Folk beliefs of local groups of Ukrainian immigrants in the north of Kulunda: problems of ethnocultural identity
The article is based on materials of ethnographic research among Ukrainians who live in the north of the Kulunda steppe (in the south of Western Siberia). onsidered are mythological images and plots about witches, mermaids, infernal dead (vampires), methods of protection from them. Differences were found among local groups of immigrants from the Kiev and Poltava provinces who arrived in Siberia at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. It was found that the image of a mermaid among the Kiev immigrants in Siberia coincides with the beliefs of the Polesie region. The differences are related to the peculiarities of ethnocultural traditions and folk beliefs of the original regions. These features can be markers of the ethnocultural identity of local groups of Siberian Ukrainians.