Abstract: This article examines the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society through the prism of cultural phenomena. The article consists of two parts. The first part characterizes two specific cultural phenomena in China – the cult of totems and the Chanwen system – and uses the idea that the transition from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one was contradictory and non-linear. In the second part, using the example of the ancient Chinese myth of Gong and Yu's struggle with the flood, the phenomenon of Yu's miraculous birth without the participation of a woman is analyzed. Further, based on a series of stories about Yu's marriage to Tushan and data on the change in the marriage system that occurred during this era, the author considered how the matriarchal system is being reborn into a patriarchal one. This article examines the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society through the prism of cultural phenomena. First, the article characterizes two specific cultural phenomena in China – the cult of totems and the Chanwen system – and uses the idea that the transition from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one was contradictory and non-linear. Secondly, the article, based on a series of stories about Yu's marriage to Tushan and data on the change in the marriage system that took place during this era, examines how the matriarchal system is reborn into a patriarchal one. When male reproductive law was established, the right to transfer the paternal surname to descendants and the hereditary right of father and son, etc., the transition of the Xia nation from matriarchy to patriarchy and the formation of a class society were completed.

Keywords: social system, tribal society, Shan Hai Jing, Chinese history, patriarchy, matriarchy, inheritance, kinship, flood myth, Chinese mythology

Abstract: This paper serves as a logical continuation of the article "Fake Science and Simulacra of Culture: Illusory Ideas about Slavic Paganism in Modern Russian Humanities", published in the journal "Voprosy Filosofii" in 2022. This paper was about the mechanism of the origin of illusory ideas about Slavic paganism and the reasons for their intrusion into scientific publications. Here we analyze the socio-cultural consequences that the functioning of this mechanism eventually leads to. The object of study in this article is the modern scientific and parascientific ideas of Russians about the paganism of the ancient Slavs, and the subject of study is the infiltration of parascientific opinions about the ancient Slavs’ paganism in scientific and official business discourses in modern Russia. The methodological basis of the research work is a case study. The methodological arsenal includes also the hermeneutic analysis of a number of texts published in Russian scientific periodicals and serving as material for the author's reflection. In the course of the study, it was revealed that illusory ideas about Slavic paganism very easily infiltrate into various publications presented both in proceedings of the scientific conferences and in scientific journals. As a result, various parascientific (in particular, neo-pagan) constructs gain weight due to their transmission in scientific periodicals. The infiltration of simulacra of traditional culture into scientific discourse leads to the fact that representatives of the scientific community, performing various expert functions, become guides of these simulacra into official business discourse. Given the state's policy of preserving and developing traditional values, it can be expected that under the guise of preserving various folk traditions, modern parascientific constructs that actually have nothing to do with genuine historical and cultural heritage can receive support.

Keywords: mystical tourism, expert community, Russian academic community, mass consciousness, Parascience, Pseudoscience, Russian Neo-Paganism, Slavic mythology, Slavic paganism, Neo-Nazism

Abstract: The article analyzes the role of the dragon culture for the preservation of national unity and spiritual strength of the Chinese people. The author raises the question of the reasons why the dragon culture remains in demand in the modern rational world, in the age of science and technology development. The answer to this question is the thesis about the uniqueness of Chinese culture, which lies in the philosophy of symbiosis, when the mythological culture of the dragon and scientific rationalism coexist and successfully develop. The dragon is depicted as a powerful being with infinite strength and courage, acting as a talisman, a symbol of protecting people from disasters. Therefore, the dragon culture reflects the veneration of strength, courage, and confidence in Chinese traditional values. The dragon is often seen as a symbol of harmony in Chinese traditional culture, embodying the idea of the unity of heaven and man. The article uses general scientific and special research methods, including document analysis, historical research, classification, comparative research method and semiotic analysis. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the reception of the image of the dragon in Chinese culture in the aspect of the philosophy of symbiosis. The author's special contribution to the research of the topic is to analyze the status, role and evolution of dragon culture in Chinese traditional culture from antiquity to the present day, as well as to identify the modern significance and role of dragon culture in modern society. The main conclusion of the study is that the image of the dragon provides a symbiotic relationship between the scientific, rational thinking of modern man and the mythological archetypes preserved in the collective consciousness. Dragon culture reflects the importance of traditional cultural values, national spirit and national identity in China.

Keywords: Chinese people, China, image of the dragon, Chinese culture, philosophy of symbiosis, dragon culture, Dragon, reception of the image of the dragon, totem sign, dragon symbol

Abstract: This article is devoted to the analysis of the mythology of the future and its modalities in the series "Black Mirror" as a tool of cultural orientation in the modern temporal situation. Based on the works of J. Urry, B. Bevernage, H. Lübbe, the article reveals the specifics of the modern temporal situation and current strategies for forming the image of the future. Based on the methodology of critical discourse analysis, the author analyzes three selected episodes, showing the specifics of the mythology of the future and its modalities (the upcoming future, the future of the present and the future materialized), as strategies of cultural orientation in the modern temporal situation. It was shown that the «Black Mirror» series refers to the mythology of the future, which simultaneously problematizes the future, making it the subject of satire and irony (postmodernist discourse), but at the same time normalizes images of an unstable and contigent future (metamodernist discourse). The main method of representing the future is the extrapolation of the present. The analysis of discursive strands shows that the series reproduces the idea of the future as a fragmentary, asynchronous progress of individual technologies that change interpersonal relations and the social order to varying degrees. Doing this, the series reinforces the already comprehensive sense of the contingency of what is happening, pointing not to the person’s need to choose his future actively, but to the possibility of consuming various modalities of the future, depending on the current social agenda and personal preferences.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, fantasy series, mythological temporality, metamodernism, postmodernism, Black Mirror, future, social mythology, contingency, cultural orientation

Abstract: . The purpose of this article is to analyze the specifics of the mythologizing of time in the historical period dramas "Downton Abbey" and "The Crown" in the context of the transition from the postmodern paradigm to a new metamodern sensibility. The article summarizes the experience of domestic and foreign studies of the metamodern tendencies of the modern TV series and analyzes the theoretical issues of the mythological temporality of TV series production. On the basis of the theoretical concept of retrotopia by Z. Bauman, the concept of layers of cinematic temporality by N.E. Marievskaya and the critical discourse analysis of S. Jäger, the features of the mythologization of horizontal, vertical time, as well as the biographical time of characters in selected period dramas have been analyzed. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the problematization and analysis of the discursive environment of the deployment of the temporal mythology of the modern period drama. The modern historical period drama demonstrates the specifics of turning to retrotopia, as it seeks to represent the current problems of the present through an imaginary past. In the case of the “Downton Abbey”, this happens through the harmonization in the viewer's mind of nostalgia for an imaginary English aristocratic past and an unstable future. In the case of the “The Crown”, the presentation of the private life of the British royal family against the backdrop of historical events contributes to the formation of a more multidimensional image of the present and responds to the demands of the mass audience in the emotional representation of historical events. The result of this representation is a kind of mythology of time, which arises between the cultural demand for retrotopia and the development of modern technologies for the production of cinematographic products, which makes it possible to fully realize the intention of modern metamodernist discourse to achieve a “new sensibility”. This allows us to consider the modern historical period drama not only as a "commercial project", but also as a tool for the development of historical culture, an instrument of cultural orientation in social space and time.

Keywords: metamodernism, retrotopia, the mythology of time, The Crown series, TV series Downton Abbey, conservative historical drama, mythologization of cinema, soap opera, social mythology, critical discourse analysis

Abstract: The subject of this research is the long-term strategies of interaction of the natives of Siberia and the North with natural environment. Special attention is given to the reflection of archaic culture of this region with regards to diversified forms of interaction with such subsystem of natural environment as the wild world. This reflection is subjected to axiological research problematization, appropriate to the ambience of structuralist revival of Rousseau’s ideals. Having realized the danger of ritual self-delusion, which victim in the context of interaction with nature becomes a “natural human”, the authors focus attention on the consciously ambivalent “philosophy of intentions” of the natives of Siberia and the North, attractive (at least) as a trial version of the ideology of rational egoism. The authors apply the method of classification that allows discerning the invariants of mythological representations and ritual practices. As a result, the article systemically demonstrates a list of models (motives) of primeval consciousness that postulate one of the its fundamental ideas – understanding multiple objects of wild world as the so-called human “alter ego”. Explication of such pattern lead to formulation of a conclusion that all natives of Siberia and the North practice the dual orientation towards “control” and “synergy” with wildlife, which in modern consciousness are often interpreted as the alternative strategies.

Keywords: animal world, consciousness, ecology, ritual, myth, primitiveness, nature, culture, cooperation, management

Abstract: This article examines a new cultural formation such as the reflexive myth. The peculiarities of this phenomenon are studied on the example of creativity of the famous art group “The Mitki”. An assessment of the phenomenon as a simulacrum required researching the difference between the principles of interpreting the concept of simulacrum by J. Baudrillard and G. Bataille. If the simulacrum of Baudrillard is opposite to symbol, the concept of simulacrum used by Bataille introduces the scholar to a mytho-symbolic universe. Reflexivity of Baudrillard’s comprehension of simulacrum is reduced to the minimum. The interpretation of Bataille’s symbol-simulacrum leads to creation of a special reflexive language, language of irony, paradoxical behavioral paradigms, gratuitous and pointless “expenditure”.  The pointless “expenditure” is opposite to the pragmatism of social exchange. Such confrontation opens possibility for the assessment of a reflexive action. The author proposes an extensive interpretation of the discourse of nonverbal communication (relationship language), which was introduced by the anthropologist G. Bateson. The nonverbal communication falls beyond the artistic reality, manifesting as an essential part of functionality of the human society. The nonverbal communication forms the basis of reflexivity of a contemporary myth; the functions of the latter presently increase, allowing the mind to determine its capabilities and limits.

Keywords: foolishness, reflection, irony, simulacrum, hyperreality, symbol, mitki, myth, culture, language

Abstract: The object of this research is the difference between the archaic (primeval) myth and modern commercial advertising, which in foreign and national literature is often interpreted as one of the mythological practices that mystifies the public consciousness. The subject area of this research is the specificity of the provided in these discourses metamorphoses, viewed in terms of the binary opposition “consistency – arbitrariness”. The goal of this work is to identify the indicated peculiarities and demonstrate that they are determined by nature and designation of one or another narration as the historically and functionally defined element of the sociocultural system. For achieving of the set goal, the author applied the comparativist methodology, complemented at the level of advertising semiosis by the methods of semantic and discursive analysis. As a result, it is established that metamorphoses valuable for the myth and advertising relate to the diverse – ontological and structural-semantic dimensions of the discursive realm. If for the classical myth, the conceptual transformations are the subject metamorphoses as such, which reflect its cosmogenic essence, the key idea of advertising is associated with metamorphosis of the trade name of denotative sign to primarily connotative. At the same time, it is demonstrated that unlike the mythological transformations, subordinated to a number of sustainable principles, the connotative explication in advertising has a pronounced arbitrary character.

Keywords: axiology, discourse, connotation, sign, metamorphoses, advertising, myth, convergence, divergence, arbitrariness

Abstract:   The modern information and communication technologies, technologies of virtual reality, and video game industry actualize the questions of the essence of virtual objects and worlds. To what extent such worlds are real, illusionary, mythical? The subject of this research is the videogames and virtual worlds. The goal consists in examination of the mythical in the virtual worlds of videogames. Methodological foundation leans on the phenomenological concept of A. F. Losev and Y. S. Osachenko, R. Bart’s semiotic interpretation of myth, simulacrum theory of G. Deleuze and J. Baudrillard. The authors demonstrate that videogames design the own virtual worlds, which are mythical by nature. The videogame “Assassin’s Creed Unity” exemplifies the mythological narration of the Great French Revolution through doubling of the symbolic order. Based on the other videogame of the sequence – “Assassin’s Creed II”, the author illustrate that videogames are capable of structuring the methodological narrative elsewise than other media, using the formal conventions common to videogames. Application of the user interface integration alongside establishing the relationship with “gamer – avatar” into the interior of virtual space of the “Assassin’s Creed”, allow the gamer to appear in the position of the creator of his virtual world, rather than its observer. The scientific novelty consists in substantiation of mythicalism of the virtual worlds of videogames, as well as determination of specificity of the mythological design of the world through videogames, which is realized due to interactivity (player becomes a so-creator of the virtual world) and performativity (using of formal conventions, for example, user interface characteristic to videogames as medium).  

Keywords: performativity, mythical, Assassin's Creed, philosophy of video games, game studies, virtual world, videogame, myth, interactivity, French Revolution

Abstract: This article examines the process of transformation of ethnic myth in the Circassian culture, starting with the antiquity era of creation of the epos of “Narta” and spanning to the modern post-Soviet period. In the first part of this work the author conceptualizes the notion of “ethnic myth”, as well as asserts the characteristics of its multilayerdness and universality as form of collective consciousness. In the context of the conducted research, the notion of “ethnic myth” becomes an instrument which allows the more detailed examination of separate segments of the ethnic pattern of the Circassians, as well as its wholeness. In other words, ethnic myth is illustrated as one of the forms of consciousness, including the modern representative of an ethnic group. To analyze the transformation processes of ethnic consciousness, the author applies methodology of G. Durand, who claims that the  world for a  man is can only be in “imaginary” form – a myth, collective and unconscious, which emerges as a primary process and consists form the imaginary, imaginer, and imagination along with the imagination process itself. The correlation of the two specific imaginary modes – day and night, expresses the peculiarities of different culture. Based on this fact the author analyzes the historical change of the boundary between the day and night segments of ethnic myth of the Circassians, which comprises the scientific novelty of this work. Based on the example of evolution of the mythical-epical understanding of ethnic values, the author makes the conclusion of the priority of the day world perception of the ancient Circassians, while the artistic heritage of antiquity already demonstrated the beans of the night mythological consciousness. The author also follows the changes in traditions and rituals, as well as brings examples of the modern forms of ethnic interactions which reflect the specificity of the day and night levels of mythological consciousness among the representatives of the ethnos.

Keywords: night images, epic, Diurne/Nocturne mode, imaginary, picture of the world, ethnic myth, Circassians, ritual practices, post-Soviet sociocultural space, ethnic identity

Abstract:  This article examines the image of Dažbog a meaningful Slavic deity of the pagan era. Many researches, fully or partially dedicated to him, do not eliminate all contradictions, which result from the universally accepted interpretations according to the primary sources (first and foremost “Primary Chronicle”, “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, and also the Southern Slavic folklore). Another questionable fact is the attribution of the solar nature to Dažbog: if he was considered a god of sun, then why in Ancient Rus was worshiped another solar god Hors? The author suggests a new outlook upon this issue, which is mostly based on the comparative approach – comparison with the other Indo-European mythologies (Germanic, Indian, Greek, Baltic, etc.) Basing on the alternative reading of the primary sources, the author reviews the etymology of Dažbog. As a result, it results in a completely different idea about Dažbog, who was never presented in science, although several of his prerequisites were earlier proposed by the number of accomplished scholars regarding the area of etymology of his name, and from functional perspective.  The author attempts to answer the question – could or could not Dažbog become a development of Dyeu, the Indo-European God of the Shining Sky?

Keywords: comparative mythology, God of Shining Sky, Dyeu Ph2ter, Dažbog, Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Slavic pantheon, solar gods, Hors, Svarog

Abstract: The article is devoted to the phenomenon of social mythology under the conditions of modern globalization and cultural modernization processes. The main interest of the researcher is focused on the peculiarities of the mythological consciousness structure that restore archaic formations of modern social practices as their value orientations. Vlasova analyzes constitutive elements of mythological world perception and what had enrooted those elements in human activity since ancient times till our days. The researcher describes particular social and historical situations that created the 'fertile ground' for reproducing social mythology in rational creativity of a modern subject. The methodological basis of the research involves comparative analysis of the myth making process in the present and the past, social-psychological description of mythtellers from the point of view of their existence in particular socio-cultural circumstances. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author views the problem of mythological orientation both in yesterday's and today's practices, analyzes pluses and minuses of the role of myth at all times and explain that duality. Conclusions: social mythology is irremovable from the culture creation process because a subject must have emotions, moods and imagination. Being the source of ethnomental archetypes, mythology preserves unique features of individual cultures opposing to unifying tendencies of the modernization process. Modern alienation of the global culture results in distorted functions of mythology while eliminating its causes. 

Keywords: social mythology, overall cultural globalization, modernized consciousness, mythological world perception, functions of myth, peculiarities of myth making, ideological manipulation, mythologization of reality, modern mythologems, prospects of myth making

Abstract: The present article is based on the philosophical-cultural approach and is a part of the research program aimed at explication of the substantial antagonism of the archaic myth as an ‘early mirror of the world’ and modern advertisement which is almost naturally thought to be the phenomenon with mythological features. The topic of vital forces, their preservation and accumulation is one of the central ones in both classical mythology and advertising discourse which allows to view specifics of the prehistorical and contemporary market vitalism as a topical area to be studied in detail. The present research is based on the comparative method that involves the comparison of the prehistorical concept of vital forces modeled by using the ethnographic cross-cultural analysis with the most typical features of advertising vitalism. The author of the article shows that archaic views and practices represent human as a key element of the universal circulation of vital forces and a subject possessing, allocating and consuming vital forces. On the contrary, the advertising concept of vital forces turn an advertising hero into a plain buyer of a ‘packaged’ simulative dose. Extreme forms of such reductive approach makes the subjective existence to be an exclusive attribute of a marketable substance while a consumer deprived of his own vital potential represents a personification of a subjective nothing.

Keywords: philosophy, culture, mythology, ceremony, advertising, vital forces, vitality, substance, subjectivity, reduction.

Abstract: The author of the article tries to answer the question if we can talk about the logic of mythological thinking and if we can, then what the logic of mythological thinking is all about? The author proves that we can’t apply the term ‘logic’ as it was understood by Aristotle here. The author also describes how the views on the logic of mythological thinking have been developing with time and defines the most promising points of view for his study. He describes the consciousness of archaic people and finds out that special features of their consciousness were conditioned by particular forms and rules of thinking. In his study the author uses the evolutionary approach, comparison methods, generalization method and the method of new typification. The author establishes that the archaic thinking was based on certain principles and specific paradigms. As a consequence, mythological thinking is a special type of thinking activity operating a great number of unique methods and techniques. Under the influence of these factors, the process of myth creation has appeared to be a rather determined, theological, efficient and psychologically and esthetically efficient.

Keywords: myth, consciousness, image, concept, reality, determinants, opposition, schemes, paradigms, correlation. ETHICS

Abstract: The author of the article tries to answer the question if we can talk about the logic of mythological thinking and if we can, then what the logic of mythological thinking is all about? The author proves that we can’t apply the term ‘logic’ as it was understood by Aristotle here. The author also describes how the views on the logic of mythological thinking have been developing with time and defines the most promising points of view for his study. He describes the consciousness of archaic people and finds out that special features of their consciousness were conditioned by particular forms and rules of thinking. In his study the author uses the evolutionary approach, comparison methods, generalization method and the method of new typification. The author establishes that the archaic thinking was based on certain principles and specific paradigms. As a consequence, mythological thinking is a special type of thinking activity operating a great number of unique methods and techniques. Under the influence of these factors, the process of myth creation has appeared to be a rather determined, theological, efficient and psychologically and esthetically efficient.

Keywords: myth, consciousness, image, concept, reality, determinants, opposition, schemes, paradigms, correlation.

Abstract: The author of the article suggests to discuss a wide circle of issues related to public ideological processes. The reason for discussion is the book ‘Social Mythology’ written by Pavel Gurevich and published about 30 years ago. The author of the present article notes that Gurevich’ book was in all appearances the first research of the phenomenon of social mythology in Russian philosophy. Back in those times Gurevich could not analyze myths of the communist ideology and therefore he could not provide a critical overview of the concept of scientific ideology. However, a reader with a sharp mind could understand that the phenomenon of social mythology was quite universal. In his later work Pavel Gurevich often touched upon the same matter again and extended the concept of public ideological processes. It can be clearly seen in the materials selected for conducting ‘Round Tables’ under the guidance of Pavel Gurevich and printed in the Analyst Bulletin Journal. In her research the author of the article uses the method of historical analysis which allows to describe different stages of formation of social mythology and understand special features of each period. The novelty of the present research is the creation of a common and clearly established understanding of the role of social mythology in this day and age. The author also touches upon particular polemic issue that could be developed further.

Keywords: philosophy, politics, ideology, ‘false consciousness’, ‘ideological criticism’, re-ideologization, social mythology, idea, public spirit, social practice.

Abstract: Indian Vedas show that their authors had a quite established concept of the cause and the driver of any natural phenomena, in other words, its actor and subject. Actors of cosmological processes and phenomena were Gods who had a number of cosmic functions allowing dynamics and unity of the world. The author of the article describes such heaven bodies and associated gods as Sun, Earth, Moon and some stars and planets from this point of view. The author describes the genealogy of such gods and their relations as world actors. The diversity of features of heaven bodies made the Vedas authors to invent diversified deification. The author of the article suggests a certain logic scheme for analyzing gods’ images. This scheme includes a number of different hypostases of gods: description of their appearance and spiritual image, cosmic and social functions and real referents. Analyzing the main gods from this point of view, the author concluded that mythological images were synthetic mental constructs consisting of components of different epistemological value. Myth-makers also shared their views on certain important universal characteristics of the reality such as the law of universal circulation, both natural and social space, time and movement within the Universe. In his article the author shares his logic of understanding the reality that is typical for the initial stage of any cognitive process including scientific one.

Keywords: philosophy, Universe, Sun, gods, time, movement, thinking, imagination, real, fictious.

Abstract: Indian Vedas show that their authors had a quite established concept of the cause and the driver of any natural phenomena, in other words, its actor and subject. Actors of cosmological processes and phenomena were Gods who had a number of cosmic functions allowing dynamics and unity of the world. The author of the article describes such heaven bodies and associated gods as Sun, Earth, Moon and some stars and planets from this point of view. The author describes the genealogy of such gods and their relations as world actors. The diversity of features of heaven bodies made the Vedas authors to invent diversified deification. The author of the article suggests a certain logic scheme for analyzing gods’ images. This scheme includes a number of different hypostases of gods: description of their appearance and spiritual image, cosmic and social functions and real referents. Analyzing the main gods from this point of view, the author concluded that mythological images were synthetic mental constructs consisting of components of different epistemological value. Myth-makers also shared their views on certain important universal characteristics of the reality such as the law of universal circulation, both natural and social space, time and movement within the Universe. In his article the author shares his logic of understanding the reality that is typical for the initial stage of any cognitive process including scientific one.

Keywords: philosophy, Universe, Sun, gods, time, movement, thinking, imagination, real, fictious.

Abstract: The Vedas authors believed in the compound character of the Universe. They saw the Universe as an organization which elements are related to one another in a certain way. To their opinion, the world consisted of the five elements including sky, earth and airspace. Vedas authors admitted that there must be another space on the other side of the sky as well as the under world. The main elements of the Universe, sky and earth were the source of physical and moral strength and a reliable life support. Views on the Universe were based on the ontological idea of the universal genesis. The sky had the structure, too, and it was viewed as an environment for all kinds of life activities. Arian Rishis came to the conclusion that one could encounter objects and phenomena of a completely different kind if going deep into the Universe. In the airspace Gods performed their activities and had contacts with people. The day and night wheel rotated around the earth and allowed the change of night and day. The Arias did not question whether there was a support holding the sky and earth. To their mind, earth had a form of a sphere and was heliocentric, i.e. it had no borders. Their picture of the world was based on the geomorphic paradigm and the dynamism principle. Rishis were also attracted to ontological ideas of development and genetic connection between elements of the Universe. In general, their picture of the world shows the unbalanced archaic type of intellect reflecting different levels of development of its particular potentials. Such type of intellect was typical for other epochs and stages in the history of spiritual development of humankind.

Keywords: philosophy, cosmos, cogitation, world perception, method, space, Gods, paradigm, heliocentricism, inversion.

Abstract: The author describes the two main approaches in myth research: poetic (interpretative) and socio-psychological. As a part of the first approach, the author describes the three concepts originating in the Ancient World and still being used with some alternations nowadays. All of them have the same drawback: they are principally interpretive which is unacceptable when related to a myth. The advantage of the second approach is that there is an attempt to interpret myth not on the basis of research logics but to define relations and objective laws typical for mythological world perception. These laws and relations may seem awkward to a modern European but this approach tries to understand what role it could have played in the primitive society as well as what psychological and social functions the myth had.

Keywords: cultural studies, myth, mythopoetics, specific nature, world perception, research, interpretation, logic, symbol, archetype.

Abstract: The article is devoted to one of the most discussed and contradictory image of the Altai ancient culture — griffon which was a frequently used symbol in all Scythian myths. At the end of his study the author concludes that the image of griffon is not only an attribute of Universal mythologies but it also plays the role of a cultural constant which marks the borderline states and moments of ‘transfer’ both in the social and sacral meaning of it.

Keywords: cultural studies, mythology, cosmogony, semantics, solar, chtnonic, cult, symbol, griffon, Scythians.

Abstract: The article describes what Veda’s authors thought about cosmogenesis and analyzes the dynamics of their views. The author of the article shows how the picture of cosmogenesis successively moved from anthropomorphous to biomorphic and physiomorphic models. It is shown that the very first cosmology already formed the main topics of the future cosmology concerning fundamental features of the Universe — the beginning, genesis, structure, sources of dynamics and human as an element of the world. The author studies peculiarities of cosmological way of thinking of archaic people, methods and techniques of that type of thinking and the strategy of the Universe history knowledge that remains even nowadays. All these factors are described from the point of view of their development and role for the modern cosmological thinking. The article suggests new interpretations of a few extremely complicated but very informative images — Universal demiurges who are being analyzed from epistemological point of view.

Keywords: philosophy, Universe, cosmogenesis, primary reality, paradigm, model, cosmogonic ideas, method, fiction, polyvariability.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of archaic mythology and modern advertising. Comparative study is focused on the problem of complexity of transformations in the center of this discussion. It is well shown that being the core of the myth as itself the process of transformation of Chaos into Cosmos requires demiurge of sacrifice and maximum exertion. Quite on the contrary, advertising texts successively transmit ideologeme of light existential and socio-cultural dynamics.

Keywords: philosophy, mythology, creation, transformation, rite, initiation, advertising, socialization, simplicity, easiness.

Abstract: The article explains the role of folk art to preserve the spiritual foundations of society, the preservation of the mental characteristics of ethnic groups. We consider the conflicting views of ancient philosophers to the place of folklore in the social and artistic practice of nations. As a catalyst to do with mythology and art examines the views of ancient philosophers to the person and work of Homer. Applying the theory of the cyclical development of culture and the theory of Spengler Pareto elite, concludes that the idea of a cyclically evolving \"heart\" of the culture it is projected on the socio-cultural features of the intellectual elite of antiquity and its views on such an important cultural phenomenon, as folklore of ethnic groups.

Keywords: Cultural, Society and the philosophers of antiquity, mythology, art, Homer, the social elite, the "soul" of culture.

Abstract: The author starts with the standpoint that the specific nature of what we may define as “mytho-poetic societies” shall be not place and time (them being secondary characteristic features, which may be established after the key specificity is established), but rather specific features of social relations and links, as well as specific form-creating feature of social structure of mytho-poetic society and of the system of mytho-poetic society. The structural principle, which forms the basis for the social system of mytho-poetic society may be briefly characterized as “minimization” of category of “far” relatives, due to what it becomes possible to form the athmosphere of general “trust” to the world, as reflected to the principle of “non-indifference”.

Keywords: philosophy, mytho-poetry, society, classification, structure, relation, phratry, reasonability, unification, totem

Abstract: Mirror is a symbol interpreted very differently in different cultures. Based on the comparative analysis of symbolic meanings of mirror, the author of the article defines the differences in how different cultures describe the world around.

Keywords: philosophy, mirror, symbol, culture, reflection, twin, eidos, myth, Amaterasu, Narcissus

Abstract: This is ‘in memoriam’ of Anatoly Utkin, head of the Center of International Researches of the Institute of the USA and Canada, famous historian and expert in international relations.

Keywords: philosophy, culture, history, international relations, Anatoly Utkin

Abstract: The article is devoted to the structural and analytical analysis of mysticism which allows us to fully understand its structural and functional features unlike the traditional descriptive approach. The author compared the descriptive and analytical approaches to studying mysticism and described the elements of faith. The article also contains the morphology and the discourse of mysticism.

Keywords: philosophy, mysticism, religion, substrate, religious studies, morphology, discourse, ecstasy, analysis

Abstract: Review: the October Revolution provoked all kinds of reaction from the Russian cultural elite at the beginning of the 20th century. In this article the author analyzed what one of the leaders of the symbolic movement, Brusov B. Ya., thought of the social cataclysm. By using the context of the symbolic esthetics, the author also described how the poet’s creative views developed.
Key words: philosophy, symbolism, mythology of culture, deposition, theurgy, logo myth, decadency, mythology, Brusov.

Abstract: Resume: the author of the article analyzes the two conceptions on infinity and makes the hypothesis about periodical radicals incommensurable to integral numbers.

Keywords: philosophy, irrational, rational, Pythagoras, Cantor, numbers, periodicity, sets of numbers, Zenkin.

Abstract: the article is devoted to the image of sovereign cosmic power personified in the goddess of justice, Dike. She is the guarantee of the universal order. Corresponding virtue of a wise man is just her psychic projection which he consciously and often unconsciously puts into his life. Such a wise man’s actions and thoughts reflect the harmony of the higher and lower spheres Dike, the goddess of justice, is the keeper of.

Keywords: Dike, fate, virtue, cosmic space, justice, fatality, custom, requital, metron, Heraclitus.

Abstract: A “transitory period” or a “breaking period” – they often talk about the modern time in these words. Just this period is marked of the rising interest to the myth and of the enlargement of the mythopoetical characters in the apprehension of the world. The mythopoetical apprehension of the world has some special characters that gave it a chance to appear in the different cultures and also to predominate in those of them that have inconstant, standing or transitory type. The nature of a myth as a “everything is possible” Principe begins to be most important in the periods of the standing or breaking social and cultural systems because mythopoetical apprehension of the world depends on an “acting person” who co-exist in it with others “acting persons”. So a mythopoetic became a remedy of a “possible madness” in the situation of the social instability and is a “creating stimuli» thanks to that we can built new social systems coming out of the “everything is possible” Principe. The mythopoetical probability and variations on that bases a mythopoetical methodology and a mythopoetical apprehension of the world ties with an inconstant socio-cultural situation.

Keywords: mythopoeia, apprehension of the world, rule of the «everything is possible», contemporary society.

Abstract: Aesthetics of Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866-1949) is very philosophical. He is truly one of the leaders of the Russian symbolism and his articles on literature are full of thoughts and ideas going beyond the borders of art and taking us to the area of understanding the World and the Human. Among the most interesting topics raised by Vyacheslav Ivanov are myths and the process of their creation.

Abstract: The modern individual is politicized and he seems to think of everything as being political, appeal to state at all times, to think that the group problems hold more value than individual problems… We now can only imagine the society as governed by the omnipotent state, and the term “ideology” gained negative meaning. What is the correlation between ideology and myth?