The problem of ethnocultural identity in the studies of symbolic interactionism

The article addresses the problem of ethnocultural identity in the context of research by representatives of symbolic interactionism. The problem of ethnocultural identity acquires relevance in the epoch of globalisation, when the differences between nations and ethno-social groups are erased, ignoring the folk traditions, customs, rituals, i.e. the historically and culturally established values that distinguish one nation from another, on the one hand, and enrich the multinational culture of their country, on the other hand. The purpose of the study is to reveal the conditions for the formation of ethnocultural identity and the factors influencing it. The works by G.H. Mead, C.H. Cooley, E. Goffman, J. Habermas and other authors were analysed within the framework of the research. The study revealed that the formation of ethnocultural identity involves assimilation of the values, norms, beliefs of “own” socio-cultural community, which is possible in the process of social interaction, in the course of meaningful communication in terms of symbolic interactionism.

Musical Folklore of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash of Astrakhan Oblast as a Marker of Ethnocultural Identity

Основная проблема исследования: анализ влияния общих и особенных жанровых и стилевых характеристик этномузыкального наследия юртовских татар и ногайцев-карагашей на этнокультурную идентичность этих народов. Автором использованы собственные полевые данные и материалы, собиравшиеся на протяжении последних десятилетий исследователями культуры народов Нижнего Поволжья, а также результаты исследований этномузыкологов, этнографов, этнологов, лингвистов и литературоведов. Раскрыты этноисторические аспекты изучаемой проблемы, проведены этномузыкологические изыскания. Установлено, что общие моменты в музыкальной культуре изучаемых народов и проявляющиеся на собственно жанровом, музыкально-лексическом и исполнительском уровнях, выступают в качестве этнообъединяющего признака, возникшего в ходе тесного межэтнического взаимодействия. Локальные же образцы произведений, их сюжеты и содержание носят уникальный характер для каждой рассмотренной этнической группы, выполняя этнодифференцирующую роль. The study aims to describe the common and unique genre and style characteristics of the ethnomusical heritage of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash, peoples similar in ethnolinguistic terms, and to analyse the influence of these common characteristics on their ethnocultural identity. The basis for the research was the field materials collected over the past decades by researchers of the traditional culture of the peoples of the Lower Volga region and the results of research by ethnomusicologists, ethnographers, ethnologists, linguists, and literary scholars. Of great importance are the field data the author collected in Astrakhan and in settlements previously traditionally considered villages of the Yurt Tatars. The methodological basis is an approach within a constructivist framework where ethnic identity is seen as a construct formed under the influence of numerous factors, including traditional musical culture. Another methodological basis directly related to the objective component of the problem under study is transcultural diffusionism. The research consists of two successive stages: the first reveals the ethnohistorical aspects of the problem, the second presents the ethnomusicological research. At the first stage, the author (1) reconstructs the process of settling the Lower Volga region from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century, (2) reveals the features of contacts between the ethnic groups inhabiting the region, (3) determines the features of the peoples’ ethnic self-identification, which intensively developed in the last quarter of the 20th century, and (4) identifies the modern level of the development of the ethnic identity of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai–Karagash. At the second stage, the author carries out ethnomusicological analysis of two genres characteristic of both the Yurts Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash: the epic khushavazand the instrumental sazda soyleshu genres. The comparative analysis of the genres shows that the common features at the genre, musical-lexical and performing levels are directly related to the ethnic identity of these peoples and are ethno-uniting features that developed during close interethnic interaction. Local samples of works, their plots and content are often unique for each ethnic group and thus play an ethno-differentiating role.

Law and ethnocultural identity in the context of digitalization

This article examines the impact of digital technologies on ethnocultural processes in modern society, notes the influence of information relations on ethnopolitical, ethnoeconomic and ethno-legal complexes. The author proposes to recognize that for all the peoples of Russia, not only small in number, but all leading a traditional way of life and preserving traditional values, the impact of digitalization on ethnocultural identity should become one of the subjects of ethnocultural examination of all legislative innovations in the field of digital economy and public administration. The article was prepared with the financial support of the RFBR grant No. 19-011-00820 (a) “The legal policy of the Russian state, its priorities and principles in the conditions of the digital economy and the digital technological order: conceptual, methodological, sectoral aspects of the digitalization of law and legal regulation”.

Language and Identity in post-Soviet Ukraine: Transformation of an Unbroken Bond

Language has traditionally been a crucial component of Ukrainian identity. Given the lack of independent statehood, Ukrainian identity was primarily ethnocultural rather than civic. However, the contradictory policies of the Soviet regime produced a large-scale discrepancy between the language use and ethnocultural identity. Moreover, independence boosted Ukrainian civic identity and stimulated reconsideration of its relationship with the ethnocultural identity of the titular group. Although the Ukrainian language occupies a special place in both main versions of Ukrainian identity, it has to be reconciled with the continued reliance on Russian of about half of Ukraine’s citizens. At the same time, the perception of oneself as Ukrainian is gradually shifting from ethnocultural to civic, particularly among the young generations raised in independent Ukraine. Last but not least, the escalation of an identity struggle in the wake of the Orange Revolution led to different dynamics in the two parts of the country.

Psychological and pedagogical aspects of ethnocultural identity formation in the Russian scientific discourse

In this article the problem of ethnocultural identity formation is considered in the context of the personal development problem, namely, as a person’s awareness of oneself, one’s environment as well as of oneself in one’s relations with other people. Along with the genetically determined prerequisites, ethnocultural identity formation is influenced by sociocultural factors, a person’s real life. The ethnocultural identity phenomenon is closely related to the methodological understanding of the foundations of deep, fundamental life meanings, values, and priorities. Ethnocultural identity and everything that relates to it – roots, historical destinies, ethnic culture, historical memory – are the most important values and life meanings of every person.

Ethnocultutal identity of the indigenous people of the Arctic (a case study of Anabar district in Yakutia)

The article presents the preliminary results of a comprehensive study on the social anthropology of the cultural landscape of the Khatango-Anabar region as an integral historical and cultural space, formed as a result of the interaction of man and nature, local ethnic communities and social institutions. The purpose of the article is to study the regional ethno-cultural identification of the population living in one of the Arctic regions of Yakutia - Anabar. The field research, including interviews, a sociological survey, and a psycholinguistic experiment revealed indicators for determining the ethnocultural identity. Three main criteria of ethnocultural identity of residents of Anabar district were identified. These are territorial, cultural and linguistic ones. It was found that the unifying indicator of the population living in this area is regional identity as Anabarians.

On the Border of Cultures and Peoples: the Case of the Komi writer Callistrat Zhakov

The essay examines the work of Kailstrat Zhakov (1866–1926), a Komi writer, philosopher, and a scholar of the so-called Silver Age in the Russian literary history. He was the author of an original philosophical study of limitism as well as a Komi literary epos “Biarmia”and other works. For Zhakov, the problem of personal, social, national, and ethnocultural identity was relevant at all stages of his literary career; all his life, he was trying to cross boundaries between peoples and cultures, albeit aware of his own liminality and mediality. The chapter discusses the identity problem discussed in his books“Through the Life’s Order”and “To the North, in the Search of Pam Bour-Mort”. In the series,“Songs and Thought of Pam Bour-Mort” (the last book), we encounter a dialogical-engaging and family-kindred type of worldview that is peculiar, according to György Kadar, to Finno-Ugric people. Based on this observation, I draw parallels and discover some similarities between Zhakov and Hungarian poet Andre Adi (a poem“Szeretném ha szeretnének” [I want to be loved]).