The Mythological Heritage of Kazakh Culture: Mythological Characters, National Identity, and Archetypal Reflections in World Culture: A Meta-Ethnography

This study aimed to synthesize how scholarly literature represents and interprets mythological characters in Kazakh cultural heritage. The study focused on four areas: how mythological characters are represented; their roles in national identity, cultural memory, and cultural values; the archetypal patterns, symbols, and narratives that emerge from them; and their relationship to archetypal representations in other mythological traditions. This study used a meta-ethnographic methodology that incorporates qualitative findings from the existing literature. Twenty-eight peer-reviewed, English-language articles retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus were selected following PRISMA 2020 and included in the analysis. The data were synthesized using thematic synthesis following Noblit and Hare's meta-ethnography method. The results show that representations in Kazakh mythological heritage are shaped by images of supernatural and cosmic beings, heroes, wise men, and intermediaries. The mythological characters and symbols were associated with national identity, sacred geography, belonging, cultural memory, and the transmission of cultural values. Alongside archetypal patterns such as the hero, sage, mother, homeland, and world tree, symbols such as fire, water, and the horse, along with narratives of quest, death, and rebirth, came to the fore. Cross-cultural comparisons revealed that some motifs bear similarities, but that these similarities alone do not prove a common origin or direct cultural transmission. In conclusion, Kazakh mythological heritage is a multilayered field of meaning shaped jointly by cultural continuity and historical transformation. These findings provide a basis for context-sensitive heritage and teacher education.