The traditional culture of the peoples of Russia, in the form in which it was formed by the time of its ethnographic study (that is, approximately by the 2nd half of the 19th century), reflects their complex history in constant interaction with each other, in different geographical, natural and economic conditions. On the territory of Russia, several historical and cultural zones with a characteristic economic and cultural type of the peoples living there.
National Costume of the Peoples of
Russia
Tales of the Peoples of Russia
A
Altai Culture
B
Bashkir Culture
Buryat Culture
C
Circassian culture (5: 2 cat., 3 p.)
Chechen culture (7: 3 cat.,
4 p.)
Chuvash culture (10: 7 cat., 3 p.)
Cossack culture
D
Don Cossacks in Culture
I
Ingush Culture
K
Karaite culture
Culture of the Komi peoples
Kumyk culture
M
Mari Culture
Mordovian culture
H
Nenets culture
O
Ossetian culture (18: 11 cat., 7 p.)
R
Russian folk culture
(19: 15 cat., 4 p.)
T
Tatar culture (13: 11 cat., 2 p.)
Tuvan culture (13: 3 cat., 10 p.)
U
Udmurt folk culture (4:
4 cat.)
Origin and development of the Russian people. The historical roots of
Russians go back to the East Slavic population of Kievan Rus. With the
collapse of the Old Russian state, and especially after the Mongol
invasion of the 13th century. the formation of new ethnic ties began.
The core of the Russian people was the population, united in the
14th-16th centuries. Grand Duchy of Moscow. The center of its territory
- the Volga-Oka interfluve - from the 9th century. settled east. Slavs
in three streams: Novgorod Slovenes from the northwest, Smolensk
Krivichi from the west and Vyatichi from the southwest. This feature of
the settlement explains the border position of this territory between
the northern, southern and western Russian regions. Settling in the
interfluve, the Slavs assimilated the local Finno-Ugric (Meryu, Muroma,
Meshchera) and Baltic (golyad) population. Joining the beginning 16th
century North-Western Russia, the Volga lands and the Urals to the Grand
Duchy of Moscow and the further expansion of the state, which took place
in the struggle against the Tatar khanates, led to the final formation
of the ethnic territory of the Russian people and its historical,
cultural and dialect regions. Russian colonization was directed in the
14th-16th centuries. from the center to the European North (regions that
were the object of Novgorod and Rostov colonization in the 12th–13th
centuries), in the 16th–17th centuries. - in the Vyatka and Kama-Pechora
regions, in the black earth regions that were deserted after the Tatar
invasion (“Wild Field”), the forest-steppe and steppe regions of the
Middle and Lower Volga, Don and Azov regions, Siberia was mastered by
people from Pomorye. In the 18th century Russians penetrate the South
Urals and the North Caucasus. In the 18th and 19th centuries and
especially after the reforms of the 1860s. new streams of Russian
settlers rushed to Siberia, mainly. from the central and southern
regions of European Russia; to con. 19th century Russian population
appears in Central Asia. Migration from Central Russia to the outskirts
intensified especially during the existence of the USSR.
Ethnographic groups of the Russian people. The complex ethnic history of
the Russian people led to the formation of historical and cultural zones
on its territory with characteristic dialectal, cultural and
anthropological differences between their populations.
First of
all, on the territory of European Russia, the North Russian and South
Russian zones and the middle strip between them are distinguished.
The North Russian historical and cultural zone occupied the
territory from Volkhov in the west to Mezen in the east and from the
White Sea coast in the north to the upper reaches of the Volga in the
south (Karelia, Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Kostroma
provinces, the north of Tver and Nizhny Novgorod provinces). This group
of Russians is characterized by a "surrounding" dialect, small-yard
rural settlements, united in "nests", plow as the main. a type of arable
implement, a hut on a high basement connected to a household yard
(“house-yard”), a sarafan complex of a women's folk costume, a special
plot ornament in embroidery and painting, epics and lingering songs and
lamentations in oral art. Of the territorial groups of the Russian
North, the Pomors are the most famous - the Russian population of the
White Sea (from Onega to Kemi) and the Barents coasts, which has
developed a special cultural and economic type based on fishing and fur
hunting, shipbuilding, navigation and trade.
The South Russian
historical and cultural zone occupied the territory from the Desna in
the west to the upper Khopra in the east and from the Oka in the north
to the middle Don in the south (the south of the Ryazan, Penza, Kaluga
provinces, Tula, Tambov, Voronezh, Bryansk, Kursk and Oryol provinces).
It is characterized by a "kakay" dialect, multi-yard rural settlements,
a land-based log house, in the south - plastered with clay or an adobe
dwelling (hut), a women's costume with a pony skirt, polychrome
geometric ornament in clothes. This group of Russians has a more
variegated ethnocultural composition than the northern one, which is
associated with the peculiarities of the settlement of the Black Earth
region by people from various regions of Central Russia. Of the
territorial groups of southern Russians, the most famous are the Polekhs
in the Kaluga-Bryansk Polissya - the descendants of the most ancient
population of the forest belt, close in culture to the Belarusians and
Lithuanians; goryuny in Putivl u. Kursk province. - the descendants of
the ancient northerners from the resettlement waves of the 16th-17th
centuries, who had a cultural similarity with the Ukrainians and
Belarusians; stellate sturgeon in the Kursk province. - the descendants
of the military service population of the Kursk border.
The
population of the middle zone - in the interfluve of the Oka and Volga
(Moscow, Vladimir, Tver provinces, the north of Kaluga, Ryazan and Penza
provinces and part of the Nizhny Novgorod provinces) - a mixed type of
culture was formed: a dwelling on a basement of medium height, a sarafan
complex of a women's costume, dialects, in the north - with “okay”, in
the south - with “kaka” pronunciation. Territorial groups were also
distinguished here: the Meshchers of the left-bank Zaochi - the
descendants of the Russified Finno-Ugric tribe; Korels - a group of
people who moved to Medynsky district. Kaluga province. Tver Karelians,
etc.
The Russian outlying territories were distinguished by their
originality. Residents of Western Russian regions - along the river.
Velikaya, in the upper reaches of the Dnieper and the Western Dvina
(Pskov, Smolensk, west of the Tver provinces) - in terms of culture they
were close to the Belarusians, in the north “okaying” dialects were
common, in the south - “okaying” dialects; the Russians of the Urals
(Vyatka, Perm, part of the Orenburg province) combined features of the
northern and central Russian culture; the Russians of the Middle Volga
region were approaching in culture with the indigenous peoples of the
Volga region; Russians in the southeast - from Khopra to the Kuban and
Terek, in the territory of the Don Army Region, in the Kuban and Terek
regions and in the east of Novorossia - were connected by origin with
southern Russians and Ukrainians. A special ethno-class community, which
included, in addition to Russians, other ethnic components (Ukrainian,
Turkic, etc.), was represented by the Cossacks, of which the Don, Kuban,
Terek, Yaik are the most famous, in Siberia - Transbaikal, Amur, Ussuri,
etc.; a group of Ural Cossacks who settled in the 19th century. on the
Amu Darya and Syr Darya, formed a special group of the Russian
population of Central Asia.
The Russian old-timer population of
Siberia ("Siberians") - the descendants of the initial wave of Russian
colonization - retained the North Russian culture and differed from the
numerically predominant later settlers from the central and southern
provinces ("new settlers", "Russian"). Among it were various Old
Believer groups (“masons” of Bukhtarma, “Poles” of Kolyvan, “Semei” of
Transbaikalia) and groups of mestizo origin: gurans (descendants of
Russian men and Tungus women) and Kudara (descendants of Russians and
Buryats of Transbaikalia), Amgins, Anadyrs, Gizhigins, Kamchadals,
Kolyma residents of the North-East of Siberia - the descendants of the
mixing of Russians with Yakuts, Evenks, Yukaghirs, Koryaks, etc.;
isolated groups were Russian-Ustyintsy in the village. Russian Mouth on
the Indigirka and the Markovites in the village. Markovka at the mouth
of the Anadyr.
The main occupation of most Russian groups is agriculture. The fallow system (two-field and three-field) developed in the 12th-13th centuries, along with it in the forest areas until the 19th century. slash-and-burn agriculture was preserved; in the south in the steppe regions and in Siberia, the fallow-fallow system spread. The main grain crop was winter rye, in the south. in the forest-steppe regions - also millet and wheat, in the northern regions - barley and oats. The main arable tool in the Non-Chernozem region is a two-pronged plow, from the 14th century. - its improved versions: three-toothed, with a relay police, roe deer, wheeled vehicle in Siberia, etc. In the steppe and forest-steppe regions, a Ukrainian-type plow was common (with a blade, a cutter and a wheeled limber), in the Urals - a Tatar wheeled plow-saban. Primitive arable implements-ralas were also known. The main draft animal was the "suffering horse", in the south - the ox. They harvested bread with sickles, in the south - with scythes, threshed with flails; from the 14th century special buildings for drying (barns, rigs) and threshing (threshing floor) of bread are distributed. Grain was ground using hand or water mills, from the 17th century. windmills ("German") mills spread. Animal husbandry traditionally had an auxiliary value, in the 19th century. first, in the landowners, then in the peasant farms, areas of commercial dairy farming were formed, of which the specialized production of butter in the Vologda region is especially famous.
Russian peasant dwelling: 1 - North Russian house-yard; 2 - central regions: single-row connection; 3 - central regions: two-row communication; 4 - western regions; 5 - southern regions; 6 - Kuban.
Along with agriculture, forestry, salt-making and iron-working, fishing, hunting and shipbuilding developed.
Rural settlements were originally called villages, united into rural
communities. Already in the ancient Slavic era, community centers were
distinguished, often fortified. From the 10th c. communities (pogosts,
volosts) were grouped around administrative-taxable, later also
religious centers-pogosts. Over time, the term "pogost" was replaced by
the term "village", and small rural settlements were called villages
(since the 14th century); the name "pogost" is retained by the church
estate with a cemetery. With the spread of feudal landownership
(especially since the 16th century), settlements began to be enlarged;
It was common for small villages to move into large villages. At the
same time, new one-yard, originally seasonal, settlements continued to
emerge - zaimkas, repairs, etc., which eventually grew into villages.
The initial layout of a traditional Russian rural settlement is
scattered, then ordinary (courtyards are placed along a river, lake
shore or road) and finally street, street-block, street-radial.
Dwelling. Initially, the main a type of East Slavic dwelling was a
semi-dugout with log or frame walls, in the north - a ground log
house-hut, in the 10-13 centuries. became the dominant form of
construction. At the same time, two-chamber dwellings appeared, divided
into a hut and a canopy. By the 17th century spread three-chamber
houses, which had a hut, a cage and a canopy between them. By the
18th–19th centuries formed the main regional variants of the Russian
hut.
The northern version of the hut (“house-yard”) was a
building on a high (1.5–2 m) basement (usually serving as a pantry),
connected by a passage with a utility yard, on the lower floor of which
there was a barn, on the upper (on poveti), as a rule, household
equipment, hay were stored, sometimes unheated living quarters (cages,
burners) were arranged here. The hut and courtyard were connected by one
gable male roof (single-row connection). The hut faced the street, the
facade usually had three windows and carved decor. The estate included,
in addition to the hut, a barn, a bathhouse, etc.
The huts of the
Central Russian regions, the Upper and Middle Volga regions had a
smaller size and basement height than the North Russian ones. The
courtyard was attached to the hut in the form of a single-row or
double-row (to the side wall of the hut, often under a separate roof)
connection. The facade carving of the Central Russian huts was even
richer than that of the North Russian ones: the platbands were decorated
with a trihedral-notched ornament; in the 1840s in the Upper Volga
region (due to the high development of outhouse carpentry here), a
special style of carving was formed with high relief and the use of
plant and zoomorphic motifs (“ship carving”). In con. 19th century
propyl carving with a jigsaw is distributed.
The South Russian
dwelling (hut) did not have a basement, sometimes it was plastered with
clay or was completely adobe (due to a lack of timber), placed with a
long side to the street, covered with a hipped roof. The yard was open,
with outbuildings around the perimeter, and went out onto the street
with boarded gates. In the steppe zone, open courtyards with a free
arrangement of buildings were common. Baths, unlike the northern and
central Russian regions, were not built.
Later, wealthy peasants
everywhere had houses (five-walls, crosses), in which, in addition to
the main, heated room-hut, there was one or more. front rooms (rooms),
and, finally, multi-room or two-story houses.
Characteristic for
all Russians, as well as for other east. Slavs and many of their
neighbors, a Russian stove was a feature of the hut - a large adobe,
later - a brick structure for universal purposes (for heating, cooking,
sleeping, and where there were no separate baths, for washing, etc.).
The location of the furnace determined the internal layout of the main.
the premises of the dwelling, which, in fact, was called the hut. Its
traditional local variants have developed. In the north, the stove was
placed near the entrance and turned with its mouth to the facade wall,
the red corner (the front corner with icons) was in the corner opposite
from the stove, next to the end wall, overlooking the street with three
windows. The opposite side of the hut from the red corner, next to the
stove (baby kut), was considered the female half, had an economic
purpose, and was sometimes separated by a partition; near the stove they
arranged an entrance to the underground, fenced off with boards
(golbets); golbtsy were often decorated with paintings. Benches and
shelves were cut into the walls around the perimeter, and upstairs in
the back half of the hut there were beds on which they slept. In the
Western Russian regions, the stove was also placed at the entrance, but
its mouth turned to the entrance, one was cut through in the end wall,
and two windows in the side wall overlooking the courtyard. The main
difference between the South Russian layout and the North and West
Russian ones: the stove was placed in the corner opposite from the
entrance (in the east of the region - the mouth to the entrance, in the
west - to the side wall), and the red corner was arranged on the side of
the entrance; the hut faced the street with a side wall (opposite from
the stove) with two windows.
Of great importance was the
decorative design of the interior of the house - carving and painting on
wood (shelves, benches, golbets, spinning wheels), patterned and
embroidered fabrics (towels in the red corner, rugs, etc.).
Traditional Russian clothes were made from homespun linen, hemp and
woolen fabrics.
The main men's clothing is trousers and a
tunic-shaped (without seams on the shoulders) shirt, tied with a belt,
originally with a collar slit in the middle; OK. 15th–16th centuries a
type of kosovorotka with a slit on the left was formed, called the
Russian shirt, in contrast to the Ukrainian and Belarusian ones, which
retained a straight slit.
Their local variants have developed in women's clothing. The ancient
type of women's costume of Russians, as well as other peoples of Eastern
Europe, is a long shirt tied with a belt (later, the East Slavic
peoples, unlike their neighbors, developed a type of women's shirt with
sewn-in shoulder, richly ornamented inserts - polyks) and an unstitched
skirt. OK. 16th century a new type of women's clothing appears - a
sundress (sayan, sukman, fur coat). Initially, a sarafan was called the
outer men's swing clothing, then this name was transferred to women's
outer deaf clothes without sleeves - first in the costume of noble women
and townswomen, then - northern and Central Russian peasant women. Two
mains were known. type of sundress: northern, or Novgorod (sukman,
shushpan, shushun), - oblique and Central Russian, or Moscow (Sayan, fur
coat, round), - straight pleated on straps. They put on a short jacket
with or without sleeves (shower warmer) on top.
In the south, an
older type of women's clothing with an unsewn pony skirt has been
preserved. The simplest type of poneva is a “different regiment”,
covering the body from the sides and back. The floors diverging in front
were often worn tucked up behind the belt, so they were decorated not
from the face, but from the wrong side. Usually ponyova was sewn from
three woolen panels, usually of a checkered pattern (the size of the
cage and colors differed in each village or group of villages).
Sometimes a seam made of plain canvas or cotton fabric was inserted in
front - such a ponywa was sewn along all the seams and was called
"solid". Ponyovs were worn with a shirt and an upper deaf or swinging
jacket, tunic-shaped cut, with sleeves or without sleeves (top, bib,
nasov, shushun, shushpan, cloth, wire rod), sometimes with a long apron
(zapan, curtain). Ponyovs, tops, aprons were painted in red, black,
blue, yellow, embroidered with braid, galloon. The Western Russian
women's costume was close to the Belarusian and Ukrainian ones and
consisted of a shirt and a pony, close to the Ukrainian pakhta or
Belarusian andarak.
Men's hats - felted and felted, in winter -
fur. Strictly distinguished girls' and women's hats. It was obligatory
for a married woman to cover her hair completely. The basis of the
female headdress was a cap - soft (povoynik, bodice, head, etc.) or on a
solid basis (kika, kokoshnik, etc.) with an elegant headband or band,
sometimes of a peculiar shape (horned, saddle-shaped, spade-shaped,
etc.); in the south, the solid base of the kiki was covered with an
elegant cloth cover-magpie (often the entire headdress was called a
magpie), supplemented by a nape, forehead, side pendants, etc. Over the
cap, the head was often covered or tied with an elegant scarf (povoy,
ubrus, veil).
Women's hats: 1 - a woman in a kokoshnik (Vologda province); 2 - a woman in a kokoshnik and a headscarf (Olonets province); 3 - a woman in a horned kick (Ryazan province.).
It was typical for a girl's dress not to hide her hair, so the girl's
dress looked like a crown with an open top (bandages, corunas, etc.) or
a fabric bandage; girls braided their hair in one or two braids or
walked with their hair loose.
Elegant clothes were richly
decorated with embroidery, lace, galloon, pearls; women wore a lot of
jewelry.
Both men and women wore various types of outer garments:
kaftans, okhabni, fur coats, ferezis, fur coats, zhupans, zipuns; women
also wore padded jackets, etc.; in the cities, and then in the villages,
a type of women's clothing with a skirt and a jacket (“couple”) and
other forms of Western European clothing spread.
The traditional
shoes were woven bast shoes worn with onuch windings, or primitive
leather pistons, in winter - felted shoes (felt boots, wire rods,
kengi); felted shoes with high tops began to be produced from the
beginning. 19th century in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Leather boots
were rich or festive footwear.
The basis of traditional Russian food was cereals, from which they baked bread and cooked porridge. Ritual and festive dishes (loaf, Easter cake, pancakes, kutia, etc.), as well as drinks (beer, kvass) had a bread and cereal basis. Legumes (in the main peas) were traditionally attributed to bread food, cabbage and turnips were the main vegetables. The consumption of meat was limited, especially under the influence of religious prohibitions: the consumption of many types of game, equids, etc. was condemned. Fish food was especially widespread among the inhabitants of the banks of large rivers and sowing. seas. The peoples of the North and Siberia also adopted special ways of preparing fish: freezing (stroganina), pickling, and drying (yukola). From the culture of the Turkic peoples, new flour dishes penetrated into Russian cuisine - stews (salamat, burda), dough fried in oil (doughnuts, shavings, brushwood, etc.). One of the chap. Russian dishes in Siberia became dumplings.
The traditional religion of Russians is Orthodoxy (see Art.
Religions). Russian calendar rites are associated with church holidays.
The most developed are the rites of the winter solstice (Svyatki), timed
to coincide with Christmas (December 25 according to the Julian
calendar) and Epiphany (January 6), and the end of winter (Shrovetide,
Cheese Week), preceding Great Lent. Christmas time was accompanied by
caroling, making ritual cookies (goes), starting from St. Basil's Day
(January 1) - fortune-telling and disguise. They also dressed up on
Maslenitsa, rode in a sleigh, from the mountains, on a swing, baked
pancakes and pancakes, on the last day they organized a procession with
a stuffed Maslenitsa, which was burned or torn to pieces. And the
Christmas and Shrovetide rites, condemned by the Church, ended with the
rites of purification at Baptism and Forgiveness Sunday. Spring rites -
the feast of the Forty Martyrs (Magpies, March 9), the Annunciation
(March 25), the day of St. George (Egoriy Veshny, April 23), etc. - were
accompanied by singing spring songs, baking buns in the form of birds
(larks, rooks, black grouse), etc. Ritual food was prepared for Easter
(colored eggs, curd Easter, rich bread-cake) ; going from house to house
with ritual songs (vynoshnik), games, youth meetings were resumed, from
that day round dances began, from the eighth day of Easter (Fomin's
week, Krasnaya Gorka) - weddings. The rites of the summer solstice fell
on the Trinity preceding it (Semik) or the subsequent (Rusal) week, or
on Ivan's Day (Ivan Kupala, June 24). Trinity rites were accompanied by
rituals with birch trees or branches, mermaid rites were accompanied by
dressing up, the ritual of “expelling a mermaid” with the destruction of
a doll (Mermaid), Kupala rites were accompanied by dousing with water,
fortune-telling, and also rituals with a doll (Kupala, or Kostroma). The
summer holidays ended on Peter's Day (June 29). In the spring (before
Maslenitsa and after Easter), in the summer (before the Trinity) and at
the beginning of winter (before the day of St. Demetrius of
Thessalonica, October 26), special memorial days were arranged (Parental
Saturdays, Radonitsa).
Solemnly celebrated local holidays -
temple, congress, village brethren (sypki, beer holidays), street,
votive, etc .; they were accompanied by a procession of the cross,
blessing of water with the blessing of houses, livestock, fields, water
sources, etc., many days of festivities, feasts, fairs, sometimes
all-day bell ringing, etc.
Russian folk art goes back to the art of Ancient Russia, which
absorbed the artist. traditions of the ancient Slavs, Turks, Finno-Ugric
peoples, Scandinavians, Byzantium, Romanesque art of Western Europe, the
East. In pre-Petrine Russia, the artist. tradition, like all folk
culture, was the same for all social strata, and only from the
beginning. 18th century she became the property of arr. peasant art.
Among the widely developed types of Russian folk art are patterned
weaving and embroidery. They were an exclusively female occupation, the
art of a weaver and an embroiderer was considered one of the signs of a
good housewife. In the northern Russian regions, the textile ornament is
located in the main. in the form of a border, leaving the core. the
field of the product (towels, tablecloths, shirts, etc.) is smooth. The
red pattern prevails on a white or gray field, sometimes white on white.
Geometric ornament (primarily diamond-shaped mesh) with the inclusion of
plant (various types of wood), zoomorphic (roosters, peacocks,
two-headed birds, horses, lions, deer, etc.) and anthropomorphic
(frontal female figure, rider, etc.) motifs . In the central regions,
polychrome embroidery (red with green, blue, yellow, black) geometric
ornaments is common. In the southern regions of the main. type of
textile ornament - colorful details of women's clothing - ponevs, tops,
aprons, magpies. In the 15th century in Russia, facial sewing appeared -
the production of church covers, shrouds, shrouds, etc. with an icon
image. In ornamental embroidery, sewing on expensive fabrics with gold
and silver threads (drawn gold) or silk threads intertwined with the
finest gilded wire (spun gold) develops. From the 18th century father
begins. the production of metal thread and gold embroidery penetrates
into peasant life, especially in the North. In places, eg. in Torzhok,
it turned into a craft, on the basis of which in the 1930s. a gold
embroidery artel was created. In the 19th century under the influence of
the urban tradition of embroidery, handicraft is developing in the
villages of Mstera, Palekh, Kholuy, Vladimir Province. with
characteristic white embroidery on a thin white linen or cambric.
Embroidery craft existed in Novgorod (krestetskaya line: a relief
pattern of tightly intertwined threads over a large pulled out grid),
Nizhny Novgorod (guipure), Ryazan, Kaluga provinces, etc. An embroidery
factory in the city of Tarusa (Kaluga region) operates on the basis of
traditional craft. the production of patterned fabrics is maintained in
the city of Cherepovets (Vologda region).
A special type of Russian textile art is lace weaving, which has been
known among Russians since the 17th century. From the 18th century
monastery and patrimonial workshops play an important role in its
development. For Russian lace 17 - beg. 18th century geometric ornaments
are characteristic: rhombuses, triangles, zigzag stripes, then the lace
pattern becomes more complicated. Lace-making is preserved in the
Vologda, Lipetsk (especially in the Yelets region), Kirov (Sovetsk,
former settlement of Kukarka, Vyatka province), Ryazan (colored lace in
the city of Mikhailov; loin lace in the Kadom region) regions.
Carpet weaving was less developed. Lint-free carpets (carpets) were
woven on a horizontal mill, pile carpets (“mohr carpets”) were woven on
a vertical mill. The craft for the production of pile carpets
("Siberian") with geometrized floral ornaments arose in Tyumen (17th
century); lint-free carpets decorated with bright floral ornaments,
usually on a black field (close to a tray painting), - in the Kursk
province. (18th century); pile and lint-free carpets made of undyed wool
- in the Kurgan region. (19th century); in the beginning. 20th century
carpet weaving is developing in the village. Straw of the Penza
province.
The production of colored printed fabrics has been
known since the 18th century. in the Moscow province., and then in many
central and northern Russian regions. In the 19th century the art of
painting on fabric appears.
Artistic casting and forging of metal
have been developed in Russia since the early Middle Ages. Great Ustyug
(17th century), Nizhny Tagil (18-19th centuries), p. Lyskovo, Nizhny
Novgorod province. (19th century); in with. Pavlovo, Nizhny Novgorod
Province. in the 18th and 19th centuries the craft for the production of
copper figured locks was developed.
Russian jewelry art has
reached the highest development. In pre-Mongolian Russia, the most
complex jewelry techniques were developed: cloisonne enamel, niello,
granulation and filigree. Destroyed by the Mongol invasion, this art
resumed in the 14th-15th centuries. In the 18th-19th centuries. local
jewelry crafts arose: blackening on silver in Veliky Ustyug, revived in
the 1920s. thanks to the organization of the artel; enamel painting on
metal (finift) in Rostov, which was originally used to decorate church
utensils, icon frames, images, and then also toilet boxes, snuff boxes,
after being organized in the 1920s. artels "Rostov enamel" - women's
jewelry, caskets, etc. From the 16th century. the production of gilded
silver chased dishes, salaries, etc. is known in the villages of Krasnoe
and Sidorovskoye of the Kostroma provinces. Since the 19th century here
they began to make cheap jewelry made of copper with semi-precious
stones and glass, from the 1920s. - table services, goblets, etc. In the
16-17 centuries. there was a Bronnitsky craft - the manufacture of chain
mail and other armor (in the village of Sinkovo in the Moscow region,
now the Ramensky district), on the basis of which in the owls. time,
first the artel "Sinkovsky Jeweler" arose, and then the jewelry factory.
Artistic production. ceramics in Russia also dates back to the
pre-Mongolian period. In the 16th and 17th centuries in Moscow, elegant
black-polished dishes were made, imitating metal, simpler red-polished
and thin-walled white-clay with a stamped ornament. In the Yaroslavl
province. the production of black polished dishes persisted until the
20th century.
From the 10th–11th centuries in Russia, the
production of ceramic tiles with relief ornaments was known for
decorating ceremonial buildings, churches, etc. This art was revived in
the con. 15th c. In the 16th century stove tiles spread in Russia.
Initially, the tiles had a natural terracotta color, from the 16th
century. they were painted green and covered with glaze (“anted tiles”),
in the 2nd floor. 17th century tiles covered with polychrome enamel
spread. In the 18th century “Dutch” tiles imitating Western ones
appeared with blue or polychrome painting on a white background.
This style was transferred to the artist. crockery, figured ceramics,
etc., ch. arr. in the ancient (from the 17th century) ceramic center in
the village of Gzhel, Moscow Province. Gzhel craft was revived in the
middle. 20th century The second famous center of ceramic craft was in
the city of Skopin, Ryazan Province. Skopin tableware is characterized
by a relief ornament covered with colored glaze. In Gzhel, Skopin, in
the Vyatka settlement Dymkovo, in the Penza, Tula, Arkhangelsk
provinces, etc., clay figured painted toys, whistles, etc. were made.
Wood carving is one of the most traditional types of Russian art.
The few wooden products of the pre-Mongolian period that have come down
to us (mainly from Novgorod excavations) testify to the highest
development of wooden carving. The most famous is a column from
Novgorod, covered with a complex wicker and zoomorphic ornament. The
ancient tradition of wooden carving was preserved in peasant art in the
decoration of huts, utensils (dishes, spinning wheels, rollers, baby
cradles, sledges, etc.).
In addition to carving, wood painting
was widely used, and many local styles were formed here. For example, in
Pomorie, the Shenkur style of painting (flowers on a red background),
the Mezen style (drawing with black soot, made with a pen on a red-brown
background: images of running horses and deer), Severodvinsk, formed
under the influence of icon painting and book miniatures (drawing on a
light green, yellow and red background: girlish gatherings, horseback
riding, etc.; the center of the composition was often occupied by the
image of the Sirin bird, the background was filled with a grass
pattern). In the city of Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod province.
multi-colored and inlaid with bog oak drawings (images of horses,
roosters, fantastic birds and animals, a floral pattern) were located on
a light background; in 1938, on the basis of this industry, an artel was
created, which in 1960 was transformed into the Gorodetskaya painting
factory. In con. 17 - beginning. 18th century a craft arose for the
production of turning wooden utensils painted with a lush herbal pattern
on a golden background in the village. Khokhloma of the Nizhny Novgorod
province. Wooden painted toys were produced in the village.
Bogorodskoye, Vladimir Province. (now the Moscow region) and Sergiev
Posad. Ancient centers of wooden carving existed in the villages near
Moscow. Akhtyrka and der. Kudrino; in the 19th century a workshop was
created in the nearby estate of Abramtsevo.
A special kind of
artist woodworking - carving on a birch burl. In the form of a fishery,
it existed in the 19th century. in with. Slobodskoye, Vyatka Province,
where boxes, cigarette cases, smoking pipes, and other items were made,
polished and varnished.
The traditional type of production for
Russians is the processing of birch bark. Birch bark tuesas were also
decorated with painting, embossing and embossing. In Veliky Ustyug and
nearby villages along the river. Shemogda, Vologda Province. a craft for
the production of birch bark products, covered with cut-out ornaments
(Shemogod birch bark), developed. The production of birch bark products
is preserved today in the Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions.
Artistic bone carving was especially developed in the Russian North. The
bone carving industry is famous in the village. Kholmogory Arkhangelsk
region (cut carving on walrus and mammoth ivory: caskets, vessels, snuff
boxes, combs, etc.). From the beginning 18th century bone-carving art is
developing in Tobolsk, where small sculptural groups are carved in the
local Siberian traditions: hunters, dog and reindeer teams, etc. In the
1930s. a center for bone and horn carving arose in the city of Khotkovo,
Moscow Region.
Stone-cutting art was highly developed in
pre-Mongol Rus. Numerous stone icons-images, in 12 - beg. 13th centuries
the art of facade carving flourished (white-stone cathedrals of
Vladimir-Suzdal Russia), revived in the white-stone architecture of
Moscow Russia of the 15th century. In contrast to the lush zoomorphic,
floral, woven and anthropomorphic pre-Mongolian ornamentation, Moscow's
white-stone cathedrals were decorated only with strict arched and
ornamental belts. Subsequently, with the development of brick
construction, ornamental architraves and other details were carved from
white stone. In the 18th and 19th centuries under the influence of
professional art, stone-cutting art (sculpture, writing instruments,
lamps, etc.) arises in the factories of the Urals (Kungur) and Altai
(Kolyvan village), in the Arkhangelsk region, Krasnodar Territory
(Otradnaya station); in the 20th century in with. Bornukovo, Nizhny
Novgorod province. the production of carved sculpture, vases, lamps, and
other items made of soft gypsum rocks appeared.
In the 18th
century the art of lacquer miniature, new to Russia, arose. In with.
Fedoskino near Moscow, this technique was used to make paintings,
ornamented boxes, boxes, etc. from papier-mâché. With the growing
popularity of the Fedoskino miniature among peasants and philistines,
scenes of festivities, tea parties, triplets, etc. began to prevail in
the painting. Fedoskino painting is also characterized by imitation of
Scottish fabric, tortoiseshell. Lacquer painting on papier-mâché also
developed in the ancient icon-painting centers of Palekh and Kholui in
Ivanovo and Mstera-Vladimir provinces. For Palekh painting, a black
background is characteristic, for Mstyora - light: blue, pink, fawn.
In the 18th century in Nizhny Tagil (in the Urals) there is another
new craft - lacquer painting on metal. At first, metal parts of
furniture, sleighs, etc. were decorated in this way, then the production
of painted tin trays was formed. Initially intended for a narrow circle
of factory owners, this art soon began to spread among the peasants
assigned to the factories, and then to distant markets. The famous
center for the manufacture of painted trays from the beginning. 19th
century became with. Zhostovo near Moscow. Located next to Fedoskino, at
first it was close to him in terms of artistry. traditions. Zhostovo
trays were also originally made from papier-mâché. The murals of the
Nizhny Tagil and Zhostovo trays at first reproduced easel painting
(still lifes, landscapes, genre scenes, in Nizhny Tagil - scenes on
antique subjects, in Zhostovo - tea parties, troikas, etc.), then lush
floral ornaments became predominant.
For Russian folklore, see
the Literature and Musical Culture sections.
The indigenous peoples of the European North and North-West of Russia belong to the Finno-Ugric (Saami, Karelians, Vepsians, Vods, Izhoras, Ingrian Finns, Seto Estonians, Komi and Komi-Permyaks) and Samoyedic (Nenets) groups. Among the majority of the indigenous peoples of the European North, the White Sea-Baltic version of the Baltic race predominates; in the east, features of the Ural race are traced (especially among the Nenets). The Saami are dominated by the Laponoid variant of the Ural race.
The peoples living in the tundra and forest-tundra (Saami, northern
groups of Karelians, northern Komi-Izhma, Nenets) were engaged in
reindeer herding, fishing and hunting (including driven hunting for
deer), the Saami were engaged in hunting. Among the Nenets and
Komi-Izhemtsy, reindeer breeding was widespread. Samoyed type, based on
distant (sometimes more than 1 thousand km) seasonal migrations (in
summer they migrated to the ocean coast to the north, where herds
suffered less from midges, in winter - to the south, to the
forest-tundra region). The herds consisted of several thousand heads,
grazing with the help of a shepherd's dog. Traditional Saami reindeer
husbandry was also based on seasonal migrations: in winter, reindeer
grazed in the interior forest regions of the Kola Peninsula, in spring
and summer they migrated to the coast; deer grazed in winter under the
supervision of a shepherd and a dog, and in summer they were transferred
to free grazing, while their owners were engaged in fishing and hunting.
Reindeer breeding was borrowed from the Saami and sowing. Karelians (in
the Kemsky district). Reindeer gave meat and skins, as well as (for some
groups of the Sami) milk, were used in a team: among the Nenets and
Komi-Izhma people they were harnessed to sloping dust sledges of the
Samoyed type, among the Sami - into a kind of single-track sleigh,
shaped like a boat (kerezha); the Sami knew the use of deer under the
pack. Modern The Saami completely switched to the Samoyed type of
reindeer husbandry. Main food - raw, boiled, frozen and dried (yukola)
meat and fish, raw, frozen and soaked berries. The traditional dwelling
of the peoples of the tundra is the tent, among the Sami - a hut
(kuvaksa) similar to the tent. In the past, the Saami had a
truncated-pyramidal frame structure, covered with turf, with a hearth
and a smoke hole in the center - a vezha (kuet). Later, log dwellings
with a flat, slightly sloping roof (pyrt, tupa) and Russian huts
appeared. The clothes of the reindeer herders of the tundra had a blind
cut and were sewn from reindeer skins with fur inside (Nenets malitsa)
or outside (Sami stove), decorated with fur mosaics; the Saami also
developed applique on cloth, leather, beadwork, knitting with a needle,
weaving belts on reeds.
The peoples living in the forest zone
(Karelians, Vepsians, Vods, Izhoras, Setos, Finns-Ingrian, Komi-Permyaks
and B. h. Komi) were engaged in the main. northern (slash-and-slash)
agriculture (sown rye, barley, oats), forest animal husbandry and
gardening, fur and upland hunting, river and sea (Izhora, Vod, Ingrian
Finns) fishing, lived in villages in log cabins of the North Russian and
Central Russian type; stone was often used in the foundation and
outbuildings (Ingrian Finns, Izhora, Vod, Seto). Residential and
outbuildings were connected according to the type of L- and T-shaped
connection. The archaic design was preserved by hunting huts on poles
(among the Komi), shepherd's conical huts, sheds for youth games
(kizyapirtya) among the Karelians. Traditional clothing is close to
northern Russian: a shirt and trousers for men, a shirt and a sundress
for women; the Vepsians and Ingrian Finns also had a skirt complex.
Archaic elements of women's clothing were preserved: an unsewn skirt
(khurstuket) with sewn-on cowrie shells and a leather belt decorated
with metal plaques (indicating connections with the Volga Finno-Ugric
peoples), an embroidered towel headdress among Izhorians, Vodi and Setu,
shirts with chest embroidery wool among the Ingrian Finns; Until now,
there is a unique set of silver breast jewelry for women seto. The main
outerwear of men and women is a cloth caftan. A kind of male and female
headdress among Karelians is a fur three-piece. Patterned knitting was
developed (including the archaic method of knitting socks and mittens
with one needle among the Vepsians, Komi and Karelians) and weaving,
embroidery, weaving belts, carving and painting on wood (dishes, chests,
spinning wheels), birch bark processing. In each region there were local
artists. traditions. The food of the forest peoples of the North is
close in composition to the food of the sowing. Russian groups.
The folklore of the peoples of the European North is represented by
fairy tales, historical legends, myths, everyday stories,
improvisational songs, ritual songs, epos (the code of
Karelian-Finno-Izhorian runes "Kalevala", recorded and revised by E.
Lönrot, 1849).
The most ancient folklore genres of the Baltic
Finns include Karelian yoik improvisations and wailing and lamentations,
which are still common among Karelians, Izhors and Vepsians. The core of
the genre system of the majority of the Baltic-Finnish peoples is made
up of monophonic runic songs with the so-called. Kalevala verse (epic,
wedding, lyrical); the most archaic are the Vod runes. In the past,
Karelian runes were performed by two rune-singers in turn, perhaps
accompanied by a kantele, later they were sung alone; vodskie were
performed by the lead singer and the choir. A living runic tradition has
been preserved in North Karelia (villages of the Kalevalsky district),
outstanding rune singers are members of the Perttunen family (19th–20th
centuries). The late layer of folklore includes lyrical, round dance,
dance songs with rhymed verse, ditties. A special genre of song and
dance folklore of the Ingrian Finns is röntushki; was formed during the
merger of the features of Russian quadrilles, ditties, Finnish wedding
songs and round dances. Vepsians are characterized by a variety of
muses. tools. Setu is typically characterized by heterophonic polyphony,
close to the Russian and, presumably, Mordovian tradition.
The
main genres of Sámi folklore are lyrical and comic-satirical
songs-improvisations (yoigi), personal songs, legend songs, lullabies.
Special songs are sung by reindeer herders, hunters, and fishermen.
The most stable part of the folklore of the Komi and Komi-Permyak
peoples includes lamentations and songs (mostly polyphonic) - family
ritual (wedding, recruiting), calendar (Zyryansk and Permian Christmas
circular and game, Trinity; Zyryansk Shrovetide, reaping, Permian
swing), as well as untimed lyric, dance. The archaic layer is
represented by rare examples of spells (Zyryansky "Expulsion of
thistle-tatar man from the field", "Expulsion of Klop Klopovich from the
hut"), cattle-breeding conspiracies (addressed mainly to cows),
household improvisations. Epic genres are locally widespread: Izhma and
Pechora lyric-epic improvisations of nurankyy, Izhmo-Kolvin heroic
legends (“Kuim Wai-Vok”), Vym and Upper Vychegoda epic songs and ballads
(“Kiryan-Varian”, “Pyodor Kiron”). Among the local traditions of the
Komi, the Izhmo-Kolvinskaya tradition, which was influenced by Nenets
folklore, has the greatest originality; among other Komi groups, Russian
influence is noticeable. The similarity between the Zyryansk and Permyak
folklore is most evident in instrumental music. Until recently, stringed
bowed and plucked sigudok, women's multi-barreled flutes (Zyryan kuima
chipsan, Permian polynes) and others were common; from the beginning
20th century there is a harmonica.
The folklore of the Nenets of
the European North is close to the folklore of the Nenets of Western
Siberia.
Orthodoxy spread among the Karelians, Vodi, Izhora and Vepsians from
the 13th century. From 1379 Stefan of Perm, the first bishop of the Perm
diocese, was engaged in educational activities among the Komi (Perm);
the writing system he created existed until the 17th–18th centuries.
There were many followers of the Old Believers among the Karelians and
Komi. The Christianization of the Saami was started by the monks
Theodoret of Kola and Tryphon of Pechenga in the 16th century. In order
to convert the Nenets to Christianity in 1824, a "Spiritual Mission for
the conversion of the Samoyeds to the Christian faith" was created in
Arkhangelsk. The first translation of the Gospel into Karelian was made
in 1852, and into Sami in 1878. The Ingrian Finns belong to the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria and use the Latin script (see
Protestantism in Religion).
All the peoples of the North and
North-West retained the veneration of the owners of the forest, water,
sacred trees, and the Saami - stones.
A new script for the Komi
and Komi-Permyaks, using Russian and Latin graphics, was created in 1920
by V. A. Molodtsov; in 1932, they, like the Nenets, introduced the Latin
script, then Russian. In the 1930s an attempt was made to introduce
writing among the Karelians, Vepsians and Kola Saami; The written
language of these peoples was recreated in the 1980s. (among the Saami -
based on Russian, among the Karelians and Vepsians - on the basis of
Latin graphics).
The indigenous peoples of the Volga and Ural regions are the peoples
of the Finno-Ugric (Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, Besermens) and Turkic
(Chuvash, Tatars, Kryashens, Nagaybaks, Bashkirs) groups; later,
Russians and Kalmyks speaking one of the Mongolian languages appeared
here.
Among the indigenous peoples of the Volga and Ural regions,
representatives of the Central European race predominate; South
Caucasian admixtures (Balkan-Caucasian and Indo-Mediterranean races) are
traced in the south. Among the Bashkirs, signs of the South Siberian
race are strong, Kalmyks in the main. belong to the Central Asian
variant of the North Asian race.
The ancestors of the Finno-Ugric
tribes are presumably associated with the carriers of the Neolithic
cultures of the 3rd - early. 2nd millennium BC e. At this time, they
have the beginnings of agriculture, in the last quarter. 2nd millennium
BC arable agriculture takes shape, disappearing in the 1st millennium
BC. e. and re-emerging after 500 AD. An important role was played by the
contacts of the population of the Volga region with more southern and
eastern (Iranian, Turkic and Ugric) peoples. From the 1st millennium AD
Turkic-speaking groups penetrate into the Volga region from the south.
Of the early Turkic migrations, the migrations of the Bulgars and Suvars
(late 7th - early 8th centuries), Pechenegs and Oguzes (9th-10th
centuries), and Kipchaks (12th century) are of the greatest importance.
The beginning of the late Turkic migrations is associated with the
processes of weakening and disintegration of the Golden Horde, among
them the resettlement of the Kipchaks in the con. 14 - beginning. 15th
centuries, which influenced the formation of the Tatars and Bashkirs.
Russians are widely settled in the Volga region after the fall of the
Kazan Khanate (1552). The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats (western
Mongols), appeared in the Lower Volga region in the middle of the 17th
century.
In the Volga region, 3 economic and cultural zones are formed: 1) the
forest north (most of the Finno-Ugric peoples), where forest activities
retained an important role in agriculture and animal husbandry -
hunting, fishing, beekeeping, apiary beekeeping, logging, charcoal
burning, tar smoking, tar race and turpentine; 3) The steppe and
forest-steppe southeast (Bashkirs and Kalmyks), where nomadic or
semi-nomadic cattle breeding dominated (sheep, horses, cattle, goats,
and among Kalmyks also camels), combined in places with agriculture
(near winter camps). Later, under the influence of the Russians, arable
farming finally became the dominant occupation, and features similar to
East Slavic culture spread. The Kalmyks switched to settled life only in
the 1930s.
The three-field farming system was combined in some
places with more archaic systems: with slash-and-burn in the forest zone
and shifting in the steppes and forest-steppes. The main arable
implements were a plow, a Vyatka-type roe deer, a plow, a wheeled
plow-saban. Of grain crops, rye, barley, oats prevailed, less often
millet, spelt, and of industrial crops - flax and hemp.
The interior of the Bashkir yurt.
Rural settlements usually consisted of several dozen households in
the forest zone, and several hundred in the forest-steppe and steppe. In
the forest and forest-steppe regions of the main. the type of dwelling
was a hut on the basement, in the north - often on a stone foundation,
with a Russian stove and a layout of the northern Central Russian, in
some places - Western Russian type. In treeless areas, adobe, adobe,
wattle (smeared with clay), sod, and stone houses were common. Among the
nomadic Bashkirs and Kalmyks, a felt yurt was a traditional portable
dwelling; Bashkirs, who were engaged in semi-nomadic cattle breeding,
lived in log houses on the site of winter quarters. All peoples, except
the Kalmyks, had light log buildings with an open hearth, serving as a
temporary or summer dwelling, a summer kitchen, a place of worship, etc.
).
The main elements of clothing were a tunic shirt and trousers.
Over the shirt they wore loose clothes made of fabric or cloth with a
straight-back cut (Tat. and Bashk. Bishmet, Tat. Chikmen, Zhilen, Bashk.
Sekmen, Yelen, Udm. Shortderem, Mar. Shovyr) or flared from the waist
(Tat. Kezeki, Chuvash. shupar, sahman, udm. sukman, dukes, mar. myzher,
shovyr), in winter - fur coats. Under outerwear or at home, they wore
short, loose-fitting clothes without sleeves or with short sleeves like
a camisole. Women sometimes wore an apron, a dress, a large amount of
jewelry made of copper, bronze, silver, gold and other metals, precious
and semi-precious stones over their shirts: necklaces, clasps-sulgams
(Mordva), plaques, bibs with coins, plaques, cowrie shells, beads, etc.,
back decorations, shoulder straps, etc.
Nizhny Novgorod Tatars. 19th century
Men's hats - felt hats, Tatars and Bashkirs - skullcaps, in winter -
fur (lamb, etc.) hats. Among women's hats, 4 types can be distinguished:
a) a high cone-shaped hat on a solid base (udm. aishon, mar. shurka,
muzzle. pango); b) a small cone-shaped hat (Udm. Podurga, East-Mar.
Chachkap, Chuvash. Khushpu, Tat. Kashpau, Bashk. Kashmau; girlish - Udm.
Takya, East-Mar. Takiya, Moksha-Mord. Takya, Chuvash. tukhya, tat and
bashk takyya); c) towel dress (Udm. turban, Mar. Sharpan, Chuvash.
Surpan, Tat. and Bashk. Tastar); d) headband with side ties. Headdresses
were decorated with embroidery, braid, sequins, corals. Other forms of
headwear were also common: spade-shaped (magpie) among the Mari and
Mordovians, a kalfak hat among the Tatars and Bashkirs, and others.
shoes - bast shoes, felt boots, boots, among Kalmyks in winter - with
felt stockings; the Tatars wore boots made of thin leather (ichigi), the
Bashkirs wore high boots with a leather bottom and a felt shaft (kata).
Bread, pies, cakes, pancakes, cereals, stews were made from flour
and cereals, beer, kvass, and mash were made from drinks. Meat was
important to pastoralists; Horse meat was used by the Tatars, Bashkirs,
Kalmyks, Mari, as sacrificial food - also by the Udmurts and Chuvashs.
Pork was not eaten by Muslims, as well as those Mari and Udmurts who
adhered to traditional beliefs. Dairy drinks are characteristic: from
cottage cheese or sour milk diluted with water, koumiss (especially
among the Bashkirs), milk kvass and milk vodka (among the Kalmyks).
Kalmyks prepared a drink from tea with the addition of milk, butter,
salt, spices (Kalmyk tea, or jomba).
Bashkirs
In the late 19th century in the Volga and Ural regions, the rural population prevailed, the urban strata occupied a prominent place only in the composition of the Tatars. A small family prevailed, a large (undivided) family was preserved for a long time among the Mordovians, and partly among the Udmurts. There were associations of related families (especially among the Udmurts, Maris, Bashkirs, part of the Tatars), as well as tribal groups associated with joint participation in rituals (among the Udmurts, Maris, Mordovians). Some of the Tatars and Bashkirs had territorial districts (Tat. Zhien, Bashk. Yiyyn), uniting several. villages, whose inhabitants once a year gathered for holidays. Some of the Bashkirs retained tribal groups that received from the state patrimonial rights to the lands they occupied. Among the Kalmyks, both paternal and maternal family associations played an important role; in adm. In respect they were divided into uluses, aimags and khotons.
There are links in art with the art of the peoples of Siberia,
Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the European North. Among the Udmurts,
Mordovians, Chuvashs, a geometric ornament is more common, among the
Tatars - a floral ornament. All the peoples of the Volga and Ural
regions developed embroidery, patterned weaving, and woodcarving.
Patterned knitting was most developed among the Udmurts and Bashkirs,
embossing on birch bark - among the Udmurts and Maris, weaving from a
vine - among the Udmurts, Maris, Chuvashs, beadwork - among the
Mordovians, mosaic on the skin - among the Tatars, embossing on the skin
- among the Bashkirs, Kalmyks (Kalmyks know leather vessels
characteristic of nomadic life), carpet making - among the Bashkirs,
patterned felt making - among the Tatars and Bashkirs, jewelry art
(weapons, hunting equipment, harness parts, jewelry, smoking pipes,
etc.; from jewelry techniques engraving, chasing, filigree, granulation,
inlay, blackening, cutting and polishing of precious stones are known) -
among the Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, stone carving - among the Tatars.
Traditional art forms are now preserved in the form of handicrafts.
traditional beliefs. Some of the Udmurts, Maris, and Chuvashs have
long preserved, and in some places still exist, pagan cults: prayers and
sacrifices in sacred groves, led by special priests (Udm. Vosyas, Utis,
Mar. Kart, Vost.-Mar. Molla, Chuvash. yumzya), etc. A special place
among the peoples of the Volga region is occupied by holidays dedicated
to the end of field work (Tatar and Bashk. Sabantuy, Bashk. Habantuy,
Chuvash. Akatuy, Mar. Agavairem, Udm. Gyron Bydton, Mord. ozks).
Oral tradition retains a connection with calendar and family rituals:
timed genres form the core of the vocal tradition of the Udmurts (songs
of prayers, wires of melt water, wires of flax, Akashka plow festival,
Portmascon festival of mummers), Chuvash, Mari, Mordovians (pazmorot
songs performed during time of prayers ozks), Kryashens. Guest and
drinking songs are widespread among the Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts and
Kryashens. Chuvash labor songs are diverse (songs of felters, songs when
weaving matting). The Udmurts have preserved songs-improvisations for
the occasion (hunting, beekeeping, bee spells, personal songs). Untimed
genres form the basis of the genre system of Bashkir and Tatar folklore:
lingering songs (ozone-kuy among the Bashkirs, ozyn-kuy among the
Tatars), “short songs” (kyska-kuy), ditties (takmak). Among the Bashkirs
and Muslim Tatars, the epic genre of bait, the religious and didactic
munajat, the chanting reading of the Koran, and everyday prayer singing
are widespread. Epic forms are also represented by recitative Bashkir
kubairs and Mordovian narrative songs of kuvaka morot. For Kalmyk
folklore, as well as for Turkic and Mongolian cultures in general, the
opposition of “long songs” (utu dun: many lyrical, wedding, songs of the
calendar holidays Zul and Tsagaan Sar, pastoral songs-spells) and “short
songs” (ahr dun : comic, dance). The central genre of the oral culture
of the Kalmyks is the heroic epic "Dzhangar", performed by professional
singers-narrators of dzhangarchi, among whom the most famous is Eelyan
Ovla.
The traditional form of singing of Tatars, Bashkirs is
monodia; among the Mari, Chuvash, Udmurts and Kryashens, heterophony
prevails, the folk music of the Mordovians is distinguished by the most
developed polyphony. A specific type of traditional singing, known among
the Bashkirs, is the solo two-voice uzlyau (similar to the throat
singing of the Altaians and Tuvans). In the songs of the Kazan Tatars,
Mari, Chuvash, the pentatonic scale dominates.
Instruments: longitudinal kurai flute among the Bashkirs and Tatars; a gusli-type instrument - krez among the Udmurts, ksle among the Chuvash, kyusle among the Tatars; bowed srme kupas among the Chuvash, iya kovyzh among the Mari, garze (gaiga) among the Mordovians; plucked dombra among the Kalmyks and dumbyra among the Bashkirs; bagpipes - shuvyr among the Mari, shapar and srnay among the Chuvash, archaic bagpipes-bubble fam among Moksha, puvama among Erzi; paired wind reed nude among the Mordovians; natural pipes - Udmurt hunting chipchirgan, Mari ritual puch, Mordovian shepherd's torama; kubyz jew's harp among the Bashkirs and Tatars; various percussion, rattles. From con. 19th century there is a harmonica brought by the Russians.
Among the Udmurts, Mordovians, Maris and Chuvashs, the majority of believers are Orthodox, among the Tatars and Bashkirs - Sunni Muslims, Kalmyks - Buddhists (see Islam and Buddhism in the article Religions). Islam began to spread among the peoples of the Volga region (in the Volga-Kama Bulgaria) in the 10th century. The Christianization of the peoples of the Volga region began in the 15th century. and intensified after the fall of the Kazan Khanate in 1552. The first Mari alphabet, developed by Archbishop Gury of Kazan in the middle. 16th century, was forgotten. Writing based on Russian graphics in the languages of the Finno-Ugric peoples and Chuvash originated in the 18th century. From Ser. 19th century in Kazan there was a missionary society "The Brotherhood of St. Guria”, formed by N.I. Ilminsky, a broad translation activity was undertaken, a network of schools with teaching in native languages was created. The Tatars and Bashkirs had a written language based on Arabic script, which was translated into Latin in 1927–28, and into Russian script in 1939–40. The Kalmyks had a written language created in 1648 by the preacher of Buddhism, Zaya Pandita, based on the Mongolian alphabet; in 1924, the Russian alphabet was introduced (in 1930–38, the Latin alphabet).
Chum (Komi - Chom) Portable dwelling of the peoples of the North and Siberia. It had a conical frame of long poles with tires: in winter - from deer skins or rovduga (nyuki)
The indigenous peoples of Western Siberia speak the languages of the
Uralic (the Finno-Ugric group includes the Ob Ugrians - Khanty and
Mansi, the Samoyedic - Nenets, Enets, Nganasans and Selkups) and Yenisei
(Kets and Yugi) families; Siberian Tatars and Chulyms belong to the
Turkic group of the Altai family.
The peoples of the Ural family
were formed by the beginning. 2nd millennium AD e. as a result of the
resettlement from the south in several waves (starting from the
beginning of the 2nd millennium BC) of pastoral peoples - the ancestors
of the Ugrians and Samoyeds - and their mixing with local tribes of
hunters, fishermen and gatherers. Also, speakers of the Yenisei and
(from the 6th–7th centuries to the early 20th century) Turkic languages
settled from the steppe south.
Anthropologically, the Khanty,
Mansi, Nenets, Selkups, Kets in the main. belong to the Ural race, the
degree of Mongoloidity increases towards the northeast. Among the Enets
and Nganasans, the Baikal (Katangese) variant of the North Asian race
predominates. The Tatars combine features of the South Siberian and Ural
nations.
Mansi woman in a Sakha fur coat.
The peoples living in the tundra and forest-tundra (tundra Nenets and
Enets, Nganasans, northern groups of the Selkups, Khanty and Mansi)
practiced reindeer husbandry of the Samoyed type. Reindeer breeding was
especially developed among the Nenets; supplemented by hunting,
including wild deer, gathering (berries, etc.) and fishing. The
settlement of tundra reindeer herders is a camp of a group of kindred
families, the traditional dwelling is a chum. The traditional clothes of
reindeer herders were ideally adapted to the conditions of life in the
tundra with distant migrations on sleds. Clothes and shoes were made
from deerskins (often trimmed with dog fur) and worn in two layers: fur
on the inside and outside. Men's clothing - blind cut, below the knee
length, with a hood: fur inside (malitsa - Nenets. Maltsya, Khanty.
Malta, Mansiysk. Molsyan) and out (parka - Selkup. Pargy, Mansiysk.
Porkha, Nganasan. Lu; Goose - Khantysk Kus, Mansi Punk jug, Sovik -
Nenets sook, Selkup Sokky, Nganasan Fia); on the road, a parka or a
sovik could be worn over a malitsa. Among the Nenets, sowing. Khanty and
Mansi clothes are sewn from two whole pieces of skin (the so-called Ural
type), among Nganasans and Enets - from small pieces (the so-called
Taimyr type). Women's clothing (Nenet pans, Khanty sakh, sak, Mansi
sakhs) is a double long fur coat (the so-called West Siberian type),
among Nganasans and Enets it is shorter, worn with overalls. In the
summer they wore cloth clothes. Winter shoes - fur boots sewn with fur
outside (pimy, kisy - Nenets beer, Selkup pema, Khanty vai, vei, nir,
Mansi nyara), worn on fur stockings with fur inside. Among the Nganasans
and Enets, the shoes did not have an instep.
The peoples living
in the taiga zone (the Forest Nenets and Enets, mostly Selkups, Khanty,
and Mansi, the Kets, and part of the Siberian Tatars) were engaged in
hunting, fishing, and gathering on foot; there was reindeer breeding of
the taiga type. The fishing area extended for a distance of approx. 100
km around winter settlements. Winter dwellings - ground, dugouts and
semi-dugouts, log or frame, usually heated by hearths-chuvals. The
Forest Nenets and Enets lived in tents. During fishing and hunting
(spring, summer and autumn), they lived in temporary light buildings
with a frame of poles covered with birch bark or larch bark. In winter,
they traveled on reindeer and dog sleds, hunters in fishing - on skis,
in summer - on water in dugout and plank boats, on long trips - in boats
with a cabin. The upper clothing of the peoples of the taiga was, as a
rule, of swing cut. Winter clothes were sewn in the main. from the skins
of wild animals and birds (squirrel, arctic fox, marten, hare, duck) and
deer, summer robes and caftans - from cloth and purchased fabrics. Men
and women also wore shirts and trousers, women - dresses of a deaf cut
(Khantysk. Ernas, Mansiysk. soup). Main food of reindeer herders and
hunters - raw, frozen, boiled and dried meat (venison, game) and fish,
berries, nuts; mushrooms were not eaten (toadstools were used as a
hallucinogenic agent); Khanty and Mansi used horse meat as sacrificial
food.
Fur clothes were decorated with mosaic ornaments, ribbons, tassels
made of colored cloth, beads, fabric clothes - with appliqués. Women
wore earrings, beads, rings, khanty and mansi - pectoral ornaments woven
from multi-colored beads. Nganasan and Enets clothes (especially women's
overalls) were decorated with metal copper and tin plaques, plates,
tubes, bells, and bells. Ornament (the so-called Ob type) - silhouette,
geometric motifs: rectangles, rhombuses, inscribed triangles, meanders,
crosses; complex horn-shaped figures form borders and rosettes;
Khanty-Mansiysk names of traditional ornamental motifs are
characteristic - “hare ears”, “birch branches”, “sable footprint”,
“man”, etc. applications. Wood carving (spoons, scoops, hooks for
cradles, oar handles, backs of sleds) and mammoth tusk (smoking pipes,
spindle whorls, needle beds, belt buckles and reindeer harness buckles,
knife handles, sometimes with endings in the form of sculpted heads of
animals and birds). Sculptural images of patron spirits and ancestors
were carved from wood.
The inhabitants of villages located in the
floodplains of large rivers (Ob and Yenisei) and south. forest-steppe
regions of Western Siberia (part of the Khanty and Mansi, southern, or
Narym, Selkups, Siberian Tatars), DOS. fishing was a traditional
occupation, in addition, they were engaged in hunting and gathering,
agriculture was widespread (vegetables, from cereals - barley, wheat,
rye, oats, millet) and animal husbandry (especially among the Tatars).
In the culture of these peoples, the influence of Russians is strong,
among the Tatars - the peoples of Southern Siberia. In food, fish, meat
are common (the Tatars also have horse meat), milk, vegetables, and
bread. Dairy products are especially traditional among Tatars: cream
(kaymak), sour-milk drinks (katyk, ayran), butter, cottage cheese,
cheese. Along with dugouts, semi-dugouts, log dwellings, the Tatars also
have houses made of turf bricks, wattle plastered with clay, heated by a
chuval and a stove with a cauldron embedded in it; in the interior of
the dwelling - bunks covered with mats, skins, among the Tatars -
carpets, felt, chests. Wooden houses were sometimes decorated with
carved architraves, skates with a figurine of a bird or a horse. The
clothes of the Khanty, Mansi and Selkups experienced Russian influence.
Main type of Tatar clothing - caftans (beshmet) and robes (chapan) of a
tunic-like cut (the so-called West Siberian type) made of homespun or
imported Central Asian silk fabric, camisoles without sleeves or with
short sleeves, pants, shirts, for women - shirt dresses, morocco boots
(ichigi), in winter - fur coats (ton, tun); men wore skullcaps, felt and
fur hats, women wore headbands on a solid base, sheathed in fabric with
a braid and beads (tat. saraoch, sarauts), scarves, and numerous
jewelry.
Traditional cults - worship of master spirits, patron
spirits, ancestors, totemic cults (worship of animal ancestors,
including bear and elk), shamanism; calendar holidays: the winter Bear
holiday among the Khanty, Mansi and Kets, the spring women's Crow's day
among the Khanty and Mansi, the spring holiday of the Pure Plague among
the Nganasans (the holiday of the end of the polar night), etc.
In the folklore of the peoples of Western Siberia, mutual influences
and connections are traced both with each other (between the Kets and
Selkups; Khanty and Mansi; Nenets, Enets and Nganasans) and with the
peoples of other regions (Saami, Evenki, Dolgans, Yukagirs); south the
origin of the ancestors of the Samoyeds, Ugrians and Kets explains the
presence in their folklore of traces of Iranian and Turkic mythology.
Under Russian influence in mythology, biblical stories (the motif of the
Flood, making a man out of clay and blowing a soul into him, creating a
woman from a man's rib, etc.) and Christian characters (Christ, Nicholas
the Wonderworker) became widespread.
Cosmogonic, anthropogonic
and ethnogonic myths, other mythological stories (including cycles about
cultural trickster heroes who combine serious creative deeds and heroic
deeds with picaresque tricks), tribal and historical legends, epic
songs, hunting and shaman legends, parables, bylichki about meetings
with spirits, fairy tales about animals, everyday and fairy tales;
various forms of ritual folklore, as well as small genres - riddles,
prohibitions, signs, etc. Epic, ritual and lyrical genres are
distinguished.
The epic is presented in ch. arr. mythological,
heroic (for example, syudbabts among the Nenets, dastans among the
Siberian Tatars) or life-descriptive (for example, yarabts among the
Nenets, baits among the Siberian Tatars) legends. Typical plots are
about heroic matchmaking and getting a wife, revenge for killed
relatives, battles with cannibal giants, the struggle for deer herds,
about the wanderings and misadventures of a destitute hero, etc. The
most large-scale texts (performed for several hours, and sometimes
evenings) are known from the Nenets, from whom, apparently, they were
borrowed in a transformed form by the Enets and Nganasans. Among the
Khanty and Mansi, legends about the divine origin of the bear, about the
ancestors-heroes and their exploits, etc., could be accompanied by
playing the harp or zither and included in shamanic rituals and the bear
festival; in some groups of Khanty, storytellers were endowed with
magical abilities to heal the sick. Usually the epic is performed in
recitative, song or mixed song-recitative form; often the story is told
from the perspective of a hero or heroine; A specific feature of
Samoyedic folklore is the image of the narrator (the personification of
a “song” or “word”), who follows the course of events and comments on
them.
Ritual folklore includes wedding and funeral laments,
spells before hunting, etc. A special area of ritual folklore is
shamanic singing. The summoning of helper spirits by the shaman, appeals
to the spirits, their replies, descriptions of the shaman's travels to
other worlds, etc., were accompanied by beats of a tambourine and the
ringing of bone or metal pendants-rattles on the shaman's suit,
tambourine or staff. The melodies of shamanic songs were considered to
be the voices of the spirits on whose behalf the shaman performs (as
well as ventriloquism, onomatopoeia, emphatic intonation).
Among
the Siberian Tatars, the old ritual genres were supplanted by the
singing of prayers and surahs of the Koran.
Lyrical genres -
personal songs and song improvisations about the world around, love
relationships, successful hunting or life events, relatives, etc. (the
so-called songs of fate); lullabies among the Khanty, praise songs
(ulilap) among the Mansi, song greetings and good wishes, “drunken
songs”.
Solo singing predominates in all cultures. An assistant
can participate in the performance (shamanic singing, epic Nenets). The
lyrical songs of the Turkic peoples are sometimes performed by a unison
or heterophonic ensemble or accompanied by an instrument. Typical tunes
are widespread, on which new texts are improvised; there are songs in
which the text is assigned to the tune. Nganasans are known for song
dialogues - competitions in composing songs-allegories, unique in melody
and sophisticated in the mechanism of encryption. Characteristic are
narrow-volume (from a second to a sixth) and wide (about an octave or
more) scales. Step zones in width can exceed a whole tone. The relative
simplicity of the scales is compensated by a variety of intonation
contours of steps - with gliding in the initial and final phases, with
mordent-like movement, etc. Such contours and the pitch uncertainty
associated with them (with an easily detectable pentatonic basis of the
scale) are most clearly manifested in the music of the Siberian Tatars.
Rhythmic organization is characterized by a tendency to ostinato and
repetition of quantitative rhythm formulas, which can vary greatly, and
then the rhythm is perceived as outwardly non-periodic (for example, in
the epic and lyrical songs of the Selkups). As in other regions of
Siberia, specific articulatory-timbre expressiveness is of great
importance. The “sacred songs” of the Mansi Bear Festival are sung with
a special laryngeal (throat) timbre.
Main music. instruments:
bowed lutes, zithers (Mansiysk. sankvyltap), among the Selkups and Ob
Ugrians - harps (Khantysk. top-yukh - lit. "crane-tree", Mansiysk.
tarygsyp-yiv - "tree of the crane's neck"), shaman tambourines, jew's
harps, hunting decoys, sound toys (whistles, pipes, squeakers and flutes
made from a stalk of hollow grass or a bird's feather, buzzers), etc.
Borrowed harmonica and (except for the Siberian Tatars) balalaika are
ubiquitous. Most cultures have recorded solo tunes.
Dances were
performed mainly on calendar holidays. The circular dances of the
Nganasans and Enets during the spring festival of the Pure Plague were
accompanied by exclamatory tunes on inhalation and exhalation (the
so-called throat wheezing). At the Bear Festival, the Khanty and Mansi
performed dances to the accompaniment of a zither or harp, representing
certain tribal or territorial groups, as well as “spirit dances” - the
patron ancestors of these groups, theatrical skits and pantomimes of a
comic and at the same time magical content; some of these theatrical
performances included dress-up and elements of puppet theater.
The peoples of Western Siberia, except for the Tatars, were converted to Orthodoxy in the 18th century, although the first Orthodox missionaries (Trifon Vyatsky and others) appeared among the Khanty and Mansi as early as the 16th century. More than others, the Ob Ugrians and the Narym Selkups were affected by Christianization. The most massive baptism was carried out among the Khanty and Mansi in 1704, 1707 and 1712 by Metropolitan of Tobolsk Philotheus Leshchinsky. Orthodox holidays are celebrated (especially Ilyin's Day), to which fairs were traditionally timed (Obdorskaya, Surgutskaya, Yuganskaya, Berezovskaya, Irbitskaya); the newest professional holidays are Reindeer Breeder's Day, Fisherman's Day. Tatars celebrate Muslim holidays, the holiday of sowing (Sabantuy).
Writing for the Nenets, Khanty, Mansi and Selkups was created in 1930-34, in 1937 it was translated into the Russian alphabet; writing for the Kets and Nganasans was created in the 1970s–1980s. The West Siberian Tatars write in the Kazanian version of the Tatar language, although attempts have been made to create their own written language.
The indigenous peoples of Southern Siberia, living from the
Altai-Sayan Highlands to Transbaikalia, speak the languages of the
Altai language family: Turkic (Altaians, Telengits, Teleuts, Tubalars,
Kumandins, Chelkans, Tuvans, Khakasses, Shors, Tofalars; in the past
they included Soyots) , Mongolian (Buryats) and Tungus (Transbaikal
Evenks).
Southern Siberia has been a contact zone between the
peoples of the Central Asian steppes and the Siberian taiga for
millennia. At the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. early nomadic
cattle breeders penetrate here from Central Asia, leaving monuments of
the Karasuk and Tagar cultures. In the last centuries BC carriers of the
Tashtyk culture settled here, through whom, perhaps, reindeer husbandry
penetrated into Siberia. The ancient Turks and Mongols also settled in
Southern Siberia from Central Asia at the turn of our era, despite the
fact that the descendants of the pre-Turkic - Samoyedic and Ket-speaking
- population lived on the territory of the Sayano-Altai Highlands until
the 20th century. (the Kamasin group was the last to be assimilated - c.
1980s). The formation of the Tungusic peoples took place in the Baikal
region. From the early Middle Ages, Southern Siberia was under the
influence of powerful states - the Turkic, Uighur and Kyrgyz Khaganates,
then - the Mongol Empire.
Judging by paleoanthropological data,
up to the 1st millennium BC in the west of the region (up to Baikal) the
Caucasoid population prevailed. The modern indigenous population of
Southern Siberia belongs to the main. to the Central Asian variant (the
most Mongoloid in appearance) of the North Asian race (Buryats, Tuvans);
Tofalars and part of the Tuvan-Todzhans - to the so-called. Katangese
variant with Central Asian admixture; Evenks represent in the main. the
classic Baikal variant of the North Asian race. Some groups of Khakass,
Altaians and Shors have a strong admixture of contact South Siberian and
Ural races.
Among the Altaians, zap. Tuvans and Trans-Baikal Buryats up to the
20th century. steppe nomadic pastoralism prevailed. Cattle breeders bred
large and small cattle, horses, in the mountainous regions of Western
Tuva and in the south of Altai - yaks, in the south. regions of Tuva,
Altai and Buryatia, bordering with Mongolia - camels. The Baikal, or
western, Buryats and Khakasses, the Shors and part of the Altaians led a
semi-sedentary and settled way of life, combining cattle breeding (Shors
- blacksmithing and hunting) with irrigated arable farming (millet,
barley, wheat), among the Buryats - iron farming. From the 18th century
under the influence of Russian settlers among the Khakass, zap.
Gardening began to spread among the Buryats and Altaians.
The
main food of pastoralists was meat and milk of domestic animals. From
millet and barley, flour was ground in manual stone mills, from which a
stew based on tea and milk (Alt. Talkan, Kocho, Buryat. Zutran) was
made, and cakes were baked. Milk was consumed in the main. spring and
summer, only boiled and pickled. Butter and dry cheese (kurut) were
prepared for the winter. Koumiss was prepared from mare's milk. By
distillation of the skimmed fermented milk, milk vodka was obtained -
araka. The favorite drink was tea, which was drunk salted with milk,
sometimes with butter.
Traditional dwelling of the peoples of Southern Siberia: 1 - felt yurt; 2 - birch bark; 3 - log yurt; 4 - log hut.
An important role in the economy of the peoples of Southern Siberia
was played by the processing of skins, wood, and jewelry. The smelting
and forging of iron were the main. the occupation of the Shors, whom the
Russians called "Kuznetsk people", and their land - "Kuznetsk land";
Shors sold iron products to Russian merchants, exchanged with neighbors
for cattle and felt. The Shors, unlike their neighbors, were also known
for the production of ceramics.
The main type of dwelling of
nomadic pastoralists was a felt yurt of the Mongolian type on a lattice
frame. For the semi-sedentary and sedentary population, a four-, six- or
octagonal log building, also called a yurt, with a low hipped roof, a
hearth and a smoke hole in the center or a hearth like a chuval near the
wall served as a permanent home. Russian huts were also common.
At the east Tuvans (Todzhans), Tofalars, and Soyots were dominated by
hunting and mountain-taiga reindeer husbandry (the so-called Sayan
type). Deer were used for riding with the use of horse saddles and
stirrups, and milked. They hunted elk, deer, roe deer, upland game.
Gathering (sarana, wild garlic) played an important role. Main food -
meat of wild animals, domestic deer, as a rule, were not slaughtered.
Sarana bulbs dried on fire were eaten with tea, crushed bulbs were
cooked into a thick porridge-like soup. Traditional dwelling - chum.
The peoples of Southern Siberia retain patrilineal clans (söyok).
Groups of jointly nomadic kindred families (from three in winter to five
or six in summer) constituted aal communities.
Men's and women's
clothing of the peoples of Southern Siberia - trousers, a shirt
(sometimes a dress for women) and a swing robe made of homespun fabric,
in cold weather - a caftan made of cloth or felt, in winter - a
sheepskin coat. Among the Chelkans, Kumandins, and Shors, outerwear had
a tunic-like cut (the back and front were sewn from the same cloth) with
converging hems, sewn-in sleeves, and inserted oblique wedges from the
sides (the so-called West Siberian type of clothing); among the
Altaians, Telengits, Khakasses, Tuvans and Tofalars - with wide
armholes, strongly flared, often with folds from the armholes, the
floors were wrapped from left to right (the so-called South Siberian
type); among the Buryats, Tuvans, Altaians and Transbaikal Evenks,
clothes of the so-called. East Asian type with a tunic-like top, to
which sleeves, hem and right (lower) floor were attached; the left floor
had a characteristic stepped cutout on top. Married women over a fur
coat or dressing gown wore a long oar sleeveless jacket (chegedek,
segedek). The headdress was a sheepskin hat with a wide domed top and
earmuffs, which were tied at the back of the head; they also wore fur
hoods. Characterized by leather boots with a curved and pointed toe and
a multi-layered felt-leather sole. In winter, they wore felt stockings
with sewn-in soles and embroidered ornaments on the top in boots.
Women wore numerous silver jewelry. Silver headdresses in the form
of a plate, decorated with engraving and precious stones, were highly
valued. Altai women wore figured copper plaques with threads of beads or
beads at the waist, on the ends of which they tied the keys to the
chest. Khakass married women wore coral earrings, which were brought
from Central Asia for a very high price (one bead cost an ox or a
horse).
The art of the peoples of Southern Siberia dates back to the traditions of the Scythian time, was influenced by the art of Central Asia and China (forms of weapons, horse harness, images in animal style). In wood carving, a simple geometric ornament of rhombuses, triangles, chevrons, a zigzag, an oblique grid, etc. is common (the so-called Sayano-Altai type of ornament), in embroidery, applique on leather, metal ornamentation and wood carving - a complex curvilinear floral ornament of curls, palmettes and semi-palmettes (the so-called South Siberian type); among the Altaians and Shors, patterned knitting and weaving with meanders, rhombuses, etc. (the so-called Irtysh-Altai type) is widespread.
Traditional religion - tribal and trade cults, shamanism. Now
shamanic rituals are taking on new forms (the so-called neo-shamanism),
traditional holidays are being revived: New Year's holiday Shagaa among
Tuvans; the holiday of the progenitor Olgudek, the spring-summer holiday
of Payram - among the Shors; In 1991, on the basis of the traditional
ancestor cult, the Khakas people arose the Ada-Khoorai holiday. The
Tuvans and the Buryats from the horse. 16th century Lamaist Buddhism was
widespread; among the Altaians in the 19th century. there was a special
form of combining Buddhism with shamanism and other local cults -
Burkhanism. With the advent of Russians in southern Siberia, Orthodoxy
began to spread (the Daurian mission of 1681). In 1727, the Irkutsk
diocese was formed, the first bishop of which, Innokenty Kulchitsky,
opened schools with instruction in Russian, Buryat, Mongolian, Chinese,
and other languages. In 1830, the Altai Mission was established in
Biysk, headed by Archimandrite Makariy Glukharev, who created the Altai
script and launched translation and educational activities among the
Teleuts, Kumandins, Tubalars and Shors. Buryats, Tuvans and Altaians, in
addition, used the old Mongolian script. In 1929–31, a new script was
created for the Buryats, Tuvans, Altaians, Shors, Khakasses, and Evenkis
based on Latin, and in 1938–1941, Russian graphics; writing in the
Tofalar language was created in 1989.
The oral tradition of the
peoples of Southern Siberia includes epic (except for the Todzha Tuvans,
Tofalars and Soyots), ritual (except for the Tofalars) and lyrical
genres. The epic is presented in ch. arr. heroic tales [alt. kay
chorchok, bastard. kai shorshok, shor. nubak, or nartpak, Khakass.
alyptykh nymakh, tuv. tool, Buryat. uligers (including from the
all-Mongolian cycle about Geser Khan)], among the Turks - fairy tales
with fragments being sung. Ritual folklore includes shamanic singing,
pastoral incantations, and ritual songs. Among Tuvans, Buryats and
Soyots, lamaist prayer singing is widespread. Lyrics include songs,
vocal lullabies and instrumental tunes. In most song traditions, "short"
and "long" are contrasted, sometimes also chant and moving songs.
Epic stories are either only sung (Southern Altaians, Western
Buryats), or they are an alternation of speech and singing, sometimes
choral (Buryats); instrumental accompaniment is allowed (in the South
Altai tradition - among the Altaians and Telengits - it is obligatory).
Melodic formulas in the epic of the Shors and Khakass have a certain
semantics (battles, complaints, revenge, etc.).
Ritual singing in
the shamanic rite of the Buryats with the participation of a
heterophonic choir, in round dances (yokhor) and tribal songs zap.
Buryats noted polyphony, including imitation. The lyrics are dominated
by solo singing, heterophonic ensembles and instrumental accompaniment
are possible. Lyrical songs of Tuvans (about nature, about themselves,
comic) are sung in the khoomei style (the art of solo two-voice with a
bourdon tone and a melody in a high register, moving along overtones;
types of khoomei differ in the height of the bourdon tone and timbre
coloring).
Typical and individual tunes are widespread, to which
new texts are composed; there are improvisations (for example, in
incantations) and tunes assigned to texts. The Buryats and Tuvans have
stable melodic turns, combined into lines and stanzas.
For
eastern Buryats, Tuvans and Todzhans are characterized by pentatonic
scale; other anhemitonic structures (often narrow-volume) are found in
all cultures of the region. At the sowing Altaians and Teleuts have
wide-volume hemitonics, while the southern ones have narrow-volume
hemitonics. At the app. Buryats often have chromatic scales. The
intonation contours of the steps are with gliding in the initial and
final phases of the sound, mordent-shaped, trill-shaped, etc.
(especially developed among the Southern Altaians, Western Buryats and
Tofalars).
Epic singing gravitates toward ostinato rhythmic
formulas; songs (in particular, Buryat) and shamanic music are
characterized by complex schemes of temporal division. In many
traditions, rhythm is based on quantitative formulas.
As in other
regions of Siberia, timbre and articulation are of great importance,
often associated with pitch and rhythm. In the South Altai cultures, all
genres have distinctive timbre features. Epic singing (among the Turks,
Buryats) is marked with special throat timbres.
Typical
instrumentation: bowed lutes - alto. ikili, tuv. igil, byzaanchi,
Buryats. khur; plucked - alt. and telengit. topshuur, chelkan. kyl
komys, tuv. doshpulur; tuv. zither chadagan, transverse and longitudinal
flutes, jew's harps, shaman tambourines.
Apparently, the Yukagirs, who speak an isolated language, belong to
the most ancient layer of the population of Eastern Siberia. In the
extreme north-west of Eastern Siberia (the Taimyr Peninsula) live the
Nenets, Enets and Nganasans, who speak Samoyedic languages. Most of the
indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia speak the languages of the Altai
family: the Tungus-Manchurian (Evenks, Evens) and Turkic (Yakuts and
Dolgans genetically close to them) peoples. The formation of the Tungus
community took place, apparently, in the southern Baikal and
Transbaikalia, from where, at the turn of our era, the movement of foot
and deer hunters for elk and wild deer, the ancestors of the Evenks and
Evens, began to move to the Yenisei-Lena interfluve. The resettlement of
the Turks from the Baikal region to the north to the upper and middle
Lena took place in the 10th–14th centuries. and led to the formation of
the most sowing. Turkic peoples - Yakuts and Dolgans.
According
to the anthropological type, the indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia
belong to the North Asian race, of which the Yakuts and partly the
Dolgans belong to the most Mongoloid Central Asian variant, the
Nganasans, Yukaghirs, Evens and most Evenks belong to the Baikal, in the
West. Evenks and Enets Mongoloid signs are weakened and features of the
Ural race are traced (the so-called Katanga variant); most of the Nenets
belong to the Ural race.
The inhabitants of the north of Eastern Siberia were engaged in
tundra reindeer husbandry (Nenets, Dolgans, northern groups of Evenks
and Evens), hunting for wild deer at river crossings (“pokolki”) and
with the help of corrals, for waterfowl during molting (Enets,
Nganasans, tundra Yukagirs ), fishing, from the 18th century. - fur
hunting. Among the Nenets, the Samoyed type of reindeer husbandry was
widespread, among the Dolgans, the Tunguska type of pack-riding was
combined with the use of sleds of the Samoyed or Yakut type in winter.
Evenks, Evens and taiga Yukaghirs were engaged in taiga hunting and
reindeer herding of the Tungus type: deer were kept in small (usually no
more than 30-50 heads) herds, milked, used for migrations for riding and
for packs. There was a special reindeer harness: a riding and pack
saddle with pack bags, a halter, a girth. Most of the Evens and some of
the Evenks had a sled transport borrowed from the Yakuts, Chukchi or
Koryaks. All taiga peoples have developed fishing in inland waters.
The nomadic collective was a large family, or a group of kindred
families. Movement routes passed within the fishing areas.
The
main dwelling of the peoples of Eastern Siberia is conical; the Evens
have a cylindrical-conical tent (tung. du). Dolgans, from the 20th
century. also among the Enets, a sled chum (beam) was common. The
ancient dwellings of the Yukaghirs were semi-dugouts-chandals.
The main type of clothing is an open caftan made of skins or rovduga
with converging floors tied with strings on the chest. A narrow caftan
with non-converging floors is characteristic - the so-called. Tungus
coat. Clothing was decorated with fringes, cloth trims, strips of fur,
embroidery with reindeer or elk neck hair, fur appliqué, metal (silver,
brass, etc.) plaques, and beads. The main type of ornament is borders
made of the simplest geometric motifs; in some groups, curvilinear
motifs of the Yakut and Amur ornaments are known.
The economy and
culture of the Yakuts are marked by peculiar features that have a
connection with the steppe south of Siberia. Their main occupation -
horse breeding (they bred the famous long-haired horse breed adapted to
harsh Siberian conditions; the Yakut horse could be grazing all year
round) and cattle breeding. In summer, hay was harvested in water
meadows (alas), in winter, cattle were kept in barns. They led a
sedentary and semi-sedentary way of life, they were also engaged in
hunting, fishing, sowing. Yakuts - reindeer breeding (reindeer were
harnessed to straight-dust sleds of the East Siberian type), from the
con. 18th century in the south agriculture spread through the Russian
peasants.
The Yakuts had paternal clans. The territorial
association - nasleg - included representatives of several genera living
in the neighborhood. By the time of contacts with the Russians, a tribal
aristocracy (toyons) had emerged, patriarchal slavery and other forms of
dependence (Kumalanism), and polygamy were known. Marriage was
accompanied by the payment of bride price and dowry.
In the
summer they lived in light conical birch bark buildings (urases). The
winter dwelling is a rectangular frame building (booth, diie) with
sloping walls made of poles and a low one- or gable roof. The dwelling
was oriented to the cardinal points, from the north a barn (hoton) was
attached to it and connected to it with a door. Polygonal log yurts with
a pyramidal roof were known, as well as Russian huts.
Men's and
women's clothing - leather pants and leggings, a caftan (son) with
sewn-in sleeves and wedges (the so-called Lena, or Yakut, type) made of
fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin, for the rich - from fabric.
Elegant women's clothing is characteristic - a long fur coat (sangyah),
which was valued very dearly and passed down from generation to
generation in noble families, a fur hat with a high top made of cloth or
velvet, with silver plaques sewn on it and a pommel of expensive fur. A
rich women's costume was decorated with embroidery, appliqué, and
numerous silver ornaments.
The main food of the peoples of
Eastern Siberia was meat and fish. The Yakuts, especially in summer,
were dominated by dairy, sour-milk (koumiss) products. The poor Yakuts
ate in the main. fish. The traditional drink is tea, before its
distribution - Kuril tea, Ivan-tea, etc.
Clothes and household utensils were made from hides and skins
(rugs-kumalans, pack bags among Evenks and Evens, vessels), Yakuts wove
lassoes and nets from horsehair. The dishes were cut out of wood, made
of embossed birch bark. The Yakuts were familiar with the production of
ceramic dishes. Evenks knew the method of cold forging, the Yakuts knew
how to smelt metal, made silver and copper jewelry. The Yakut ornament
includes both simple geometric motifs, similar to the Tungus-Yukaghir
ones, and complex curvilinear motifs, close to the art of the peoples of
South Siberia and Central Asia. Wooden ritual goblets for koumiss
(choron) are characteristic. The traditional crafts of the Yakuts have
been preserved in a modified form: the production of paintings-carpets
from horsehair, woodcarving and mammoth ivory, the manufacture of silver
jewelry, a new form of craft - cutting stones and diamonds.
traditional cults. The traditional religion is the cults of the master
spirits of nature, ancestors, fire, shamanism. Evenk shamans were
considered the most powerful (the word "shaman" itself comes from the
Tungusic languages). The Yukaghirs kept dried pieces of the bodies of
their prominent shamans in special bags. All the peoples of Eastern
Siberia developed a cult of fire. Fire was considered a living being, it
was “fed”, fortune-telling was done on it, it was asked for advice
before going hunting, etc. The Yakuts knew elements of totemism: each
clan had its own patron animal. The Yakuts distinguished between white
and black shamans. White shamans played the main role at the annual
summer koumiss festival Ysyakh, which was held in honor of the fertility
deities aiyy. Public prayers, libation of koumiss from choron cups,
feasts, sports competitions (wrestling, horse racing) were held on it.
Since the 1990s In Yakutia, Ysyakh became a national holiday. Elements
of shamanism (neo-shamanism) are being revived.
Oral tradition of
the peoples of Eastern Siberia includes myths, heroic epics, historical
legends, fairy tales (about animals, magic and household ones; the
influence of Russian fairy-tale folklore is strong), songs, ritual
poetry genres.
The mythological structure of the world of the
Evenks and Evens represented a tripartite vertical and horizontal scheme
(where the three worlds were connected by a “shaman river”). Among the
heroes of myths about animal progenitors, a bear, an eagle, a raven
stand out. In the mythology of the Yakuts, the influence of the Turks of
Southern Siberia is traced, and at a later time - Christianity.
The heroic epic (Yakut. olonkho, Dolgan. olongko, Evenk. nimngakan,
Even. nimkan), which tells about the exploits of heroes and noble
ancestors, was performed by storytellers (olonkhosuts, nimkalans). The
performance of the epic took place either in the family circle, or with
a significant gathering of people, at meetings and holidays. The
performance began in the evening or at night and lasted several.
consecutive days. It was believed that songs with a happy ending could
change the unfortunate course of events. Among the Evenks, listeners
could participate in the performance, repeating individual lines after
the narrator. In olonkho, recitative and song intonation alternate; hymn
singing in a high tessitura with the use of a harmonic overtone kylysy
(literally, a blow on a string) is characteristic. In Dolgan olonkho,
song melodies appear in the ritual parts of the plot and serve as an
individual characteristic of the heroes (unlike olonkho, where one tune
is assigned to a group of heroes). The epos of the Evenks and Evens
includes fairy tales with song inserts (also called nimngakans and
nimkans), historical and everyday legends (Evenk. ugun, ulgur). Almost
all the singing characters of the nimkans are endowed with an individual
tune.
Historical legends resonate with the plots of the heroic
epos: they reflect real events - inter-clan wars, clashes with
neighboring peoples, and other important events in the life of the
people. Such are the legends of the Yakuts about the resettlement to the
Lena from the south of the progenitors of the Yakuts Omogoy and Elley,
the creator of the material culture of the Yakuts, the first organizer
of the Ysyakh summer koumiss festival. Old men and shamans kept and
passed on heroic tales.
The song lyrics of the Yakuts (yrya) are
situational. The following are used: singing with chants of syllables,
singing tremolated, metered without chants, with palatal clicks of the
tongue on a double breath, with characteristic wheezing. In the song
culture of the Dolgans, a separate layer is made up of appeal songs,
dialogues of young men and women (tuoisuu yryata), lullabies, songs of
reflection on the life lived, the surrounding nature, and people are
also common. Evenki song culture (iken, from ik - to sound) is
represented by many local traditions. There are "long" (davlaavun) and
"short" (khaan) songs (among Western Evenks); hagaavun are widespread -
songs of descriptive content with a stable theme (about a place, a
river, a person). At the east Evenks preserved the genres of song-story
(iken) and songs-experiences (khagan). Even song genres include:
personal songs (ike); improvisation songs, which are usually performed
in a low register and in a special vibrational manner (including
chiinmei - a kind of conversation with oneself); songs that reproduce
the melody and text of someone's personal song (alma); song stories in
tribal tune (gebelie ike). The melodies of the songs are built on short,
narrow formulas, repeated in the form of lines of unequal length.
The hymn genres of Yakut music, performed at common and family
holidays, during ceremonies, are strictly regulated in structure, rhythm
and intonation: toyuk (this large-scale genre is marked by a high-sacred
style of singing using kylysakh), algys (appeal to deities and patron
spirits of nature , animals and people), osuokhai (accompanied by a
circular dance dedicated to the Ysyakh holiday). The structure of the
Yakut osuokhai, as well as the Dolgan okhokai (performed during circular
dances around a pole), is based on the opposition of the exclamatory
chant of the soloist and the heterophonic second of people dancing in a
circle.
Shamanic intonation is accompanied by playing the
tambourine (Yakut and Dolgan dungur, Evenk ungtuvun, Even ungtun,
Yukagir erkee, yalgil), personifying the horse among the Yakuts, and
among the Evenks and Yukaghirs the deer of the shaman. The Yakut ritual
is based on the alternation of the shaman's monologue with the image of
patron spirits "inhabiting" him; during the ritual, the shaman uses a
wide range of intonation techniques - from imitating the voices of
animals and birds to exaggerated vibration with sharp melodic jumps (an
analogue of this style is the singing of the heroes of the Lower World
in olonkho). The shaman's singing, as a rule, is imitated by an
assistant.
Musical instruments: metal jew's harps (Yakut khomus,
Dolgan bargaan, Yukagir lala), bone jew's harps (Dolgan unguokh bargaan,
even iikhun), chordophones (including the most archaic ones - the bone
bow dyiriliki muos saa, citra- tambourine darykta, bowed zither kylysakh
among the Yakuts), idiophones (bells, bells, rattles, slotted drum,
hollow log with rattle pendants), various membranophones and aerophones.
Orthodoxy has been spreading in Eastern Siberia since the 17th century. In 1727, the Irkutsk diocese was formed, headed by prominent missionaries—Innokenty Kulchitsky (from 1727), Sophrony Kristalevsky (from 1754), and others. Primary rural and parochial schools appeared in Eastern Siberia, and translated literature was published in the Yakut language. In the 19th century in Eastern Siberia, missionary activity was developed by the priest. Mikhail Suslov, head of the Yenisei Missionary Society, who spread Christianity among the Evenks, Yakuts and Dolgans, archbishop. Kamchatsky Innokenty Veniaminov and Bishop. Dionysius Khitrov, who published the first "Brief Grammar of the Yakut Language" in 1858. Later, an academic writing system was introduced, created by the outstanding linguist O. N. Bötlingk. From the beginning 20th century the artist is published in the Yakut language. literature and journalism; newspapers come out and "Voice of the Yakut". In 1922, S. A. Novgorodov made an attempt to create a new Yakut alphabet. In con. 1920s - early. 30s among the Yakuts, Evenks and Evens, writing is introduced on a Latin graphic basis, with con. 1930s - in Russian. The Yukagir script was developed in the 1970s.
Udege hunters.
The indigenous population of the Amur region, Primorye and Sakhalin
are the Tunguso-Manchurian peoples (Nanais, Negidals, Udeges, Orochs,
Ultas, Ulchis, Evenks), as well as the Nivkhs, who speak an isolated
language, and the Tazis, who now speak in Osn. in Russian.
The
majority of the indigenous population of the Amur region, Primorye and
Sakhalin belongs to the Baikal variant of the North Asian race; the
Nivkhs have features of the Kuril race, probably dating back to the most
ancient population of the region.
material culture. The
traditional culture of the peoples of the Amur region, Primorye and
Sakhalin combines components of different times - the ancient
aboriginal, Tungus, Turkic, Manchurian, Mongolian, etc. The traditional
economy was based on a seasonal combination of hunting, fishing,
gathering; depending on the specific natural conditions, one or another
of these occupations prevailed. So, among the peoples living along the
banks of the Amur and large lakes (Ulchi, part of the Nanais, Negidals,
etc.), fishing played a leading role in the economy; among the Ulchi,
Ulta, Orochs, and especially the Nivkhs, in addition to fishing, sea
hunting was developed; among the population of the inner regions of the
taiga (Udege, part of the Ult, some groups of Nanai), taiga hunting was
of great importance; the ult had transport reindeer husbandry. Of great
importance in the life of the peoples of the Far East was the seasonal
(from July to October) fishing of migratory salmon fish, at which time
fish were harvested in large quantities for future use. Fur hunting,
which had in the main. commodity value, prevailed in winter, meat (for
elk, deer, red deer, musk deer, wild boar) - all year round. Meat and
fish were dried, boiled, fried, eaten frozen, under the influence of
Russians they began to be smoked and salted; fish oil was of great
importance, among the Ulta, Orochs, Nivkhs - the fat of seals, which was
also the subject of exchange with neighboring peoples. They also ate
wild plants (berries, wild garlic, sarana, nettles, ferns, etc.), on the
coast (Nivkhs, Orochi, Ulchi) - sea kale; cereals and flour were
imported. In the past, nettle and hemp (wild and cultivated) were used
to make threads for making nets and seines, and ropes were made from
willow, linden bark.
In the summer they moved to the main. on
boats (including with a sail made of fish skin), in winter - on skis and
sleds in a dog sled. The so-called sleds are characteristic. Amur type:
straight-to-dust, double-curved, small width, which made it possible to
sit on them, with skis on their feet.
Representatives of one or
more genera lived in small villages in winter. Traditional winter
dwelling ground or semi-underground, frame, with con. 19th century log
houses with a pole frame, a gable roof and heated benches-cans spread.
Several families lived in the house, each occupied its part of the
bunks. In the summer they moved to places of fishing; summer dwellings
usually had a frame structure covered with mats, bark, birch bark, etc.
Outbuildings are typical - sheds for dogs, hangers for drying fish, pile
barns for storing things. Ulta-reindeer herders lived in winter in
portable conical dwellings, in summer - in wicker gable huts.
Nanai girl in a wedding dress.
Clothes were sewn from fabric, fish skin and skins of taiga animals, Nivkhs - from seal and dog skins, Oroks and Negidals - from deer suede (rovduga). Main type of clothing - a dressing gown of the East Asian type: tunic-shaped cut with a wide left hem, wrapped around to the right. The robes were decorated with embroidery and applique on the collar, hem and cuffs of the sleeves. Men's robes are shorter and less ornamented than women's. The wedding dress of the bride stood out for its cut and ornamentation. Collars and capes (Nanai, Ulchi, Orochi) served as an additional decoration of women's festive clothes. Men and women wore pants made of fish skin or fabric, cloth leggings and armlets, women wore bibs: Tungus type - long (sometimes to the knees), richly decorated (with beads, shells, metal pendants, bells) and Amur type - short, five- or hexagonal, modestly ornamented (in the past men also wore them). For fishing, men wore skirts and aprons made of fish skin, rovduga, and seal skins over robes. Skirts and aprons are also known as the ritual clothing of shamans. In the summer, cone-shaped birch bark hats, ornamented with embossed and painted ornaments, served as headdresses; in winter - fur hoods, for men - headphones, small ornamented hats with a fur sultan, under which they put on fabric capes covering their shoulders (Nanai, Udege). Shoes of two types: Amur type - made of fish, seal, sea lion skin with a triangular insert at the instep, women's - with a fabric top; Tunguska type - shoe-shaped, with a sewn-on sole made of deer, elk, sealskin.
Traditional art was divided into male and female genres. The men's
art included wood and bone carving, metalworking. A cult sculpture was
carved from wood (figurines of animals, house spirits). Relief and
slotted carvings covered ritual utensils, bearing pillars of the house,
boards above the pediment, prichelins (Nanais, Ulchi, Nivkhs). Details
of the boats were decorated with painted ornaments. Bone was used to
make snuffboxes, knife handles, archery rings, needle cases, etc. nose
earrings - Nanai, Udege, Orochi), amulets. Women's art - applique, fur
and fabric mosaic, embroidery, embossing and coloring on birch bark,
weaving of mats, baskets, plates. Now an artist. men are also involved
in the processing of birch bark. Curvilinear ornamentation (the
so-called Amur-Sakhalin type) is characteristic of all genres of art of
the peoples of the Far East: spirals, meanders, stylized plant and
zoomorphic motifs; each nation had differences in the composition and
color scheme of the ornament.
Traditional religious beliefs were
based on belief in spirits: spirits-masters of the area, houses,
animals, etc. Shamanism played an important role in traditional religion
(Nanai shamans were considered the strongest), fishing cults, bear
holidays (especially bright among the Nivkhs, Ulchis, Orochs) , cult of
fire, twins.
Oral creativity. Among the folklore genres, it is
conditionally possible to distinguish myths, were, historical legends,
teachings, riddles, tongue twisters, fairy tales (everyday, hunting,
magical, about animals, heroic, with a borrowed plot), songs (mainly
improvisational - lullabies, travel, guest songs -greetings, lyrical,
shamanic, etc.), incantations (including appeals to the "owners" of the
river, sea, lake, taiga, sky, mountains) and laments: among the Ulchi -
songou (for a drowned man); among the Nivkhs - cheriond (before the
burning of the deceased); among the Nanais - buikinive songori (for the
deceased), kamichami songori (prayers for reconciliation of childbirth
with each other), gudiesimi songori (cry of compassion), maktami songori
(praiseful lament performed at the wedding by the mother of the bride).
The hunt was preceded by vocal and instrumental imitations of the voices
of birds, the cries of forest and sea animals. Men were considered the
best storytellers; skillful storytellers used song inserts and
onomatopoeic narrative techniques, as well as parallel storylines with
multiple characters. Tales were often told in the fishery as
thanksgiving for the booty. Recitations, songs and instrumental tunes
accompanied various labor processes.
The most archaic layers of
folklore accompany the Nivkh bear festival: sacred encrypted texts,
theatrical performances with songs about the life of a bear, dances,
pantomime, instrumental music; in singing, the timbre is of paramount
importance, hiding the true human voice due to gliding, enhanced
vibration. Special songs, accompanied by a ritual percussion instrument
- a log (tatyad ch'khar) - were performed by elderly women.
Shaman rituals were accompanied by playing the tambourine [untukhu among
the Ulchi; unchukhun, untsuhu(n) among the Nanais; untu, unechukha among
the Udege; ungtiwun among the Evenks; untu at the Orcs; kas, k'khas,
kyatso among the Nivkhs]. Genres dedicated to various moments of the
ritual are distinguished. The beats of the tambourine with gradual
dynamic intensification and acceleration of the tempo were accompanied
by the calls of helper spirits. The climax of the ritual, associated
with the expulsion of an evil spirit, is distinguished by pitch
uncertainty and a specific manner of intonation: guttural sounds,
tremolo, aspirations, vibration, roar (Nivkh shamans turned to the
“ancestor” for help, hence the imitation of the roar of a bear).
Untimed genres include songs that sound in theatrical fairy tales,
legends and myths; accompanying the dance; dedication songs (to
craftsmen - wood and bone carvers, embroiderers, singers, etc.); love
songs (sometimes overtly erotic); songs-complaints (about loneliness;
complaints of the younger wife, who had the hardest job); improvisations
about the native land; female satirical songs (ridiculing objectionable
admirers), as well as tunes on the harp (muene among the Nanai, mukhele
among the Ulchi, kanga among the Nivkhs, kumkai among the Udege) and
bowed monochords (duuchek among the Nanai, tengkere among the Ulchi,
tyngryn among the Nivkhs, zulanku among the Udege ) associated with
funeral rites. Traditional songs in the south of the region differ in
the type of tunes (recitation, recitation-song).
Religion and
writing. The peoples of the Amur region, Primorye and Sakhalin were
influenced by Orthodoxy. In 1865, the Amur mission was opened with a
center in the village. Malmyzh, in the 1880s. mission schools open.
Writing for the Nivkhs and Nanais was created in 1931-32 on a Latin
graphic basis, in the 1950s-60s. translated into Russian graphics. In
con. 20th century writing was created for other peoples of Primorye and
the Amur region.
The indigenous peoples of the extreme North-East of Russia speak the
languages of the Chukchi-Kamchatka (Chukchi, Koryaks, Kereks, Itelmens,
Kamchadals) and Eskimo-Aleut (Eskimos, Aleuts) families; Yukaghirs speak
an isolated language, Chuvans and Kamchadals - now in Russian. All these
peoples are the descendants of the most ancient population of the
Northeast. In addition to them, the Evens (Tungus-Manchurian group) live
here.
Among the peoples of the Northeast, the Arctic race
predominates (in its purest form - among the Eskimos), bringing them
closer to representatives of the Americanoid and Far Eastern races. This
anthropological appearance reflects the migration flows that went in the
Paleolithic through Northeast Asia from the south (the Pacific coast of
East Asia) and from the continental depths of Siberia to America.
The ethnogenesis of the Itelmens is associated with the Tarya
archaeological culture of Central and Southern Kamchatka (5th millennium
BC - mid-17th century AD). The ancient Bering Sea (1st millennium AD)
and Punuk (2nd millennium) archaeological cultures are associated with
the Eskimos. The ancestors of the Chukchi and Koryaks, according to
archeology, in the 4th millennium BC. e. inhabited the inner regions of
Chukotka. All R. 2nd millennium BC e. the ancestors of the Koryaks came
to the coast of Okhotsk. In the beginning. 1st millennium AD e. part of
the Chukchi moved into the area inhabited by the Eskimos, partially
assimilating them, partially assuming elements of their culture. The
Yukaghirs advanced from the west to the basin of the river. Anadyr in
the 13th–14th centuries
The material culture differs between the
tundra (nomadic) and coastal (sedentary) populations.
The basis
of the economy of the nomadic Chukchi, Koryaks, Chuvans was large-herd
(up to 2-3 thousand deer) reindeer husbandry (the so-called
Chukotka-Kamchatka type), which apparently developed shortly before the
arrival of the Russians. A characteristic feature of the
Chukotka-Kamchatka reindeer herding is the weak domestication of
reindeer, the absence of a shepherd dog. The deer provided meat and
skins, and was also used in a team (an arched-dust sled: among the
Chukchi and Eskimos - from 7–8, among the Itelmens and Koryaks - with 2
arcuate spears). The annual economic cycle of reindeer herders consisted
of four main migrations.
Kayak and kayak Boats typical for sea hunters of the North-East (seaside Chukchi, Koryaks, Eskimos). The basis of the structure is a frame covered with walrus skin.
The traditional economy of the coastal Chukchi and Koryaks, Itelmens
and Eskimos was based on sea hunting and fishing. These peoples led a
settled way of life. Sea animals (nerpa, seal; Chukchi and Eskimos -
also walrus and whale) were hunted in spring and autumn, Chukchi and
Eskimos - also in winter with the help of harpoons (a harpoon with a
socketed jumping tip has been known since the era of the ancient Bering
Sea culture), nets, beaters, from the 19th century . - guns. River and
coastal fisheries - in the main. seasonal salmon fishing during the rune
course - occupied a leading place among the Itelmens and coastal
Koryaks. Of great importance for the fishery were frame boats covered
with walrus skin: multi-seat kayaks and umiaks, single-seat kayaks and
kayaks. The peoples of the North-East are characterized by "racket"
skis, which are also known among the Indians of North America. They went
fishing on canoes and dog sleds. Main fish served as food for dogs in
winter, and in summer they obtained food themselves.
The
Yukaghirs, the settled Chuvans-Markovians, part of the Chukchis and
Koryaks were characterized by a type of economy, including fishing,
gathering, hunting for wild deer at the crossings (“pokolki”), waterfowl
during molting, breeding sled dogs. Characterized by the so-called. bird
bolas (stones tied with straps that entangled birds in flight).
The traditional dwelling of reindeer herders is a portable
cylindrical-conical tent-yaranga, covered with reindeer skins, among the
coastal peoples - a large frame semi-dugout. Among the coastal Chukchi
and Eskimos until the 19th century. the so-called. house from the jaws
of a whale (Chukot. Valkaran) - a dugout on a frame of large whale
bones. In the 17th-19th centuries. The yaranga, covered with walrus
skin, also became the winter dwelling of the coastal Chukchi and
Eskimos. The dwelling was lit and heated by a stone oil lamp burning on
seal fat.
The peoples of the North-East are characterized by
two-layer clothes of a deaf cut (kukhlyanka). Men's clothing - from two
whole skins without a hood (the so-called northeastern type), women's -
with figured cutting, often strongly flared, with a hood
(Chukotka-Kamchatka type). Ritual clothing with a ledge (“tail”) at the
back was known. Men also wore fur pants and stockings, women - overalls
(double-layered in winter) with sleeves (Chukot. and Koryak. Kerker).
Shoes - fur torbasas. The clothes of reindeer herders were sewn from
reindeer, the hunters - from seal fur, hunting clothes - from walrus
intestines; among the Eskimos until the 19th century. clothing made from
bird skins with feathers inside was known. Clothing was decorated with
the fur of a dog, wolf, otter, lynx, etc., fur mosaic, for women -
beaded pendants.
Dressing skins, sewing clothes, weaving was done by women. Ornament
in the main consists of the simplest geometric motifs (the so-called
North Siberian and North Asian types). Mosaic inserts and embroideries
sometimes looked like stylized animal figurines. Ornamented rugs were
made from dark and light fur. From willow roots, grass stalks, sinew and
purchased threads, baskets, bags, handbags, mats, and nets were made.
Weaving was especially common among the Itelmens and Koryaks. Men were
engaged in stone processing (stone axes, spearheads were used as early
as the beginning of the 20th century, and stone scrapers are still used
for dressing hides), wood carving and bone carving. The bone carving art
of the peoples of the Northeast goes back to the traditions of the
ancient Bering Sea culture. In the 18th and 19th centuries among the
Koryaks, Chukchi and Eskimos, sculpture from a walrus tusk and a deer
horn was developed: figures of people and animals, jewelry, snuff boxes,
smoking pipes, boat oarlocks with engraved ornaments. In the beginning.
20th century the Chukchi and Eskimos developed plot engraving on bone
and walrus tusk (scenes of hunting, life, folklore plots). The center of
bone-carving art was a workshop in the village. Uelen, created in the
beginning. 1930s
The Koryaks knew metalworking even before
contacts with the Russians. At 19 - beg. 20th century its centers (hot
forging of iron, cold forging of copper and brass) were the villages of
Paren and Kuel. Boys' knives were especially famous.
Тraditional
cults. The peoples of the Northeast animate mountains, stones, plants,
the sea, celestial bodies, etc. The universe was presented in the form
of several worlds. The upper world is the abode of the Supreme Deity.
There was professional and family shamanism. Each family had a set of
sacred objects: a bunch of amulets symbolizing totemic ancestors, a
tambourine, among the Koryaks and Chukchi - a device for making fire in
the form of an anthropomorphic board with recesses for a drill (fire
obtained in this way was considered sacred, could only be transmitted
among relatives along male line), among the Koryaks - fortune-telling
stones (anyapels); cult objects still exist, dog and deer sacrifices are
practiced. Main annual holidays have a commercial character: the holiday
of Horns (Kilvey) among reindeer breeders - Koryak and Chukchi, the
spring holiday of Baydara (the day of launching boats) among the
Primorye Chukchi and Koryaks, autumn holidays (the end of the sea
hunting season) Seals among the Koryaks, Heads among the Chukchi (
Grulmyn), Kita among the Eskimos (P'ol'a). Special ceremonies were
arranged on the occasion of the hunting of a bear, a ram, etc. In honor
of the birth of twins, who were considered relatives of the wolf, the
Koryaks had a Wolf Festival. The holidays were accompanied by
competitions, ritual dances imitating the movements of animals.
Oral creativity of the peoples of the Northeast includes cosmogonic
myths, historical legends, stories about spirits, animals, shamans, etc.
The myths of the Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens, Eskimos have a number of
common plots. The main mythological hero of the Koryaks, Itelmens, part
of the Chuvans - Kutkh (Kutkhinyaku) - the progenitor and powerful
shaman who endowed people with all the benefits. He appears in the form
of a man or a Raven. The mythological cycle about the Crow - the
trickster and the demiurge - is also common among the Chukchi, as well
as among the North American Indians. The Yukaghirs and Chukchis had a
pictographic letter on birch bark (Yukagir. Tosy), describing hunting
events (for men) or conveying love messages (for girls).
The
musical culture of the peoples of the North-East is basically monodic.
Song folklore includes everyday songs, ritual songs (performed during
shamanic rites, on holidays, on the occasion of a successful hunt,
songs-spells, songs-amulets, etc.), labor, lyrical, playful, comic (for
example, dargan ike among the Evens, teasing songs among the Eskimos),
dance songs (agulasik, atun, syayun), greeting songs, lamentation songs.
Eskimos, Itelmens, and others organized song and dance competitions. The
tradition of personal songs (Chukot. chinitkin grep) has been preserved,
as well as the custom of “giving a song”, for example. lullaby to your
child. On the basis of onomatopoeia to the voices of animals and birds,
a special type of singing arose - the so-called. sore throat (Koryak.
k'arig'ain'etyk, Chukot. pilg'ein'en, Yukagir. tunmun hontol); usually
performed by women, it often accompanies dances.
Of the musical
instruments, a tambourine is ubiquitous (Koryak. Yay, Chukot. Yarar,
Eskimo. Sayak, syaguyak - in the past it was in every family); Known as
a solo and accompanying instrument, it is used in everyday music-making,
during rituals, holidays, in magic and in folk ritual psychotherapy.
Chordophones are used less frequently: one-two-string bowed, plucked,
percussion (Chukot. ein'en'en); wooden or bone harp (Koryak.
Vanni-yayay), bells, bells; as well as buzzers, buzzers, rattles, decoy
whistles (the latter were used during hunting and on holidays).
The most gifted storytellers, singers, musicians, songwriters, and
dancers enjoyed special respect among the surrounding population (among
them were the Primorsky Chukchi Atyk and the Eskimo Nutetein, who lived
on the northeast coast of Chukotka).
The Christianization of the peoples of the Northeast begins with the
end. 17th century The Chuvans, Evens, Yukaghirs, Itelmens, and Coastal
Koryaks are most affected by Orthodoxy. Already in the 18th century.
among the local clergy were representatives of the indigenous
population. In the beginning. 19th century the settled Koryaks
(Karaginians, Palantsians, Alyutors) had churches and missionary
schools. In 1840, the newly created Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleutian
diocese was headed by the famous missionary Innokenty Veniaminov. In
1848–55, the Chukotka mission was active near Cape Baranov, headed by
Rev. Andrey Argentov. In 1879, a new Chukchi spiritual mission was
established, which operated mainly among the west. Chukchi. In 1883 in
with. Markovo, the first parochial school in Chukotka was opened. In
1903, a Koryak field mission was founded in Korfa Bay, the purpose of
which was to Christianize the Koryaks of the Penzhina Bay. In 1910, on
the initiative of Rev. Nestor Anisimov, the Kamchatka Orthodox
Brotherhood was established, which founded the Kamchatka Spiritual
Mission in 1912. In Kamchatka (in the village of Tilichiki), a boarding
school for Koryaks and Chukchi was opened, Itelmen teachers participated
in teaching.
The writing of the Chukchi, Koryaks, Eskimos, Evens
was approved from 1931-32 on the basis of Latin and from 1936-37 - on
the basis of Russian graphics. Among the Itelmens in 1932 a written
language based on the Latin was created, which was soon abolished;
Russian-based writing has been introduced since 1988. The Yukagirs
developed a written language in the 1970s. based on Russian graphics.
Most of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus speak the
languages \u200b\u200bof the North Caucasian family: Abkhaz-Adyghe
(Kabardians, Circassians, Adyghes, Shapsugs, Abaza, Abkhazians) and
Nakh-Dagestan peoples (Vainakhs: Chechens and Ingush; Avars and peoples
close to them: Andians, Botlikhs , Godoberins, Chamalals, Tindals,
Karatins, Akhvakhs, Bagulals, Gunzibs, Tsezs, or Didoys, Khvarshins,
Bezhtins, Ginukhs, united in the group of Ando-Tsez peoples, as well as
Archins; Laks, Dargins, as well as Kubachins who were previously
included in their number and Kaitag people; Lezgin peoples: Lezgins,
Tabasarans, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Aguls, Udins). The Indo-European family is
represented by the peoples of the Iranian group (Ossetians, Tats,
Mountain Jews, Talysh) and Roman Greeks; Altai - by the peoples of the
Turkic group (Kumyks, Nogais, Karachays, Balkars, Trukhmens).
Anthropologically, the peoples of the North Caucasus belong to the
south. Caucasoids: in the central mountainous part of the region, the
Caucasian version of the Balkan-Caucasian race prevails, to the west,
east and south of it - the Pontic (mainly among the Abkhaz-Adygs) and
the Caspian (among the peoples of Southern Dagestan) variants of the
Indo-Mediterranean race. In the northeast, among some groups of Nogais,
a weak Mongoloid admixture can be traced.
The economic and cultural type, the composition of which dates back
to the early Bronze Age, was a combination of arable farming with
distant pasture cattle breeding. Cattle breeding (mainly small cattle
breeding) is predominantly developed in mountainous regions. In the
mountainous part of the Caucasus, the barley was a cereal crop, in the
plains and foothill areas - wheat. In the Western Caucasus, the
traditional grain crop - millet - has been growing since the 18th
century. replaced by corn. Horticulture, vegetable growing, viticulture
and winemaking are developed; processing of wool, wood, stone, pottery
and leather production, bone and horn carving.
The mountainous
relief determines the vertical layout of the villages, which stretch in
ledges to the south. slopes, with narrow winding streets. Villages in
the foothill zone and on the plains are usually located along river
valleys and have quarterly planning.
On the plains, the main
building material was adobe, wattle covered with clay (turluk), in the
wooded mountains of the Western Caucasus - wood, in the highlands -
stone. The traditional dwelling united a barn, pantries, and other
utility rooms, ch. living quarters with a hearth, guest rooms
(kunatsky), rooms of married sons, etc. The center of the mountain
dwelling was a hearth with a cauldron suspended on a chain. The hearth
divided the house into two halves: the front, where they were engaged in
daily household chores, and the back - the front, honorary, where they
rested and where the head of the family usually stayed. There were
shelves and niches along the walls, low couches covered with carpets,
rugs, mats, and there were chests. Furniture (low benches, couches,
tables) was decorated with rich carvings.
Combat towers were a
characteristic feature of the mountainous Caucasian settlements.
Adjacent to residential premises, they were connected with them by a
network of passages and served as a refuge during military danger.
The traditional men's costume consisted of a shirt, straight
trousers tapering downwards, tucked into light leather (wealthy
highlanders - morocco) boots, an open, tight-fitting figure and a
tightly buttoned jacket with a standing collar (beshmet) and an upper
open fitting and flared clothing (Circassian ). Wealthy highlanders
girded themselves with a type-setting belt with silver plaques; a dagger
was worn on the belt, sometimes a saber and a pistol. A characteristic
outer garment was a felt cape (burka). Shoes could also be knitted
(jurabs) or pistons (chirki). Headwear - sheepskin hat of various shapes
and heights; hood - a large piece of matter, tied in a special way on
the head or over a hat (the art of tying a hood was highly valued by
men, especially young ones).
Ossetians in traditional clothes.
The basis of women's clothing was a long tunic-shaped shirt-dress and
pants. When leaving the house, they put on shirts of brighter colors. In
the Central Caucasus, a swing dress was usually worn over a shirt -
fitted with a large neckline, which was closed with special decorations,
with wide silver clasps, pendants, chains, coins; a silver belt tied
around the waist. The main headdress was a scarf with ends thrown over
or tied behind the back. In the Eastern Caucasus (Chechnya and
Dagestan), women put their hair in a special cap-bag (chuhta), the
bizarre forms of which differed from village to village. Women wore a
large number of silver jewelry - head (forehead, temporal, earrings),
neck, chest, belt, bracelets, rings.
From con. 19th century the
costume was completely Europeanized, retaining some traditionalism among
the older generation.
Traditional food - flour and cereal dishes
(unleavened and sour bread, cereals), meat, bean soups, pies. Caucasian
cuisine is characterized by the widespread use of fresh, dried, salted
herbs, garlic; in the 19th century vegetables and potatoes appeared. Of
great importance is sour milk (cow, sheep, buffalo), cream, butter,
cottage cheese, cheeses; milk serves as the basis for the preparation of
soups, cereals, gravies. Modern food in the main retains its tradition.
In the Caucasus, stone-cutting art (architectural decor, tombstones), wood carving, bronze casting, chasing on copper, jewelry, ceramics, the production of pile and lint-free carpets, patterned knitting, etc. have long been developed. The art of Western Asia had a strong influence. By the 16th–17th centuries. are formed. styles of floral and geometric ornamentation, sometimes with stylized images of animals and people, Arabic inscriptions. Artists arise. centers. In Dagestan, the production of jewelry, precious dishes and weapons with engraving, notch, niello, granulation and filigree, bone inserts, reached the highest level, from the 19th century. - enamels; Since the Middle Ages, Kubachi-made products have been famous. In the Avar Untsukul arose a center for woodcarving with inlay and silver notch, in the Lak village of Balkhar - the production of ceramic dishes, in the 20th century. - also toys decorated with white engobe. Lezgin and Tabasaran pile, Chechen, Ingush, Karachai and Balkar felt carpets are famous. The Circassians developed the weaving of marsh grass mats with geometric ornaments (Ardjens). In the Soviet period, on the basis of folk art, artists were created. artels and combines, the most famous are the production of silver jewelry and dishes at the Kubachi and Gotsatlinsk combines, the Derbent carpet factory, etc. After the crisis of the 1990s. professional arts and crafts among the peoples of the Caucasus began to revive.
According to the mythological ideas of the peoples of the Caucasus, the Universe consists of several worlds, united by a world tree, a pillar or a chain. Supreme gods stood out in the pre-monotheistic pantheons (Ossetian Uastirdzhi, Ingush Diela, etc.). An important place was occupied by agricultural deities and cults with which the main. ceremonies: the feast of the first furrow with ritual plowing with a plow, behind which stood a local leader (an elder, mullah, etc.), prayers for rain during a drought period, etc. Cattle breeding and hunting also had their patrons, on whose good fortune it depended luck of the hunters. Of the patrons of other occupations, the most revered were the gods of blacksmithing. Cleansing oaths were taken in the forges, and other rituals were performed. A special place was occupied by the veneration of the hearth - it was a place of sacrifice to the ancestors, it played an important role in wedding ceremonies, touching the chain on the hearth saved a person from blood feud, but insulting it with an action or word could, on the contrary, bring on blood vengeance. Of great importance is the cult of ancestors with a developed funeral and memorial rites.
In the folklore of the peoples of the North Caucasus, with the unity
of tradition as a whole, differences between ethnic and confessional
groups remain. The greatest differences can be traced between the
sowing. regions and Southern Dagestan (approaching the Azerbaijani
tradition). A common feature of the folklore of the peoples of the
Caucasus is the dominance of the male tradition - both in singing and in
playing the music. tools. The most common type of music-making is solo
singing to your own accompaniment on a stringed instrument. A
characteristic figure for the peoples of the Caucasus is a
singer-storyteller (Ossetian kadaganag, Adyghe dzheguako, Avar. shaer,
dargin. dalaila-usta, kumyk. yyrchi, nogai. yyrau, lezgin. ashug). The
role of single singing increases from the northwest to the southeast,
the role of choral singing decreases. A characteristic form of polyphony
is two-voice; there are archaic forms of rhythmic recitation (for
example, in the ritual of making rain among the Tabasarans), unison
singing, heterophony, bourdon and parallel two-voice, antiphonal
singing.
Of the epic cycles, the most famous is the Nart epic
among the Ossetians and the Abkhaz-Adyghe peoples, which is also common
in a somewhat reduced version among the Nakh-Dagestan and Turkic
peoples. It is performed in the form of an antiphon by a singer-narrator
and a choir, accompanied by a bowed instrument. There are heroic and
historical songs (about soldiers who died in battle, famous elders,
etc.), in Dagestan - legends about Sharvili among the Lezgins, Partu
Patimat among the Laks, etc. Folklore also includes legends, fairy
tales, proverbs, sayings, riddles.
The system of song genres is
distinguished by the diversity and differentiation of labor and ritual
songs. Genre varieties specific to local styles: Adyghe and Ossetian
songs of plowmen, ox-drivers when threshing, mowers, beekeepers, songs
when combing wool, making a cloak, weeding corn; Balkar and Karachai
songs during threshing grain and churning butter; songs of the Mountain
Jews accompanying the ritual of painting the bride's nails before the
wedding (benigoru); Chechen and Ingush drinking songs (dotta-galliin
yish), etc. Until recently, hunting songs-hymns were preserved with an
appeal to the lord of the forest (among Ossetians, Adyghes, Karachais,
Balkars), causing rain (Adyghe rite of khantseguashu).
Characteristic music. instruments: archaic harps (Ossetian
duadastanon-fandyr, Kabardian pshina dekuakua), bowed harps (Adyghe
Shichepshin, Balk. kyl-kobuz, Ossetian kissyn-fandyr, Dag. Chagana,
kemancha, Chech. and Ingush. atukh-pondur) , plucked lute types (Adyg.
Apepshin, Osset. Dala-fandyr, Dag. Agach-Kumuz, Chech. and Ingush.
Dechig-pondur), shepherd longitudinal flutes (Adyg. Bzhami and Kamyl,
Karachay. Sybyzga, Osset. Uandyz, Dag . kshul), rattles (Adyg.
pkhachich, Osset. kartsganag); some of them are used in the rituals of
healing, searching for a drowned person (Kabard. psychaga - “crying on
the water”), who died under an avalanche, etc. The Chechens and Ingush
are characterized by a wind reed instrument zurna and percussion -
varieties of tambourines, drums, timpani. Traditional stringed
instruments are being replaced by the harmonica (from the middle of the
19th century) and the balalaika (from the end of the 19th century)
borrowed from the Russians. Among the Chechens, instrumental tunes of
program content on the harmonica or dechig-pondur (laduga yish) are
common.
Dances are usually accompanied by an ensemble of three
instruments with a percussion or rattle. Round dance and solo dances are
characteristic; ubiquitous in many local varieties is a pair dance,
outside the region called lezginka. Men's dances are distinguished by a
unique finger technique.
Christianity began to penetrate into the Caucasus from Byzantium in the 1st millennium. Now Christianity is widespread among the Ossetians, Greeks, Armenians, Georgians. In the south regions of Dagestan from the 7th century. Islam began to spread along with the Arab conquests. Islamization of Dagestan was completed by the 15th century, Chechnya and Ingushetia - by an even later time (c. 17th century). Initially, Islam came to the Caucasus in the form of the Shafi'i madhhab, to which the majority of Muslims currently belong. A characteristic feature of folk Islam in the Caucasus is the veneration of places of worship - the tombs of the holy sheikhs (ziyarats, feasts) and holy places (mountains, stones, water sources, groves, trees), to which pilgrimages are made. Representatives of Judaism (Tats and Mountain Jews) also live in the Caucasus.
Most of the peoples of the Caucasus had an Arabic script, reformed after Oct. revolution of 1917. Russian writing in the Ossetian language was created in 1844 by A. M. Sjogren, in Abkhazian and Avar - in the 1860s. P. K. Uslar. In the 1920s - early. 30s for Ossetians, Kabardians and Circassians, Adyghes, Abazins, Chechens, Ingush, Avars, Laks, Dargins, Tabasarans, Lezgins, Tats, Karachays and Balkars, Kumyks and Nogais, a Latin script was created, which was translated into Russian graphics in 1938. Writing for Aguls, Rutuls, Tsakhurs was developed in the 1990s.