Folklore Jewels of Siberia and Russia’s Far East: Interdisciplinarity in Editorial Practices of One Publication Series

Goals. The article examines some challenges and outcomes of integrating comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches during the preparation and publication of collections representing over thirty ethnic folklore traditions of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Methods. The paper addresses participant observation tools to trace the progress and effects of this integration. A substantial body of folklore patterns accumulated through the efforts of generations of scholars and collectors have shaped the monumental humanitarian project — Folklore Jewels of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Results. The sixty-volume work provides a complete representation of major genres, such as epic poetry, fairy tales, myths, legends, lore, ritual poetry, and folk songs. The project team of humanitarians has included folklorists, linguists, ethnomusicologists, and ethnographers. So far, a total of thirty four volumes have been published, with two more on the way. Artistic merits of the volumes are exceptional, since the latter vividly represent the Altaian, Belarusian, Buryat, Dolgan, Mansi, Nanai, Nenets, Russian, Tuvan, Udege, Khakass, Shor, Evenk, and Yakut folklore traditions. Published in accordance with universal scholarly guidelines, the editions encompass quite a diversity of genres and languages. Original-language texts are paralleled by folklore translations that preserve the former’s figurative language. The text corpus is accompanied by comments elucidating phraseological expressions, ethnographic and historical contexts, and mythological or worldview elements that might be unclear (‘opaque’) to non-native speakers. Textual processing of the published samples primarily involves punctuation correction, with dialectal, archaic, performance-related, and orthographic features left unaltered. Linguists are thus granted opportunities to analyze linguistic processes diachronically. The series successfully integrates contributions of both folklorists and ethnomusicologists. Ethnomusicologists have provided the first complete musical notation of heroic tales in Volumes 17 and 29. The evolution of music applications has mirrored technological progress, a transition encompassing — gramophone records, compact discs (CDs), and USB flash drives (SDs). The book design also bears certain semantic essentials. The volumes are uniformly bound in blue, a color symbolizing the sacred sky in Siberian traditions, and each protective packaging features a unique, unrepeated ornament to exemplify most sophisticated ornamental traditions of Siberian cultures. It should be noted that the series includes contemporary field notes alongside archival materials. Insights into various texts illuminate the lifespan of folklore — from its peak to the contemporary period. The paper asserts the efficiency of integrated interdisciplinary methodologies in the study and publication of folklore.

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