Ethnology 

Bogordayeva A.А.

MANSI SACRIFICIAL KERCHIEFS (TYPOLOGY AND FUNCTIONS)

The aim of this study is to systematize information on kerchiefs that the Mansi present to the guardian spirits. The analysis is based on the typological method. The article analyzes materials kerchiefs are made of and their ornaments, ways of throwing on and tying, their functions. The research is based on information gathered during ethnographic expeditions, studies of museum collections and ethnographic literature. It is found out that kerchiefs are the most common type of sacrificial offerings at contemporary Mansi shrines. Regardless of sex, they are presented to female and male guardian spirits. A coin tied into a corner is a distinctive feature of sacrificial kerchiefs. Kerchiefs with pendants made of seed beads, beads, bells or small bells sewn on have a special status. Two types of sacrificial kerchiefs are distinguished: home-made and tailor-made kerchiefs. Currently, the most common kerchiefs are tailor-made. It was determined that sacrificial kerchiefs perform a number of functions at sanctuaries. They form part of a costume of the images of guardian spirits as headdresses, belts, bedspreads, etc. Sometimes they completely replace clothes in the images of guardian spirits. Kerchiefs often form a basis of a figure depicting a guardian spirit. They are used to cover the skin of a bear during a bear feast. It is found out that kerchiefs exercise magical (apotropaic and carpogonical) functions in family rites.

Key words: the Mansi, clothes, costume, kerchiefs, shawls, adornments, guardian spirits, sanctua-ries, fabrics, typological analysis, ethnographic researches, images of guardian spirits, magic functions.

Goleva T.Г.

TERMINOLOGY AND CONTENT OF RITUALS OF KOMI-PERMYAK WEDDING

The article is dedicated to a study of some components of a wedding ceremony of the Komi-Permyaks. Several problems are solved in this research. First, wedding terms which refer to wedding acts and rituals are divided into groups. Secondly, wedding traditions of the Komi-Permyaks and Russians are compared. Completion of these tasks allows us to identify analogies with the Russian local customs and ethnic specificity of the wedding ritual culture of the Komi-Permyaks. Most of the terms describing wedding acts and rituals of the Komi-Permyaks are borrowed Russian words. In addition, there are designations in the Komi-Permyak language, some of which appeared due to the influence of the Russian language, other terms can be considered as a result of the development of their own language as a part of ritual culture. The system of wedding terminology of the Komi-Permyaks is quite complicated, because it combines vocabularies of different languages and different local versions of the terms for the same ritual. The article analyzes in more detail the wedding rituals and acts which have an ambiguous meaning or, according to their names, suggest an ethnic specificity. Content analysis of the customs shows that the most important moment — action or its symbolic importance — is reflected in the name of a ritual. Perhaps, existence of different names of the same ritual is a result of changes in the wedding ceremony on different territories among local groups of the Komi-Permyaks. Comparative analysis of the Komi-Permyak and Russian wedding traditions indicates that more similarities are observed with those Russians who lives in Kama region and in the European North. A part of the wedding rituals and acts discussed in the article can be considered unique Komi-Permyak traditions, as they have no analogies found among the Russian customs. Among them are acts like eating dumplings at the bachelorette party, treating to people who were not invited to the wedding (kudpydes), a custom when a mother-in-law gives her daughter-in-law a handkerchief, and puts it on her shoulders or on newlyweds’ shoulders.

Kеy words: wedding ceremony, Komi-Permyaks, wedding terminology, engagement, dumplings, bathing of the bride.

Volzhanina E.A.

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF THE YAMAL NENETS PEOPLE ACCORDING TO ALL-RUSSIAN CENSUSES OF THE 21^ST CENTURY

The article is dedicated to demographic characteristics of Siberian Nenets people and identifies their ethno-demographic potential in the 21^st century. The work is based on a set of published and unpublished data from the All-Russian Population Censuses of 2002 and 2010 for the Nenets people living in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. We used ideas about demographic security of Novosibirsk Economic and Sociological School and of K.B. Klokov and S.A. Khrushchev about ethnoses as demoi and ethnoses as societies. Common and specific demographic features of the Nenets are identified, the indicators characteristic to the Nenets are compared with other ethnic groups, mainly Russians. The article considers both dynamics of the number of Nenets in general, and in towns and rural areas of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, attention is drawn to the peculiarities of formation of an urban group of the Nenets. Analyzing demographic processes and demographic behavior, we focus, first of all, on the characteristics of age and sex structures and the number of children born by a woman during her life. In addition, indicators characterizing natural population changes in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District by certain nationalities, including the Nenets, are provided for 2000–2008. It is noted that the nature of changes of the indicators in the first decade of the XXI century demonstrates that both the Nenets living in villages and the nomads perceive demographic stereotypes of behaviour of the dominant society. On the whole, the Nenets in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District are safe from depopulation. According to data from the All-Russian censuses, there is a favorable demographic situation among them in the first decade of the 21^st century. But current trends point out that some demographic risks exist, primarily those related to the number of children in the families. The nature of the quantitative indicators suggests that demographic behavior of the Nenets is determined by family values of the dominant majority.

Key words: the Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, demography, All-Russian census, age-sex structure of population, urban and rural population, town, village, number of children.

Nanzatov B.Z., Sodnompilova M.M.

TUNKA BURYATS IN THE 19^TH CENTURY: ETHNIC COMPOSITION AND SETTLEMENT

The article deals with a study of ethnic composition of the Tunka Buryats and features of their settlement on the territory of the former Tunkinskaya Steppe Duma, which was split into four parts called Torskaya, Koimorskaya, Kharibyatskaya indigenous authorities and Okinskoe separate clan district in 1890. Creation of the first Buryat territorial administrative units — Mirskay izba and Steppe bureau (Stepnaya kontora) and their further evolution to Steppe Dumas led to formation of ethno-territorial groups of the Buryat people, the identity of which remains relevant to the present time. One of these groups are the Tunka Buryats. The ethnic composition of the Tunka Buryats occupying Russian border area with Mongolia is of great interest as they are tribes living in the border region. Buffer status of the territory along the East Sayan Mountains led to the emergence and settlement of different Mongol, Turkic, Samoyedic tribes, such as Khurkhut, Dalakhai, Khongodor, Khoykho, Chaldar, Terte, Shosholok and others in this area during different periods of history. The tribe of Irkit also lived among the Bu-ryats. Its genesis is connected to the Samoyedic peoples who had lived in the Sayan region long before Turkic and Mongolic tribes appeared there. Some of them preserved traditional reindeer husbandry in the 19^th century. This study continues a discussion on ethnicity and origin of small Buryat tribes and their relations with the Mongolic and Turkic tribes of Central Asia and South Siberia. Author's version of their origin is based on historical and linguistic analysis of ethnonyms of these tribes, which form an ethno-territorial group of the Tunka Buryats. Reconstruction of network of settlement of the Buryat ethnic groups on the territory under consideration in the 19^th century allowed us to demonstrate the most complete picture of settlement of the Tunka Buryats and Irkits, and to show the maximum number of uluses and villages, which existed there at the end of the 19^th century. The author's maps also show status of the territory, ratio and density of population of the Buryat tribes.

Key words: ethnic history, ethnonym, settlement, ethnic mapping, linguistic analysis, Buryats, Samoyedic people, Turkic people, Mongolian people.

Kisser T.S.

ASPECTS OF ETHNICITY OF THE GERMANS IN THE CENTRAL URALS

The article is dedicated to a local group of the Russian Germans living in the Central Ural Mountains (Sverdlovsk region). This research analyzes features of ethnical history, today's consciousness and complex identity of this group. Generally, episodes of the Russian national and regional (Ural) history are significant for the Germans in the Central Ural Mountains: Catherine the Great's manifesto, deportation, the Labor army, rehabilitation. European and German plots are manifested in historical memory much more weakly; but they are present in the religious and ceremonial sphere (for example, Osterhase, the Easter rabbit). The Volga River is a bright symbol of the Russian-German identity, for the Ural Germans in particular. In the 1960s, the Soviet Germans began a movement for rehabilitation of their people, restoration of territorial autonomy and culture. Ivan Kronevald, a resident of the Urals, was one of the leaders of that movement. In the 1990s, the Ural Germans actively initiated ethnical projects: public associations, centers for meetings and culture centers appeared, which aimed to restore the lost ethnical and cultural basis as the main objective. However, the movement for restoration of autonomy of the Russian Germans resulted in emigration to Germany.

Key words: Russian Germans, Central Ural, ethnical history, identity, symbols of ethnicity, ethnical projects.

Ryazanova S.V., Logvinov R.N.,Drozdov S.T.

EVOLUTION OF THE ANTHROPIC MYTH IN UNITED STATES’ MYTHOLOGY: REASONS, PREREQUISITES, LOGIC

Evolution of the myth of a hero as the central anthropic image in the mythology of the United States occurred under the influence of mentality of the groups/subjects of mythogenesis and has a complex character. The emergence of spontaneous plots with a significant share of regional specifics, where the starting idea was the demiurgic myth of the frontier, was the first stage of the heroic myth. The basic mythological images are constructed on the archetypal basis, being filled with content due to the Protestant context and constantly ongoing processes of expanding the cultural ecumene of the country. The images of national heroes as symbols of the people and as deputies of the idea of an ancestor constituted the majority of the United States' anthropological myths until the 1920s. External factors of the country's development, such as active urbanization, secularization of culture, the First World War, the Great Depression, served as an impetus for the transformation of the heroic myth. The heroes of the frontier were replaced by superheroes, whose images combine superhuman and totemic features. In the national mythology, images of superheroes are associated with presentation of archetypal patterns and traditional plots, pushing the heroics of the frontier to the spheres of advertising, glamour and some kind of hagiography, which leads to a change in the heroes’ paraphernalia and the accompanying symbolic and sign range. A superhero as the central image of the contemporary national mythology of the United States emerges on the cusp of the processes of secularization, rise of the idea of a man, mass culture and technology, in close relation with the archetypal ground.

Key words: myth, national mythology, mythogenesis, culture of the USA, heroes of the frontier, Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, superheroes.