The Impact of the Production Niche on Ethnicity Change in Present-day Kalmykia

Abstract

Interdisciplinary analysis of the economic factor as one of the main markers of ethnicity is relevant and in demand. Considering ethnicity Kalmyk social scientists mainly analyze linguistic, religious and historical characteristics of ethnic groups. This article discusses an economic factor as a basis for social manifestations of ethnicity of Kalmyks. The author uses the definition according to which the concepts of an economic-cultural factor of ethnicity and a production niche of ethnos are equivalent. Consideration of a wide range of statistical and empirical data allow to make a conclusion that the changes in the production niche of ethnic groups lead to the transformation of ethnicity. Being nomadic people, since the end of the 19th century the Kalmyks have gradually turned to a settled way of life, moreover, have assimilated the experience of the new types of labour (crop growing, fodder production, agricultural machinery). As a result, many aspects of the ethnicity of this ethnos have undergone great changes. The modern culture is characterized by blurring of specific ethnic characteristics (housing, clothing, food). The analysis of the results of the last 2010 Census shows that the Kalmyks, being the largest ethnos of the Republic, own and are engaged in subsistence agriculture to a much lesser extent than other numerous ethnic groups residing in Kalmykia, for example groups representing the Republic of Dagestan (Darghins, Avars). The author believes that it is necessary to continue the study of the influence of socioeconomic factors on the ethnic identity and the processes of changing ethnicity.