Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (3) 2012

Annotation:  Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Bolshoe Inyaptukskoe Lake Basin (North Baikal Plateau) in the Levantine Perspectives on the Middle to Upper Paleolithic “Transition” The Importance of Changes to microRNA in the Evolution of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova Upper Paleolithic Portable Art in Light of Ethnographic Studies Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites i Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and their Relevance to Ethni The Bronze Age Rock Art of Malye Arbaty A 2367-year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai–Sayan Region (Mongun-Taiga Mountain Massif) Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia Camisoles in the Traditional Male Costume of the Bukharan Jews (Part of the History of Clothes Cut f Western Siberian Folk Art: Northern Russian and Ural Traditions in Distaff Decoration Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Nanai Healing Ritual Sculptures Ethnic and Cultural Identity of the Belorussian Migrants in Western Siberia Prehistoric and Recent Populations of Chukotka: A Paleophenetic Analysis Armenia in the Eurasian Ethnic Context of Late Classical Antiquity: Craniometric Evidence Dental Wear Patterns and Subsistence Activities in Early Nomadic Pastoralist Communities of the Cent   

Ethnic and Cultural Identity of the Belorussian Migrants in Western Siberia

A.N. Bagashev and R.Yu. Fedorov.

This study describes some specifi c features in the traditional culture of the descendants of the Belorussian settlers living in Western Siberia. Their ancestors left Belorussia from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. The character of ethnic and cultural interaction between migrants and the Old Settlers as well as the main markers of ethnic and cultural identity of the Belorussians in Siberia are analyzed using the materials of expeditions to the places of their residence. The ritual of “the Candle,” common in the Mogilev Guberniya where the Belorussians departed from and practiced by the migrants, is described in detail. The conclusions of the study sum up the correlation between the principles of settlement of the Belorussians in Siberia and the specifi c features of their ethnic and cultural identity in their new place of residence.

Keywords: Belorussians, Siberia, traditional culture, peasant migrations, ethnic and cultural interaction.