• Field Diaries of the Botanist N. A. Bush, as a Source of Folklore and Ethnography of the Caucasus Ethnic groups (Using the Example of the Karachays)

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Authors:

  Aslan I. Aibazov, Roza A. Skhalyakho

  Work direction:

  Ethnography, Ethnology and Anthropology

  Abstract:

  This paper explores the scientific legacy of N. A. Bush. His primary areas of interest were the vegetation, flora, and geography of the Caucasus. His numerous trips to the Caucasus yielded folklore and ethnographic materials and information, as well as ethnographic collections gathered from local residents. Interest in these materials has increased in recent years, and some of the collection has been included in scholarly circulation. This paper aims to continue this endeavor and introduces materials relating to the Karachays. These materials were recorded by N. A. Bush in the late 19th century and are preserved in his personal collection at the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This paper draws on information from a diary kept by N. A. Bush during his summer trip to the Kuban region in 1897. Some of the results of this trip were published as a separate article, but the majority of the material has not appeared in print. Therefore, it was important for the authors of this article to analyze its scientific value. The primary research method for this study is comparative analysis. The authors also aimed to draw researchers' attention to N. A. Bush himself as a collector and specialist in the Caucasus, whose material remains largely unstudied. The results obtained during the study demonstrate that the scholar was able to capture valuable folklore and ethnographic data. Analysis of the material allows us to conclude that the information collected by N. A. Bush is fully trustworthy and may be of great interest for further study.

  Keywords:

  ethnography, folklore, Bush, Caucasus, Caucasus studies, Karachay, Karachays

  Go 

• Festivals as a Practice of Representing the Ethnic Culture of Tuvans

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Author:

  Choduraa K. Irgit

  Work direction:

  Ethnography, Ethnology and Anthropology

  Abstract:

  The article is devoted to the study of festivals as a form of ethnic activism in the context of modern digital reality. They are considered as one of the varieties of social practices that contribute to the representation of the traditional culture of Tuvans. The work is based on materials collected by the author during visits to festivals in the Republic of Tuva, monitoring the activities of the participants — Tuvan craftsmen as active actors in ethnosocial processes to revive the traditional culture of Tuvans and subjects of ethnic entrepreneurship. Internet resources as platforms for expressing ethnic identity of Tuvans have also been studied, and scientific literature has been analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that in the context of a changing socio-cultural paradigm, Tuvans as carriers of ethnic culture are changing the ways of transmitting and broadcasting their identity and cultural heritage. Observations show that the number of organized festivals is increasing every year. They differ in their focus on actualizing one or another lost aspect of traditional culture. Some of them acquire interregional or international status with the expansion of the geography of participants. During these festivals, ethnicity is reproduced through its playing on “stages”, as well as manifested at competitions and symposiums during the festivals. They represent elements, images, symbols, forms, and knowledge about Tuvan tradition. In the context of changing socio-cultural space, Tuvans are mastering new, mass ways of communication, expanding horizons and ways of forming and broadcasting their ethnic identity.

  Keywords:

  ethnic identity, social practices, Tuvans, representation of Tuvan ethnoculture, festivals, socialization of Tuvan youth, preservation and transmission of cultural heritage

  Go 

• Houses and Carving Ornaments in the Context of Chuvash Mythology

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Author:

  Georgii B. Matveev

  Work direction:

  Ethnography, Ethnology and Anthropology

  Abstract:

  This article examines the mythological ideas, symbols, images, and plots associated with housing and outbuildings, as well as the cosmogonic and protective motifs that are reflected in the carvings of the gates and architectural elements of the Chuvash house. The article is based on published works on the ethnography, mythology, and folk architecture of the Chuvash people in the 19th and early 21st centuries, as well as archival sources and the author's field materials collected in various years in the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Ulyanovsk Region. The elements and zones of the dwelling, such as the door, walls, corners, and parts (locuses) of the house, as well as the smoke hole, played an important role in the organization of its sacred space. The eastern side of the house and yard was considered a sacred place where family rituals were performed. The carved ornamentation vividly reflects the mythological beliefs of the Chuvash people. The carvers used horn-shaped motifs, ornithonyms, and tiered borders (some analogy with the tiers of the world), numerous varieties of amulets, the image of a torch with a blazing flame (the cult of fire), and other subjects.

  Keywords:

  mythology, Chuvash, dwelling, center, construction rituals, deities and spirits, ornamentation, and amulets

  Go 

• Iran and Iranians as Perceived by Udmurt Writers in the 1950s–1970s

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Author:

  Victor L. Shibanov

  Work direction:

  World languages and literature

  Abstract:

  The image of Iran occupies a significant place in Udmurt literature of the 1950s–1970s. Works about Iran are beginning to reveal new facets in our time, in an era of global confrontation with the West and a turn to the East. The object of this analysis is the literary texts of G. Simakov, M. Pokchi-Petrov, G. Khodyrev, and V. Vladykin. The aim of the study is to examine the reception of Iran in Udmurt texts of the 1950s–1970s. The primary research method is descriptive and analytical, utilizing receptive criticism techniques. The results of the analysis are as follows. In his stories and play “Beyond Kopet-Dag”, G. Simakov depicted life in Iran during the Great Patriotic War, during the Lend-Lease program. The texts contain many unexplained passages and events that are easily fleshed out by the modern reader. M. Pokchi-Petrov and G. Khodyrev, who had contacts with Iranian student actors, seek points of contact between Udmurt and Iranian cultures. The appeal of Udmurt poets (V. Vladykin and others) to Persian culture, for example, to rubai, is intended to expand the boundaries of national poetry, in which rhetoric and declarativeness prevailed. Iran became one of the most important bridges between Udmurt literature and the East in the period 1950–1970.

  Keywords:

  Udmurt literature, Iran, receptive criticism, rubai, East and West

  Go 

• Verbal and Non-Verbal Means of Denoting Altered States of Consciousness in Stephen King’s Short Story «Crouch End»

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Authors:

  Vera V. Koroleva, Ahmad A. Utsiev

  Work direction:

  World languages and literature

  Abstract:

  Using the example of Stephen King's short story “Crouch End”, the article examines verbal and non-verbal means (their linguistic representation), reflecting the state of altered consciousness in the text. An analysis of the heroine’s behavior based on the work showed the following typical signs of altered states of consciousness: changes in thinking and speech, the appearance of a non-standard perception of oneself and the world around her, the appearance of deep feelings and emotions, loss of self-control, and increased imagery of perception of what is happening. Lexical units with negative semantics of anxiety and terror (fear, terror) are distinguished as verbal means. At the linguistic level, the altered states of consciousness in the story is expressed through verbal nominations, such as words and idioms with the meaning of fear and the technique of parcel. Altered states of consciousness is also reflected through the use of non-verbal language categories. Among them are controlled non-verbal communications: phonetic, tactile, proximal, pantomimic, miremic. Linguistic categories of psychophysiological reactions, such as trembling and stupor, play a special role in describing a stressful state. The article concludes that the state of altered consciousness in the main character of S. King’s short story “Crouch End” is represented by both verbal means and linguistic representation of controlled and uncontrolled types of non-verbal behavior.

  Keywords:

  verbal means, altered states of consciousness, non-verbal communication, linguistic means, non-verbal means

  Go 

• On the Specifics of the Besermyan Vocabulary in "Materials for a comparative Dictionary..." by P. M. Sorokin: Turkic Borrowings

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Author:

  Sergey A. Maksimov

  Work direction:

  World languages and literature

  Abstract:

  Written records play an important role in the study of language history, linguistic phenomena, and their dynamics. They are particularly significant for the language of the Besermyans, a compact group living in the northwest of the Udmurt Republic. The language of this small people only received the status of an independent idiom in 2022. The manuscript "Materials for a Comparative Dictionary of the Zyuzdin Permyak and Glazov Votian Dialects and the Besermyan Dialect" is currently one of the few early written records containing a significant amount of Besermyan material. The aim of this study is to identify Besermyan words of Turkic origin in this manuscript and analyze their origin and territorial distribution. The study utilizes descriptive and etymological methods. During the study of the dictionary's vocabulary, words of Turkic origin were selected, which are unique or predominantly found in the Besermyan language. Most of them are Tatarisms borrowed in the northern territory of what is now the Kirov Oblast and the Udmurt Republic, indicating close Besermyan-Turkic contacts in this region. The list includes only two Bulgarisms and one Chuvashism. Further analysis of the dictionary's features will allow us to determine its precise dialectal base.

  Keywords:

  Turkic borrowings, dialect vocabulary, the Besermyan language, the Udmurt language, manuscript dictionary, lexical characteristics, linguistic contacts

  Go 

• The Benefits of Including Ethnocultural Onomastic Material in the Middle School Geography Curriculum

  Research Article

  

  Ethnic Culture Volume 7 No 4

  Author:

  Emma V. Ekeeva

  Work direction:

  Ethno-Cultural Problems of Education

  Abstract:

  This paper focuses on the study of ethnic onomastics as a means of supplementing of the middle school geography curriculum. The work is devoted to the study of the developmental and educational potential of ethnic onomastics. Ethnic onomastics includes such proper names as ethnonyms, anthroponyms, toponyms, mythonyms, theonymy, cosmonymy. It is in ethnic onomastics that the unique image of a people, the richness and beauty of their language, their moral and aesthetic values, and their environmental and religious views are expressed in a concentrated form. Much of ethnic onomastics is significant at the level of symbolism, as it is associated with symbolic personalities, symbolic events and historical legends. The author selected and didactically revised onomastic material, arranging onyms by topic in accordance with the study plan for the “Geography of Russia” course. Onomastic assignments were developed, incorporating onyms reflecting the cultural and ethnic characteristics of the region. The author’s school geography curriculum was tested in schools in Gorno-Altaisk and demonstrated its effectiveness. Furthermore, a special course developed for geography teachers using ethnocultural onomastic material enhanced the effectiveness of pedagogical efforts. The methodological materials developed by the author can be recommended for developing students’ interest in geography and the culture of their native land, fostering a love for their homeland and a sense of belonging to its history, and, overall, cultivating cultural competence.

  Keywords:

  education, national culture, upbringing, ethnonym, ethnic onomastics, toponym, theonym, mythonym, school geography course, ethnopedagogization of the educational process

  Go