Lamazhaa Ch. K., Abdulayeva M. Sh. Archaization and Neotraditionalism: Regional Forms in Russia
The article was prepared within the framework of the project “Russian Models of Archaization and Neotraditionalism under Conditions of Modernization: A Research Database” (supported by Russian Foundation for the Humanities, grant No. 13-03-12005в).
Abstract ♦ In the 1990s, archaic sociocultural programs actualized in various regions of Russia through accepting a variety of forms. These variations were determined by sociocultural traditions of the local ethnicities. To provide a more relevant analysis of these processes, a team of researchers have set up a collaborative scholarly database titled “Russian models of archaization and neotraditionalism” (www.neoregion.ru).
We define archaization as a mass, unconscious and spontaneous turn towards the archaic cultural meanings and social practices, a process which arises in a number of societies during the crisis of modernizing development. Archaization is closely intertwined with neotraditionalism as a conscious attempt at reviving the traditions of ethnic culture, including the archaic ones, in order to resolve the issues of the society’s sociocultural development. In this article, we generalize the forms both processes take in Siberia and the Northern Caucasus.
Such forms of neotraditionalism as the religious, festivous and ceremonial, cultural-economic, ideological, folklore and musical ones are typical for Siberia, whereas the Northern Caucasus can be best characterized by the rise of religious, socioethical, ideological and sociopolitical forms of neotraditionalism. The archaization trends and forms of neotraditionalism we have pointed out are quite conventional, interconnected and overlapping.
The processes we have observed in Siberia and the Northern Caucasus have a lot in common. Above all, these are the processes of religious neotraditionalism closely connected to its social form. The differences lie in the varying rigidness of social links and relations, which is largely due to religious attitudes and to the general distinctions between traditional sociocultural lives peoples of both regions have historically achieved prior to the 20th century.
Keywords: archaization, neotraditionalism, Siberia, North Caucasus, forms of neotraditionalism, religious revival, clan system, neoshamanism, Islamization.
Lamazhaa Chimiza Kuder-oolovna, Doctor of Philosophy, Vice-director, Institute of Fundamental and Applied Studies, Moscow University for the Humanities, full member of the International Academy of Science (Innsbruck, Austria). Postal address: 5 Yunosti St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 111395. Tel.: +7 (499) 374-75-95. E-mail:
lamajaa@mail.ru
Abdulayeva Medina Shamilyevna, Doctor of Culturology, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Music Studies, Choral Conducting and Methodology of Music Education, Dagestan State Pedagogical University. Postal address: 57 Yaragsky St., Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia Federation, 367003. Tel.: + 7 (8722) 62-57-95. E-mail:
m-medina71@yandex.ru
Citation: Lamazhaa, Ch. K. and Abdulayeva, M. Sh. (2014) Arkhaizatsiia i neotraditsionalizm: rossiiskie regional'nye formy [Archaization and Neotraditionalism: Regional Forms in Russia]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 3, pp. 68–80. (In Russ.).
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