LINGUISTICS / LITERATURE STUDIES
The paper analyzes number forms of nouns in the Avar language. It specifies that number is one of the basic grammatical categories to express quantity. Language units have the opposition of singular and plural forms that serves the purpose. The ways of expression of the quantitative relations are not limited to such an invariant. Its variation is expressed in diverse ways and means, such as morphological, lexical and syntactic ones.
In linguistics, the issues of the grammatical, lexical nature of the number category are still debated. Its inflectional and derivational status is being discussed. There are also discussions on the content of the category of number in language and in epistemology.
The analysis of number forms of nouns in Avar allows for a deeper insight into the specificity of the functioning of the language, and contributes to a more complete revelation of the potential of this grammatical category.
Somatic idioms constitute one of the oldest and most productive layers in Avar phraseology. The frequency of a certain somatic unit as a core component of idioms depends on the number of both extra-linguistic and linguistic factors (etymological, semantic ones). The article presents the structural and semantic characteristics of corresponding Avar phraseological units. The relevance of the article is determined by the need for further detailed studies of the somatic phraseology of the Avar language. The study was implemented on the basis of the cognitive models that contribute to revealing the semantics of somatic idioms under consideration.
To determine the phraseological variance it is necessary to emphasize the unity of the internal form and the mode of bonding the grammatical structure and composition of phraseological components. Another condition is relative identity of the syntactic structure within which the lexical substitution takes place.
In the Avar language, the enhanced structural and semantic equivalence is characteristic of those somatic units that form the greatest number of idioms. The somatic units are as follows: ‘heart’, ‘head’, ‘hand’, ‘eye’ and ‘mouth’.
The article aims to discover suitable parameters for differentiation of polypredicative sentences of the general following in the Buryat language. This aspect is expressed by four variable postpositive participle constructions to be differentiated. The most difficult point was to find semantic and other parameters that would allow to reveal system relations within a group of meaningfully close constructions (according to traditional descriptions those are full synonyms). The author applies parameters of variation linguistics and diverse semantic parameters to differ between the constructions. Oppositions of variation linguistics are formed on the basis of certain styles and dialects, as well as temporary and social frameworks of use. Semantic oppositions include assessment, norm/aberration, discrepancy of expectations, lexical and grammatical restrictions, reference characteristics (same-subject constructions / different-subject constructions). The search of suitable parameters was carried out primarily within the Buryat language by means of analysis of elements of constructions and contexts of their use. Parameters resulting from analysis of other languages, first of all Russian, as well as data from typological works were checked. The research revealed and identified stylistic, functional and semantic preferences in the use of separate constructions. Firstly, this facilitates learning the language, secondly, drafts a way of development of each construction within this semantic group. A bookish variant of constructions of the general following is the construction with the postposition udaa. A semantic opposition as per time of the two events was revealed between the central constructions with the postpositions γüülde and γüüleer (in case of a postposition in the instrumental case the time interval gets extended). Another construction of the type with the postposition γoyno used to express a measure of time in a dependent part (other constructions are impossible) nowadays also successfully competes with the postposition γüülde but differs from the latter by its predominantly different-subject implementation.
The article examines the grammatical category of number (forms of the plural) in Old Written Kalmyk. In Old Written Kalmyk the category was represented by two grammatical meanings: 1) the singular and 2) the plural. Nouns in the singular have a zero ending while in the plural there are a number of grammatical forms constituted by means of special formants. Nouns of Old Written Kalmyk have the categories of case, number and may also contain indicators of the possessive. Indicators of the categories get joined to the noun stem in strict order: an indicator of the plural comes first and is followed by a case suffix which, in turn, is followed by a possessive suffix that sometimes makes an integral unit with the case suffix.
Ever since the emergence of Mongol studies, the category of number has been dealt with according to the ‘the singular — the plural’ scheme inherent to the Indo-European languages. In Old Mongolian, the category of number (the plural) was widely developed and, thus, was regular enough. The ‘contingent of nouns’ that could take plural forms was far larger than in present-day languages. G. Sanzheev noted that ‘in Mongolian languages those were special suffixes determined by corresponding ending phonemes of singular noun stems that served to express the category of the plural’. In Old Written Kalmyk, the indicators of the plural are as follows: -d, -s, -muud / -müüd / -muus, -noγoud / -nögüüd, -nar / -ner, -oud / -uud / -üüd, -coud / -coud / -cuud / -cüüd / -čiud, -tan / -ten. In most cases noun stems coincide with singular nominative forms, except for nouns with the ending ‘unstable –n’ in the singular. The latter form the plural by means of the suffix –d and –n disappears. Thus, the choice of an indicator of the plural in Old Written Kalmyk largely depends upon the stem ending and the semantics of the noun. E. g., plural forms of nouns ending in vowels develop by means of the suffix –s. The semantic factor proves crucial for application of the suffix –nar / -ner since it can join only stems of nouns denoting people and professions.
In Old Written Kalmyk, there was a trend of adding explicit indicators of the plural which signifies quite a low level of grammatization for the category of number. Weakening of the meaning of the plural resulted in the emergence of compound plural formants –doud (-d and –oud put together) or -s and –noγoud.
The paper provides a phytonymic portrait of Centaurea (cornflower) in the Finno-Permic languages that form a branch of the Finno-Ugric language family, the other being that of the Ugric languages. These languages contain over one hundred and fifty names for cornflowers, i.e. the latter are present in all the Finno-Ugric languages and are diverse enough.
The vast majority of names of cornflowers are compound and usually consist of two components. The second component usually acts as a determinant of the plant’s denomination class object. There are almost no Centaurea’s names derived by means of affixes in the languages under consideration.
The paper also studies origins of plant names, special attention is paid to denomination based on properties. Most commonly names of cornflowers are based on their color, place of growth and medicinal qualities. The main species widespread enough in the geographical range of the Finno-Ugric languages is blue-flowered Centaurea Cyanus. It often grows in rye and wheat fields. So, the two main properties that determine its names are the color and place of growth, and the names as such are ‘blue flower’ and ‘rye flower’ respectively. Names of Centaurea Cyanus are far more frequent than names of other Centaurea species in Finno-Permic languages.
Lots of compound names of cornflowers comprise names of different animals, such as bear, wolf, raven and crane. In most cases, the linguistic phenomena are not that easy to explain, and sometimes result from transfer of another plant’s name or alliteration. Finno-Permic languages contain few borrowed words to denote cornflowers, and most of them stem from Russian.
Comparative studies of plant names from related languages (including Finno-Permic ones) are rare, thus, the author finds it necessary to depict phytonymic portraits of plants names which are numerous and diverse enough to be compared. And, undoubtedly, this is the case of cornflowers.
This article attempts to describe how the authors of Turkish tezkires of the 16th–19th centuries interpreted the term ‘qita’ and to trace changes of the term during the mentioned period. The Arabic for ‘qita’ is both ‘fragment’ and a ‘special kind of poems’. The lack of Turkish poetical treatises was the main reason to focus on the materials of the tezkires that, like the medieval treatises, are nothing but literary introspection. Furthermore, materials of tezkires help estimate the popularity and fruitfulness of the qita form. The survey is based on the materials of more than ten tezkhires written by Sehi (?–1548), Latifi (?–1582), Ahdi (?–1593), Beyani (?– 1597), Riza (?–1671), Gufti (?–1677), Belig (?–1729), Salim Efendi (?–1743), Esrar Dede (?–1797), Shefkat Bagdadli (?–1826) Esad Efendi (?–1848) and Fatin (?–1866). The paper focuses on the poetical fragments which were named ‘qita’ and analyses the rhyme system and length of these fragments, since these characteristics had been mentioned in Persian treatises and are believed to be the most significant features of various poetical forms. Moreover, using the method of contextual analysis the article surveys the context that surrounded the term ‘qita’. During the 16th–17th centuries, the term ‘qita’ was applied to both fragments of poems written in the qita-form and fragments of other poetical forms. Beginning with the 18th century, the term ‘qita’ was used only to indicate fragments of poems written in the qita-form. Therefore, ever since the term lost its meaning of ‘fragment’ and started denoting only the form of qita. The rhyme system of the qita-form used in everyday practice differed from the rules which were written down in the treatises on poetics. Though according to Persian treatises the first two lines of qitas should stay unrhymed, Turkish poets often rhymed them and authors of tezkires recorded many examples of such rhymed versions of qitas. The length of qitas put down in the tezkires varies from 2 to 11 beyts, the length of the most widespread qitas is 2 beyts. In spite of the fact that authors of tezkires often recorded only fragments of poems, the results of analysis of tezkire materials correspond to the results of the survey based on the materials of divans of Turkish poets created in the same period.
The article deals with the process of transforming the handwritten text of Kalmyk literature “The History of Uneker Torliktu khan” into an oral form. It is noted that the free coexistence of the work in oral and written form was promoted by a combination of instructiveness with fascinating content and features of the book tradition of the Kalmyks.
The story of Uneker Torliktu khan” refers to the genre of the transformed avadana, whose fabulous content praises the value of Buddhist teaching. The text consists of a traditional introductory and fi nal frame for such works and a main part comprising four chapters. During the transformation of the written text into an oral form, the introductory and fi nal framing was lost. Only the main part was directly preserved.
The starting point of the process of transition of a literary work into an oral form was the internal gravitation of the written text to its original oral form. The fabulous plot of the main part of the work, artifi cially created on the basis of the “evil stepmother”, written in the form of folklore motif, continued to preserve all the functions of the fairy tale.
It is known that the written texts in the book culture of the Mongolian peoples mostly were not read, but obeyed. Fans of the book literature of the past when reading the written text to listeners accompanied it with oral comments that were fi xed in the minds of listeners and contributed to the loss of elements of the text literacy. Nevertheless, the oral text continued to retain in its content some
elements of written form that give it some distinctive features distinguishing it from folklore texts of similar content.
Thus, the “History of Uneker Torliktu khan” on the one hand is a literary work, on the other hand it is a sample of oral folk art, and fi nally it represents a certain form of religious preaching in its internal content.
The article considers the ‘Kalmyk tale’ in terms of the genre theory and by means of a special analysis of the genre of parable. The allegorical meaning of Pugachev’s ‘tale’ emerges out of the context of Pushkin’s prose, especially The Journey to Erzurum... and The Captain’s Daughter. The intertextual relations of symbolic and allegorical characters (‘a raven and a dove’, ‘the Eagle and the Raven’), in turn, are determined by the specificity of the biblical texts, primarily those of the Old Testament. Allusions, reminiscences, and replicas of biblical precepts, teachings and parables define the genre originality of Pugachev’s ‘Kalmyk tale’ as a philosophical parable. And it is in this form that the Parable about the Eagle and the Raven gets included in Pushkin’s 1830s philosophy of history.
Yusup Gereev is one of the prominent representatives of Kumyk and all-Dagestan prose of the 1920–1930s. During his life and in the subsequent Soviet period, his work was mainly described as an example of literature with anti-clerical content. But now it is obvious that his legacy is much wider than mere narrow social judgments.
Yu. Gereev was a writer of distinctive talent, a master of comic and ironic reflection of reality. This fact is confirmed by his books of short stories as follows: ‘Saparyoldash’ of Molla Nasraddin (Molla Nasrutdinne ‘Saparyoldashy’, Makhachkala, 1928), ‘Saparyoldash’ and ‘Duamajmua’ of Molla Nasraddin (Molla Nasrutdinne ‘Saparyoldashy’ va ‘Duamajmuasi’, Makhachkala, 1929), in which the narrator used the image of the comic character of Molla Nasraddin.
In this regard, we can note the writer’s masterful use of comic elements as related to the events and individuals, including the excellent stylization of folk speech of the character. The characteristic features of his poetics manifest themselves in the substitution of the essence of the phenomena by their external signs, the mixing of fiction and reality, a play on words, hyperbole, grotesque, etc. Largely a humorous tinge, a comic tone arise from the inclusion colloquial words and expressions, as well as obsolete forms and other such expressions which is explained by the very image of the narrator – a representative of folk culture.
The objects of derision are ordinary rural inhabitants and commoners. In Molla Nasraddin’s eyes, those are naive and simple-minded; trusting the advices and recommendations of popular books they try to solve their everyday problems but actually and always are left with nothing, fail.
Thus, the characteristic feature of Yusup Gereev’s poetics is a comic depiction of reality which ranges from caustic sarcasm to an easy, good-natured smile.
The article examines the conditions of mutual influence of a fixed text and a folklore field, i. e. secondary factors which are significant during the recording of a text and its ‘return’ to the informant in the form of media and printed materials. The methods applied are as follows: audio and video recordings and journaling; comparative-typological, structural-functional, and statistical analyses.
The Circassian diaspora of Anatolia is a unique folklore field. So far the researchers of the traditional culture of the Circassian diaspora have paid no attention to the factors of the ‘reverse’ influence of the scientific discourse and the fixed text which, thus, happened to be in the field of the tradition.
The article aims to identify the factors of such mutual influence of texts of a separate cultural enclave and its informants in conditions of a gradual development of the Cyrillic alphabet and the appearance of publications of oral texts in the form of printed and media products. Observations outlined in the article are based on the author’s collecting and editional experiences accumulated during the in-depth study of Uzun-Yaila (Kayseri Vilayet, Turkey) folklore field during the 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015 expeditions and the preparation of field records of local folklore for subsequent publications.
The paper reveals the principles of working on a text important for the diaspora field. In particular, taking into account the ‘horizontal’ communication intensity in the field under study, it is necessary to pay attention to the questions formulating strategy, including those set by folklorists in the media space (social networks), when composing the conceptual and terminological apparatus of the editions of local traditions — to give priority to popular definitions, to adhere to graphic symbols and principles which make the written text as close as possible to the local dialect without complicating the interpretation (i. e. to reserve more accurate transcriptions for special language editions). In general, the interaction of a folklore publishing scientist and representatives of the tradition under study should consciously adhere to the principle of the minimal ‘invasion’ into the vernacular practices.
FOLKLORE STUDIES
The article deals with introductory parts of olonkhos in the northern regional tradition of the Yakuts. The authors of the article divide the introduction into two segments as follows: a narrative part comes first and is followed by a descriptive one. Narrative parts of olonkhos within this tradition are classified into three groups. Compositions of the first group describe single heroes who have neither father, nor mother, nor sister, nor brother. The second group comprises plots according to which the main character has sisters and brothers but they live all alone without parents. And the third group consists of plots that begin with fairy-tale motifs. The most common plot of introductory parts of olonkhos within the northern regional tradition presented in seven texts describes the main character as a full orphan. The hero is reported never to have seen his revered parents and, thus, lives in the Middle World alone, unaware of his origin: he wonders whether he fell from the sky or appeared from under the ground. Still, in some olonkho texts of the tradition the main character has brothers and sisters. The distinct feature of northern olonkhos is that their introductory parts contain fairytale motifs. Such olonkho texts begin with descriptions of the lives of an old man and an old woman, or an old man with three sons. The descriptive part is divided in two, and it is the house of heroes that is described first: there are detailed descriptions of the building, its interior decoration, household utensils and facilities. The second section describes the Middle World with its mountains, ponds and rivers, plants, trees and grass. The final episode of the narrative includes a description of the Sacred Tree the main character runs across on his way of adventures. And there are different names used to denote the Sacred Tree. The paper concludes that introductory parts of olonkhos of this tradition differ from those of the central and Vilyuisky epic traditions. Narrative parts of olonkhos within the studied tradition are usually incomplete due to the lack of descriptions of the universe.
The article describes the set of plots of Kalmyk fairy tales recorded by the Finnish scholar G. J. Ramstedt in the early 20th century. The phonetically transcribed and published by G. J. Ramstedt, Kalmyk fairy tales reflect the oral tradition of the Kalmyks. The 22 recorded fairy tales are as follows: one is about animals, 12 magic fairy tales, 3 heroic tales and 6 household ones. The comparative study of fairy-tale plots as recorded by G. J. Ramstedt made it possible to identify plots that have both international and local existence. Magic fairy tales with international plots have their own peculiarities in the Kalmyk fairy-tale tradition. So, some fairy tales with the same plot type develop along two different directions. Only one fairy tale about animals published by G. J. Ramstedt has local existence — there is no corresponding position on the Comparative Directory of Plots.
Some fairy tales of local existence date back to the handwritten texts of Kalmyk literature. In the oral tradition of the Kalmyks, separate fairy tales are based on plots from the literary monument of Sidditukur (‘The Magic Corpse’), e. g., The Pig-Headed Medicine-Man. The fairy tale with the plot from the above mentioned collection was published by G. J. Ramstedt. It is noteworthy that the narrator gave a traditional description — in terms of Kalmyk folklore — of Shulma (‘witch’) and Mangas (‘demonic creature’). The folklore plot about the pig-headed medicine-man as recorded by the scholar differs from all the other variants available in the fairytale tradition of the Kalmyks due to the episode of the old medicine-man’s participation in a war.
Another plot widely spread in the Kalmyk fairy-tale tradition and missing in the Comparative Directory of Plots — was also recorded by G. J. Ramstedt. This plot stems from the literary monument The History of Uneker Torliktu Khan, i. e. the genre of Buddhist avadanas. The book plots were perceived according to the aesthetics of folk tales: unclear motifs, images and realities were reinterpreted or replaced, stereotyped artistic structures — traditional formulas, common places, small genres of Kalmyk folklore — were included in the composition of the fairy tale.
The article aims to give an overview of research papers dealing with the Bayangol version of the Jangar epic, and offer basic insights into their contents. For that, the following tasks were tackled: 1) the issue of each certain jangarchi (Mong. ‘Jangar performer/singer’) and peculiarities of epic studies (methods) conducted, including those exploring materials recorded from Bayangol Mongols; 2) to clarify the research methods for the investigation of performance styles and skills typical for each certain jangarchi; 3) to compare viewpoints of scholars to have studied the epic tradition of Jangar. The comparative analysis of works by well-merited Jangar explorers to have dealt with the still living epic tradition of Xinjiang Mongols, who have been able to preserve it to the present days, makes it possible to judge about the current state of the Jangar performance tradition among the native inhabitants of Bayangol, and make conclusions how deeply the considered papers explore the issue. It is generally believed that the Jangar epic performance tradition exists – and is handed down from generation to generation – in Mongolic populations, but each region (Mong. nutag) has its distinctive features. So, in view of all this, exploration of the Jangar tradition inherent to Bayangol inhabitants of Xinjiang, the history of its studies in academic works proves an important trend in epic studies.
The Mangas (Mong. ‘demonic creature’) has unique characteristics and appearances, so its image has long attracted the attention of numerous scholars. As a result, the question of origins of the Mangas’s multiple heads has been a point of active disputes. So, the multiple heads make the one of the most important problems of Mongolian folklore that scholars are inclined to study. Scholars expolre the origins of the multiple heads by means of cultural anthropology and religious studies. However, the Mangas may have both one head and multiple ones. The image of the one-headed Mangas actually prevails in the Mongolian oral tradition. In most compositions of the Barag epic, the Mangas are one-headed. In the Jangar epic, the Mangas may have more than one head and often denote foreign emperors and rulers. In the Oyirad tradition of China, ‘Mangas’ stands for a man — strong, stout-herted, and courageous. More than anywhere else, the Oyirad people have largely maintained their traditional culture, including the Jangar epic. So, the image of Mangas can be compared to human images. And how does traditionally a Mangas look like? On the one hand, we can find the answer from historical literature, such as The Secret History of the Mongols. In it, the Mangas is discribed like a human being. On the other hand, the image of Mangas is very close to that of Cyclops widespread enough in Europe, Central and East Asia, Northeast Asia, e. g., in Turkic cultrue. Thus, the Mangas might be connected with Cyclops in terms of origins. In Mongolian oral literature, Mangas also have multiple heads, and this image can be compared to demonic beings from Indian and Tibetan folk literatures, with their negative role in the religious system of Buddhism. So, the multiple-headed image also prevails widely in Indian and Tibetan cultures. There are also variants of the image of Mangas. But so far scholars have focused only on the multiple heads of the mythological character and ignored the one-headed image. The problem of relationship between the multiple-headed demonic creature and the one-headed one is still understudied. This paper discusses the physical characteristics attributed to the Mangas before, and traces the transformation of its appearances in later Mongolian folk literature. Finally, the article attempts to discribe the reasons behind the changes in the image of the Mangas.
HISTORY
Law as a socio-cultural factor arises in certain historical conditions, reflecting them and being an integral part of them. Content of the law, the developer and owner of which becomes an ethnos, is due to the peculiarities of the historical community he lives and develops within. The Golden Horde is a state that was one of the heirs of the Great Mongol Empire, and therefore it is natural that the judicial system of the latter had a significant impact on the proceedings in Djuchi Ulus. Chingizids, establishing their system of state power in the conquered territories, introduced the norms of the «Great Yasa» of Genghis Khan as the main source of law, which increasingly came into conflict with the real conditions of society’s life, since the «Yasa» of Genghis Khan regulated only the norms of nomadic life. At the same time, the states conquered by the Mongols, in their majority, already had considerable historical experience of the activities of state institutions, including legal ones. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the judicial system and the judicial process basing on published documentary sources, as well as monographic research. The theoretical basis of this article was the monographic studies of both domestic and foreign historians, linguists, geographers and other scientists, who touched upon the problems of judicial organization and legal proceedings in the Golden Horde in their works. The empirical base was a complex of published sources translated into Russian. The lack of written sources originating from the Golden Horde itself is largely compensated by the sources originating from countries that submitted to the Golden Horde or were in diplomatic relations with it. The author used general and private methods of cognition in the course of the research. With the help of reconstructive and historico-political interpretation of the law, the sources containing the judicial system of the Golden Horde state were described, in their connection with socio-historical and political conditions in chronological order. Special attention is paid to the analysis of various sources of Mongolian, Persian and European origin, which allows us to conclude that the legal successors of the Mongol Empire inherited also the Mongolian legal and judicial system. The author concludes that in the process of historical development of the Golden Horde state in the conditions of a multiethnic and polyconfessional society, one of the main features of the judicial system of the Golden Horde was the peculiar legal awareness of its population due to the synthesis of nomadic traditions, the customary laws of Mongolian peoples and Muslim law related with the adoption of Islam as a state religion under the Uzbek Khan. The foregoing provision led to the coexistence and simultaneous operation of the judiciary of traditional Mongolian justice — the Zargo court — and the Muslim court of kadi.
The paper analyzes the concept about the status and type of the Dzungar Khanate developed by the famous Orientalist, Junko Miyawaki-Okada. According to the scholar, the Dzungar Khanate never existed though she does acknowledge its status of a nomadic empire. The main supporting proof is the fact that its rulers (except for Galdan Boshugtu Khan) never received the title of ‘Khan’ from the Dalai Lama and instead used the title ‘Khong Tayiji’. On that ground, J. Miyawaki proposes to use her authorial term ‘Khong Tayiji Viceroyalty’ to denote the Dzungar Khanate. The Japanese researcher harshly criticizes ‘I. Zlatkin’s Russian school’ for the erroneous — in her opinion — use of the term ‘Dzungar Khanate’.
The research concludes that J. Miyawaki’s concept is incorrect due to a number of factors, including as follows:
First of all, the term ‘khanate’ is supposed to denote a specific type of nomadic state widespread in the Turco-Mongolian world, though in some cases the term may be borrowed by neighboring nomadic states or retained by ex-nomadic states that tend to or have adopted sedentary life. As for Oirat ethno-political nomadic alliances, only three of them existed long enough and, in our opinion, may be referred to as khanates: the Kalmyk (or Volga), Kokonor (or Khoshut) and Dzungar Khanates. Those possessed almost all properties of a state: an own territory and population, public nature of power and administrative apparatus, army, court, judicial legislation, tax system, one national language and script, full or partial sovereignty. Lack of such attributes as citizenship, coat of arms, anthem, etc. is insignificant — in view of the specific nature inherent to the steppe model of Oriental despotism.
Secondly, by the 18th century the titles ‘Khan’ and ‘Khong Tayiji’ had experienced some certain evolution. Those were bestowed not only by the Dalai Lama but also by emperors of Russia and China. In case of Chinese emperors, bestowment of the title ‘Khan’ (like other titles designating princes of blood — qinwang, junwang, beile, beise, gung) was not accompanied by appropriation of any real power. That was only a title of honor. None of the Oirat communities headed by Noyons who had received from the Chinese the title ‘Khan’ — were ever classified as a ‘khanate’ since those had no even partial sovereignty. So, when it comes to the classification of a certain nomadic state one should pay attention not to the titles of its rulers but rather to the properties confirming its real position as a state, even if it is vassal by nature.
Thirdly, the circumstances under which the title ‘Khong Tayiji’ was bestowed to Dzungar rulers should also be taken into consideration. In the 1630-1660s, the Dzungar ethno-political union followed the political trends directed by the Khoshuts, so the title ‘Khong Tayiji’ adopted by Batur and his son Senge simply identified their position as second-rank leaders of the Oirat world — after Gushi Nomyn Khan and Ochirtu Tsetsen Khan. After Galdan Khong Tayiji defeated Ochirtu Khan and became the leader of Northern Central Asia, he received the title of Boshogtu Khan. His successors could not hope to obtain the title ‘Khan’ due to the disfavor of the then ruler of Tibet and later that of Chinese emperors who took control over Dalai Lamas. This is actually the reason why rulers of Dzungaria started adopting the title ‘Khong Tayiji’ on their own which, over a century, merely became a tradition.
Thus, the Dzungar Khanate was actually a khanate.
The article is dedicated to emigrant historian M. V. Shakhmatov, the creator of the ‘State of Truth’ theory resulting from his analysis of ancient Russian literary and folklore compositions. Its basis was constituted by the concepts of sobornost (‘cooperation’), odinachestvo (‘equality’) and divine nature of political power. Despite present-day studies, it is quite difficult to consider it ‘Eurasianistic’ by nature though its author got a number his works printed in several volumes of the Eurasianists. In his papers there are no such ideas as the ‘outcome to the East’, decisive factor of development place, perception of Russia as Eurasia or the idea of struggle as the driving force of history; finally, there was no Eurasianistic understanding of the benefits of the Mongol invasion. Ideologists of Eurasianism considered M. V. Shakhmatov to be a temporary companion of theirs who was used merely as a ‘specialist’. In turn, he declared his break with them. In general, his views can be rather attributed to the revival of Slavophile ideas about the uniqueness of Russia’s historical path and its sharp contrast to the West. They stemmed not from the Eurasianistic movement but from personal searches in the course of work on a master’s thesis on the history of ancient political ideas.
The article analyzes M. V. Shakhmatov’s views, the circumstances of the appearance of his works in the Eurasianistic Vremennik, reflects the Eurasianists’ opinions about the author contained in the correspondence of G. V. Florovsky to N. S. Troubetzkoy, N. S. Troubetzkoy to P. P. Sovchinski. This correspondence has not been taken into account by previous researchers of M. V. Shakhmatov’s works which resulted in somewhat incorrect conclusions. Given the relevance of the study of Eurasianism as a whole, and the Eurasianistic concept of Russian history in particular, the distinction between viewpoints of M. V. Shakhmatov and Eurasianists will allow to avoid many errors in future publications. It may contribute to further detailed consideration of Eurasianistic compositions by representative of the 1920–1930s Russian emigration.
ETHNOLOGY / ANTHROPOLOGY
The term ‘witch-hunting’ has been used to denote two different phenomena: persecution of pagan traditions by adherents of monotheistic religions and world-wide known archaic ‘trials’ of individuals accused of causing harm to the community by witchcraft. The article attempts to reveal the process of witches’ executions in Eastern Europe in the 9th–13th centuries. For this purpose, the 4 ‘ideal’ and standard witch-hunting motives are described. Those are as follows: 1) fanaticism of followers of Abrahamic religions; 2) faith in sabotage activities by means of witchcraft; 3) the need for a community to join efforts in the face of a common enemy during social plagues and miseries; 4) violation of standards and regulations by a defendant which, as they believed, might adversely influence the community. With evidence from materials on the history of Eastern Europe the paper traces all the four motives. Archaic forms of witch-hunting prevailed, the process was like a communal trial against an imaginary culprit. Details of witch-hunting activities in Eastern European are well similar to any processes of the kind in any other regions of the planet. As a rule, those were individuals that had confronted the community who were charged with witchcraft; in other cases those were socially isolated persons. Witch-hunting was also accompanied by robbery and lethal beating. Сulprits were sentenced by ‘trial by ordeal’. During the studied period such violence was condemned by Christianity and probably other Abrahamic religions (this situation changed by the beginning of the Modern era). So, these murders had contributed to ‘team-building’ around community institutions on the old, pagan basis. In such cases, the community began to lay claim to the functions already transferred to the state administration. Abrahamic witch-hunting manifested itself mainly in the suppression of pagan revolts, and, as a rule, motives 2, 3 and 4 were not the case. Intermixture of pagan traditions and monotheistic witch-hunting took place only when communal institutions exercised authority within a new state system of law or when society was on the tribal stage of development.
SOCIOLOGY
The article aims to discover and analyze the changes which have taken place in the domestic life of Tuvans over the past century, with special emphasis laid on the present times. The paper deals with actual changes that reflect the overall situation and transformations in the cognitive sphere (views, attitudes and values). The analysis of the problem is based on a number of studies by preceding researchers, corresponding sociological, demographic data and field materials of the author.
The family traditionally holds a high position in the social values framework of the Tuvan community and has always been a key value of the nation. However, the decline in demographic rates taking place in the Republic of Tuva indicates changes in family-marital relationships in particular and the family as such in general.
Nowadays, the modern type of family is more typical of urban population while country dwellers, some Tozhu Tuvans and the Dukha (Tsaatan) people in Mongolia prefer the traditional one. Moreover, the last three groups demonstrate their commitment to the traditional way of life and values which undergo intensive transformation in towns and urban-type settlements. The mentioned process causes, e. g., modification of family functions or even disappearance of some of them and emergence of new ones.
On the whole, it is hard to make any conclusions about whatsoever consequences (positive or negative) of the changes within the modern Tuvan society. This actually resembles a double-edged sword which could be well illustrated by the following example.
A powerful incentive to the above-mentioned transformation was given by the growth of women’s social activities. It caused changes in relationships between husband and wife, redistribution of their duties in the family. Certainly, this fact may be considered as a very positive social achievement, especially for women themselves. But, on the other hand, new roles and positions entailed changes in their views and attitudes towards marriage, career, childbearing, etc. As a result, there are more family conflicts and less family solidarity.
Present-day Tuvan families face the same problems as those from other regions of Russia: contradiction between the needs and actual income of family members, the necessity to improve financial situation, the growing number of divorces and single parent families, etc.
The article provides a brief overview of approaches to the issue of social well-being and shows the 2011–2016 trend data of social well-being of Volgograd Oblast’s urban population. The paper aims to study the aspects of interplay between social well-being and financial literacy of urban residents. To accomplish the identified goal the authors had to tackle the tasks as follows: clarification of the notions “social well-being” and “financial literacy”; analysis and selection of methods for the measurement of both social well-being and financial literacy; implementation of the sociological survey — “Volgograd Omnibus”; evaluation of social well-being among the diverse social groups that differ in the level of financial literacy. The research study included both theoretical methods (investigation, generalization, analysis, synthesis) and empirical ones (interrogation, collation). When it came to the analysis of the notions “social well-being” and “financial literacy”, emphasis was laid on certain subjective indicators that are of great value for the identification of the actual state of modern society. The sociological monitoring survey “Volgograd Omnibus” was conducted for the confirmation of the proposed hypothesis on the interplay between social well-being and financial literacy. The study subjects were residents of Volgograd and other towns of the region aged 16 and older. The data analysis testifies that negative assessments of social well-being have prevailed among the Volgograd Oblast’s population between 2011 and 2016. The 2014–2016 economic crisis has also aggravated the situation. Residents of Volgograd consider their financial literacy poor enough: half of the respondents designated their skills and knowledge as ‘satisfactory’ while a fifth part declared they had no financial literacy at all. To test the hypothesis a typology of social groups by levels of financial literacy self assessment was introduced. The analysis of social well-being indicators of the outlined groups has revealed a number of differences. Increase in the level of financial literacy is accompanied by 1) downward change in the index of interregional comparisons, 2) growth in the level of personal optimism (‘unadapted’ individuals give primarily negative assessments while ‘perfectly adapted’ ones, as a rule, have positive expectations), 3) growth in the index of purchasing power. The discovered differences in the indicators of social well-being among the social groups that give varying assessments of their financial literacy prompt the suggestion that there is actually some interplay between the considered phenomena. Further studies of the interplay between social well-being and financial literacy shall contribute to the efficiency improvement of financial literacy enhancement oriented arrangements.
ISSN 2619-1008 (Online)
