Abstract
The traditional Qazaq doll quyrshaq completely fell out of use with the advent of industrial designs of European-style children’s dolls in the mid-twentieth century and, of course, with the leveling of the ritual tradition in the womb from which it originated. Starting from childhood, the doll transformed and accompanied its owner in direct and indirect form until old age. Hence, the traditional doll clearly demonstrates not only the chronology of a woman’s life, but also characterizes the purely female process of “communication” with higher powers, i. e. deities and spirits of the dead. Consideration of quyrshaq as an integral part of the female subculture in historical retrospect through the prism of the sacred and profane will reveal its features, concretize the historical and cultural relationships between neighboring and related peoples, and also trace the genesis of the changing tradition from antiquity to the present. The study of the doll in the indicated aspects allows us to better understand its role in traditional culture and comprehend the “doll boom” observed in modern artistic practice. Thus, the purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the phenomenon of the Qazaq quyrshaq as an integral part of the female subculture, which allows us to trace the changing tradition in the unity of the sacred and profane aspects in diachronic and synchronic ways.