Abstract
This article investigates the mythological and possible totemic foundations of the dog image in Mahmud al-Kashgari's Divan Lugat at-Turk. Although the dictionary does not explicitly identify the dog, or any other animal, as a totem, its lexical entries and accompanying explanations preserve elements of an archaic Turkic worldview. Comparing these records with later folklore, ethnography and archaeological evidence from Kazakh and other Turkic traditions, the study reconstructs aspects of the dog's earlier mythological significance. Drawing on classical and structural approaches to totemism, it applies four analytical criteria: ritual, mediation between worlds, genealogy and social classification. Particular attention is paid to the dog's presence in burial traditions, practices associated with an infant's first forty days, protective rituals and accounts of human creation. Recurring narratives of canine ancestry, marriage to a dog and communities of dog-like people are examined alongside the dictionary's account of barak, an extraordinary hunting dog said to hatch from an eagle's egg. The comparison suggests that the dog's ancestral role is articulated most explicitly in certain Kyrgyz genealogical narratives, while related motifs survive in transformed forms elsewhere. Rather than proposing that the dog was a common totem of all Turkic peoples, the article identifies overlapping mythological patterns consistent with elements of a totemic worldview and traces their subsequent reinterpretation across folklore genres.