REFLECTION OF GENDER RELATIONS IN ORAL FOLK ARTS OF THE LOWER-TEREK COSSACKS

The article deals with the samples of oral folk art of the Lower Terek Cossacks, in which moral principles, communication opportunities, codes of gender behavior, stereotypes and patterns of male and female behavior in the family and society, are observed. The author analyzes the way folklore helps to maintain optimal standards and models of correct behavior in the society and mocks at violations and deviations from the traditional foundations of the Lower Terek Cossacks. The samples of the oral folk art of the Lower Terek Cossacks display the intellectual superiority of the man in the family and in the society and the subordinate statue of the woman and her sensible emotive world. In folklore, the family is stereotyped as the value, which is guarded by the woman. Such concepts as family, motherland, land are associated with the woman and all these feminine principles are protected by the man who is presented as a strong dominant personality. In most works, the basic gender stereotype is a patriarchal one, according to which the man plays a dominant role and the woman plays a passive role. This is more clearly illustrated in prose works - legends, family-household fairy tales, ritual, calendar, family-household and lyrical songs, proverbs, sayings, riddles, in which the man and the woman do gender-marked work: the woman performs activities related to housekeeping and up-bringing of children, and the man participates in campaigns, performs work out of home. Thanks to oral folk art, young generations get an idea of goodness, beauty, truth, courage, diligence, fidelity, oral folk art familiarizes them with universal moral values, cultivates patriotism and respect for the past of their people.