SOME ASPECTS OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NART EPOS

Abstract

The author considers the history of the study of the origin of the Nart epos. The basic scientiic concept of the 1920s - 1930s looked like this: heroic legends penetrated the North Caucasus with the Alanian ancestors of Ossetians and spread throughout the region as a result of cultural borrowing. In the second half of the 20th century, the further study of the Nartiade and the great desire of representatives of the Caucasian scientiic centers to emphasize the «primogeniture» of their national versions provoked intense arguments about the origin and the creators of the epos core. In these years, the positions of the supporters of the theory of the Caucasian origin of heroic legends became signiicantly stronger. However in the Ossetian nartol-ogy the Iranian version of the origin of epos, according to which heroic legends were brought to the Caucasus by the ancestors of the Ossetians - the Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans and were perceived by other Caucasian peoples, is dominated. The growth of crisis phenomena in the post-Soviet society, the search for national and cultural identity, actualized the question on the genesis and creators of the epos. The author emphasizes that in this situation the epos as the common cultural heritage of the Caucasian peoples should promote the unity of people in confronting the destructive challenges of globalization and cultural depersonalization