Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 36 (4) 2008

Annotation:  Environmental Changes in the Mongolian Altai during the Holocene New Data on Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic Ceramics from the Volga-Kama Region 1929 Year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai-Sayan Region (Western Tuva) Early Urilsky Culture Assemblage from Bukinsky Kluch, Bureya River Representations of Warriors on Early Medieval Turkic Bronze Plaques from Eastern Central Asia New Categories of Wooden Artifacts of the Mid 1st Millennium AD from the site of Vis II (Vychegda Ba The Han Chariot from Noin Ula Mound 20 (Mongolia) Defense Constructions of Fort Umrevinsky (Based on 2002–2004 Archaeological Excavations) Petroglyph Sites of Kazakhstan and Western Central Asia as Part of the Archaeological Landscape: Ne Zoomorphic Images in Eastern Slavic Embroidery of Southwestern Siberia New Ethnic Holidays in the Sayan-Altai The Origin of the Early Nomadic Populations of Tuva: Craniometrical Evidence The “Mediterraneans” of Southern Siberia and Kazakhstan, Indo-European Migrations, and the Origin of Human Humerus from Khoroshevsky Island: History and Context   

New Ethnic Holidays in the Sayan-Altai

The present article describes changes taking place in contemporary holidays in the republics of the Sayan-Altai. Specifi c holidays are analyzed in the context of a new ethnic ideology developing in the republics of Southern Siberia, Altai, Tuva, and Khakassia. Apart from giving a description of the holidays themselves, the current study draws on fi eld materials such as interviews, surveys, scripts from festival programs, and the media including the internet and regional press. New indigenous national festivals such as El Oyin, Naadym, and Tun Pairam are shown to be a means of maintaining the ideological continuity of native Turkic traditions. Two key tendencies are observed. The fi rst is an attempt at a pan-Eurasian synthesis, and the second, the revival of archaic rituals. The latter are based partly on the reconstruction of actual rites and partly on a new ideology in which local, clan based festivals are transformed into offi cial, national events.