of the Neolithic era.
