Moscow Mari: Ethnic Culture in the Internal Diaspora

The article deals with the problem of maintaining and preserving Mari ethnic culture in the conditions of an internal diaspora. The purpose of the article is to identify the conditions for maintaining and to determine the prospects for preserving Moscow Maris’ ethnic culture in Moscow’s multicultural urban space. Methods. In 2019–2021, the author of the article conducted a sociolinguistic survey in the Mari diaspora of the Moscow region; the selective sample includes 106 respondents (100 respondents belong to the first generation of the Mari diaspora, six to the second). One of the aspects of the survey was to study markers of ethnic identity in two generations of the diaspora. Results. The results, obtained in the interviews, reveal that Mari culture (knowledge and observance of Mari traditions and customs) is one of the key markers of ethnic identity in the first generation (coming only third after the small homeland and the Mari language markers). Respondents in the second generation demonstrate remnant knowledge of ethnic cultural practices due to a weak intergenerational transmission of the Mari language. The author concludes that in order to preserve ethnic traditions and customs in the diaspora, it is extremely important to maintain an ethnic language; at the same time, as the world practice of revitalizing minority languages shows, ethnic culture can be viewed as a source of initiation into an ethnic language, and later become a channel for its maintenance.

Funeral Traditions in The Mat Lou Ethnic Culture in Lilinta Village, Raja Ampat Island

This study aims to determine the implementation of the funeral ceremony in the Mat Lou ethnic community in Lilinta Village, West Misool District, Raja Ampat Islands. This research was qualitative using the social phenomenology paradigm with a flow chart model analysis. Results of this research: The culture of Raja Ampat community, especially in Lilinta village, which is Islam as a majority, has been through a culture diffusion and transformed with the existing local culture to produce a new culture. The cultures which are still conducted in the performance of various death are Tahlilan that has differences on its implementation, lifting the corpse using Koi (beds) where the other region in Indonesia those activities are conducted using coffins, the differences in making tombstone and also bones bath (Sof Kabom) which has various myth symbols in it. Immigrants have a role in spreading culture to bring up the assimilation of new cultural traits and elements of the Lilinta community in the form of other rituals that complement the death ritual

Re-actualization of scientific studies of ethnological institutions of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences of the 1920s of the ХХ century (to the centenary of the establishment of the Cabinet of Anthropology and Ethnology named after F. Volkov)

In the context of the development of ethnological science in the first quarter of the 20th century, the article exa-mines the current and still relevant methods of ethnographic research on the example of the scientific work and creativity of the Ukrainian artist-ethnographer Yu. Pavlovych. His legacy includes tens of thousands of sketches of the monuments of the ethnic culture of the Ukrainian and other peoples, and includes original scientific publications. The research interests of the ethnographer were formed as a result of his acquaintance with the works of the leading Ukrainian scientists P. Chubynsky, F. Volkov and V. Antonovych. Since the time of Yu. Pavlovich’s work in the Cabinet of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine named after F. Volkov, his ethnological activity acquired consistency and was regulated by the ethnographic scientific projects of this institution. According to these programs, the scientist participated in monographic studies of settlements, successfully mapped the phenomena of material culture and carried out field ethnographic research.

Magpie in Lithuanian and Slavic Ethnic Culture

The article, based on a variety of ethnolinguistic material, especially folklore texts, aims to reveal the main similarities and differences in the interpretation of the image of the magpie in the ethnic culture of Lithuanians and Slavs. This bird in two traditions, in Lithuanian and in Slavonic, is treated ambivalently, more often negatively. This is due to the peculiarities of the bird’s appearance, and in particular the variegation of its plumage. This characteristic feature in the ethnic culture of many peoples is traditionally associated with evil spirits. Too talkative people, most often women, are compared with this bird. Common is the motive of the thief magpie. The name of the bird in all the languages is feminine, therefore, in both Lithuanian and Slavic mythopoetic texts, the social roles of a peasant woman are attributed to it: a daughter-in-law, a mother, a hostess, a cook, a nanny. Another common feature is the image of a magpie as a sorceress, herald of good or evil news and future events. These functions are associated with the tendency to depict witches and other mythical characters in the form of a magpie. The most striking differences in the interpretation of the magpie are the following ones: it is unusual for Lithuanians to associate the idea of procreation with it, and some Slavs (for example, the Czechs) believe that magpies bring children into the house. Lithuanians are also unaware of some features of the “working” behavior of a magpie, for example, the threshing motive. In their turn, Lithuanians attribute such crafts as shoemaking, brewing, and agriculture to magpies.

Ethnic peculiarities of fairy tale folklore of the bulgarians from Moldova as an element of traditional culture in a regional manifestation

The article presents some research approaches to the fairy-tale folklore of Bulgarians from the Republic of Moldova. According to the author, the fairy-tales texts of Bulgarians from the Republic of Moldova, their semantic, symbolic, and structural features should be researched as a local (regional) variant of Bulgarian folklore. Identification of ethnocultural markers in the fairy-tales of local Bulgarians on some different levels (such as on the subject, ethno-social and spiritual (church-religious) level) will allow to identify some peculiarities in the adaptation process of Bulgarians that migrated to a new ethnocultural zone, as well as to identify the level of preservation of basic ethnic mentality under the conditions of new “mental environment”. Thus, the study of regional ethnic culture is an interdisciplinary research, which allows discovering how localization in time and space affects ethnic culture, in general, and oral folk art, in particular.

Dwelling in novellistic fairy tales and anecdotes of the Bulgarians of Moldova (ethnocultural features)

The author analyzed the functional, symbolic, and semantic features of the traditional dwelling of the Bulgarians of the Republic of Moldova in fairy-tale folklore (novelistic tales and anecdotes). The types of dwellings and their constituent elements (internal and external) were considered as a part of the material; culture is reflected through subject realities as a component of ethnic culture in the human microcosm. The connection of dwelling with traditional values of the Bulgarians of the Republic of Moldova was also analyzed.

Myth – component of ethnic culture

This article presents the definition of myth as one of the important components of ethnic culture. Some ancient mythical systems are analyzed: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Greek, Roman. It is found that in later historical epochs, with the systematization and recognition of the value of scientific knowledge, the merit of the myth of exemplifying reality becomes more and more plausible, remaining as a value at the level of aesthetic exercise. All world and national religions, as institutional exponents of some myths to the detriment of others, have had a confrontation with mythological phenomena. It is emphasized that through the existence of myths, the human being has managed to evolve. With the help of myths, man maintains his origin. Through the presence of myths the human being is organized in society. It is mentioned that myth is not only the first form of culture, but also man’s change of the spiritual life, which is preserved even when the myth loses its absolute importance. Myth is the oldest system of values. Thus, culture evolves from myth to knowledge, from imagination to law.

Class and social differentiation in Oceania

The rise of cognitive anthropology has recently stimulated a growing interest in intercultural variation. Separate social groups and strata endowed with various ranks and statuses already appeared at the dawn of history when the socioeconomic classes were developing. Hence that was also the time when various distinct social subcultures were emerging. Some Soviet scholars conceptually divide culture in two related ways. The first is determined by the principle which claims that each cultural form includes both productive and reproductive activities (technic-technological aspects) and the objectivized results of such activities. The second one has to do with various real cultural forms: production culture, consumption culture, interaction culture (or etiquette), socionormative culture, physical culture, artistic culture and so on. It seems quite evident that the emerging social differentiation affected distinct forms of ethnic culture rather differently. In order to understand this process, an extensive survey of the ethnic cultures of New Guinea, Melanesia and Polynesia has been conducted. The implication of this analysis is that it is necessary to correct some points in the methodology of Melanesian and Polynesian ethnic culture studies, because evidence of ordinary folk culture is inappropriate for the description of elite culture, and vice versa. The marshalled data put the investigation of the social differentiation process in a new perspective, particularly concerning the interpretation of prehistoric cultural frontiers.

Parallels of cultural renaissance and dynamics of ethnic cultures of Russia in the era of cultural globalization

The objective of paper is to assess the time-compressed dynamics of the culture of the ethno-national region of Russia, to identify its regularities and to draw parallels with the stages of European and Russian cultural processes. The article identifies the quality and modernization potential of the current state of ethnic culture, which is under the pressure of assimilation of cultural globalism. The methodology is revealed by the definition of the Renaissance culture as the ability to operate with symbolic forms and the consistent transfer of the well-known properties of the European and Russian Renaissance to the modern ethnic culture of the Russian region as isomorphic processes. The paper identifies the state of regional culture as result of a double reflection of the cultural renaissance, called as the "Yakut Silver Age". The criteria for that is the presence of a creative paradigm of ethnomodernism, manifested in the field of art.