Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.132-141

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Ust-Tsilma Female Headdress: Description and Use
(Mid 19th to Early 21st Century)

T.I. Dronova

Institute of Language, Literature, and History, Komi Research Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kommunisticheskaya 26, Syktyvkar, 167000, Russia

The study describes the headdress worn by girls and women in a group of Russian Old Believers known as Bespopovtsy (the Pomors, the Priestless Old Believers), who had moved in the late 1700s from northwestern Russia to the Lower Pechora, and currently live in the Ust-Tsilemsky District of the Komi Republic. Some headdresses were collected during my field studies in 2010–2014 in Ust-Tsilma villages; others, by A.V. Zhuravsky in the early 1900s (those are owned by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), St. Petersburg). A detailed description and an analysis of headdresses and headscarves are provided, as well as the ways they were worn and fastened, and their local names. On the basis of this analysis, ethno-cultural ties of Russian Old Believers with Russian and non-Russian groups professing official Orthodoxy are examined. The functions of the headdress, related beliefs, and everyday and ritual use are discussed. The article is supplemented by stories told by informants about their clothing, and illustrated with original photographs.

Keywords: Russian Old Believers, headdress, Komi Republic, Ust-Tsilma, ritual.