Ergindi: Tuvan Tradition of Sharing Children’s Clothing and Things Reviewed

Introduction. The article discusses an essential upcycling practice to have existed in various local cultures of the past — and still observable in different forms. Goals. The study aims at describing and analyzing a contemporary form of the children’s clothing sharing tradition of Tuvans, indigenous population of the Tyva Republic. The former is viewed as a local traditional variant of upcycling. The tradition proper has no special name in Tuvan culture but there are several Tuvan terms to denote old things. The most common one is ergindi — ‘old stuff’. The paper draws examples to introduce present-day patterns of the tradition and outlines it, since the latter has been totally uninvestigated. Materials and methods. The study comprises autoethnographic observations, employs anthropological methods and data from related academic disciplines, including philology, linguoculturology, and history. Results and conclusions. Tuvan folklore and ethnic literary narratives, 19th and 20th century ethnographic publications do mention the practice, the latter to be confirmed by stories of Tuvan elders about their childhood, family customs. The tradition was not only to save money or instruct people to handle things carefully but also illustrated special attitudes of Tuvans towards children, and furthermore acted as a kinship maintenance mechanism. Similar characteristics are inherent to contemporary patterns. Nevertheless, the paper also lists some innovations, e.g., expanded categories of things involved (children’s clothes proper be added to with clothes for pregnant women, children’s implements, toys, books), sharing not only with relatives, use of national costumes once owned by relatives, etc.

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