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Comparison of root words in the Uzbek language points back to a very ancient nexus between the Moon, consciousness, and women's shamanism.
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
An Uzbek word for dancer is o'yinchi. (Looks like an Irish Chinese name, doesn't it?) Originally, if you go far back enough into Proto-Turkic, the word meant a shamaness who does a sacred trance dance. The verb this is derived from, o’yna-, means either 'to dance' or 'to play', but originally it referred to sacred shamanic trance activities.
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
Also in Uzbek, oy 'moon' and the first syllable of o'yna- 'dance, play' are pronounced the same.
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
What if the resemblance between oy and o'yna- were not just coincidental? What if there was some proto-Turkic shamanist connection between the sacred trance dance and the Moon goddess? Am I going way out on a limb here? Also, the noun o'y means 'idea, thought'. In Old Turkic the verb ay- ‘to tell, to judge’ is the same as the word for ‘moon’, ay. Just as in Indo-European the roots for 'mind' (*men-) and 'measure' (*me-) originated from the root for 'moon' (*me-) - there's a theory that human intelligence and mathematics developed in the Paleolithic because of women calculating their moon cycles - likewise in Turkic the connection of Moon with dance, shamanism, and thought is transparent. As a verbal root in Uzbek, o'y- means ‘to carve notches’, as in the bones which were the first calendars, made by Ice Age women tracking their menstrual periods.
Lunar calendar incised on antler, Abri Blanchard, France, 25,000-32,000 BCE
Lunar calendar incised on antler, Isturitz, France, 25,000 BCE
Lunar calendar incised on bone, Ishango, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 20,000 BCE
Goddess of Laussel, bas-relief on limestone, France, 20,000 BCE
Another meaning of oy- in Uzbek is ‘Mother’. So Mother, Moon, dance, shamanism, thought, and mathematics all share interwoven words and meanings in Uzbek.
Also, o'ynash means 'darling, lover', literally the one you dance with/play with, using the mutual stem of the verbal root o'yna-.
In Sakha, a Turkic language of northern Siberia whose speakers migrated from the Baikal region, oyokh means 'woman' while oyun means 'shaman'.
The earliest ancestor language of Uzbek was spoken in the Altay mountain region between Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Siberia. The book Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise by Geoffrey Ashe traces the origin of Paleolithic Mother Goddess shamanism to the Altay-Baikal region circa 25,000 years ago. From there, similar mythological themes can be traced throughout not only the Uralic and Altaic language families that were in contact with the early culture, but Indo-European as well--making it one of the earliest sources of Western and Indic culture. The steppes of Central Asia functioned as an information superhighway during the era of the Silk Road, and could have done the same during the Paleolithic.
In the Altay region as well as throughout the Paleo-Siberian cultural sphere of shamanism, one word was shared in common by many languages: udagan 'female shaman'. This is an example of a Wanderword: it traveled far and wide in the prehistoric world, and it points to the major importance of women as shamanesses in the origin of shamanism. (See Aboriginal Siberia by Maria Antonina Czaplicka, Chapter 12, Shamanism and Sex)
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
An Uzbek word for dancer is o'yinchi. (Looks like an Irish Chinese name, doesn't it?) Originally, if you go far back enough into Proto-Turkic, the word meant a shamaness who does a sacred trance dance. The verb this is derived from, o’yna-, means either 'to dance' or 'to play', but originally it referred to sacred shamanic trance activities.
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
Also in Uzbek, oy 'moon' and the first syllable of o'yna- 'dance, play' are pronounced the same.
photo courtesy of Silk Road Dance Company
What if the resemblance between oy and o'yna- were not just coincidental? What if there was some proto-Turkic shamanist connection between the sacred trance dance and the Moon goddess? Am I going way out on a limb here? Also, the noun o'y means 'idea, thought'. In Old Turkic the verb ay- ‘to tell, to judge’ is the same as the word for ‘moon’, ay. Just as in Indo-European the roots for 'mind' (*men-) and 'measure' (*me-) originated from the root for 'moon' (*me-) - there's a theory that human intelligence and mathematics developed in the Paleolithic because of women calculating their moon cycles - likewise in Turkic the connection of Moon with dance, shamanism, and thought is transparent. As a verbal root in Uzbek, o'y- means ‘to carve notches’, as in the bones which were the first calendars, made by Ice Age women tracking their menstrual periods.
Lunar calendar incised on antler, Abri Blanchard, France, 25,000-32,000 BCE
Lunar calendar incised on antler, Isturitz, France, 25,000 BCE
Lunar calendar incised on bone, Ishango, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 20,000 BCE
Goddess of Laussel, bas-relief on limestone, France, 20,000 BCE
Another meaning of oy- in Uzbek is ‘Mother’. So Mother, Moon, dance, shamanism, thought, and mathematics all share interwoven words and meanings in Uzbek.
Also, o'ynash means 'darling, lover', literally the one you dance with/play with, using the mutual stem of the verbal root o'yna-.
In Sakha, a Turkic language of northern Siberia whose speakers migrated from the Baikal region, oyokh means 'woman' while oyun means 'shaman'.
The earliest ancestor language of Uzbek was spoken in the Altay mountain region between Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Siberia. The book Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise by Geoffrey Ashe traces the origin of Paleolithic Mother Goddess shamanism to the Altay-Baikal region circa 25,000 years ago. From there, similar mythological themes can be traced throughout not only the Uralic and Altaic language families that were in contact with the early culture, but Indo-European as well--making it one of the earliest sources of Western and Indic culture. The steppes of Central Asia functioned as an information superhighway during the era of the Silk Road, and could have done the same during the Paleolithic.
In the Altay region as well as throughout the Paleo-Siberian cultural sphere of shamanism, one word was shared in common by many languages: udagan 'female shaman'. This is an example of a Wanderword: it traveled far and wide in the prehistoric world, and it points to the major importance of women as shamanesses in the origin of shamanism. (See Aboriginal Siberia by Maria Antonina Czaplicka, Chapter 12, Shamanism and Sex)