Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.123-131

Annotation:  “Ceramics” from the Zaraysk Upper Paleolithic Site Koksharovsky Kholm and Chertova Gora, Two Neolithic Sanctuaries in the Ural and in Western Siberia: Technical and Morphological Model of Chalcolithic Chopping Tools of the Russian-Karelian Type from K Geochemical Soil Analysis and Environmental Reconstructions at the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Settle Issues in the Calendar Chronology of the Seima-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon Beads in the Finno-Ugric Women’s Costume: The Evidence of Tarasovo Cemetery on the Middle Kama (0–50 Comprehensive Geophysical Studies at the Suzdal Opolye Settlements Metal Bowls from a Medieval Cemetery at Rusenikha Newly Discovered Bronze Artifacts of the Scythian Period from Archekas Mountain, Kuznetsk Alatau Bronze Age Axes from the Forest-Steppe Altai Wooden Paddles from Trans-Urals and from Eastern and Western European Peat-Bog Sites A Golden Plaque of the Hellenistic Period from Zeravshan, Uzbekistan Albazin, a Russian Town on the Amur: Population Size in the Late 1600s The Variation of Russian Festive Ritualism in Russian Ethnography Ust-Tsilma Female Headdress: Description and Use (Mid-19th to Early 21st Century) Principles of the Information Modeling of Cultural Heritage Objects: The Case of Wooden Buddhist Tem Cranial Injuries in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Population of the Shnogh River Basin, Armenia   

The Variation of Russian Festive Ritualism in Russian Ethnography

M.I. Vasiliev

Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics, Sadovaya 21, St. Petersburg, 191023, Russia

This article deals with the shifts of focus of general versus local elements in traditional Russian festive rites, as seen in the works of 19th–20th century Russian ethnographers. Two periods are described. The first lasted from the 1830s to the 1970s; the second began in the 1980s–1990s and is ongoing. The first period falls into two stages. From the 1830s to the 1950s, ethnographers sought to disclose common features, and in the 1960s and 1970s, they were interested in both the general and the specific in Russian and Slavic (specifically Eastern Slavic) festivals. Studies of this period were based on a macro-approach in that they used a wide range of sources relating to Russian, Slavic, and other European ethnic groups. As a result, common elements of Russian ritualism and their spatial variations were revealed, and broad generalizations were proposed. During the second period, the geographic scope narrowed. Boundaries between regional and local variants of festive traditions were delineated both in synchrony and diachrony. The attention has shifted to common Russian versus local elements within separate festivals and their parts rather than groups of rites within the annual cycle as before.

Keywords: Russian folk festivals, ethnography, Slavs, East Slavs, variability.