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| 651 | This paper examines traditional dishes and beverages within the contemporary food system of the Erzya and Moksha Mordvins in Bashkortostan. The relevance of this study lies in the widespread public interest in culinary topics; for ethnographers, the study of food as a conservative element of ethnic culture provides valuable insights into ethnocultural processes during various periods of ethnic development. The sources include the author's field materials collected in 2023 and 2024 in areas of compact Mordovian settlement in Bashkortostan, field materials from the 2003 folklore and ethnographic expedition of the R. G. Kuzeev Institute of Ethnological Research of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and previously published works. The variety of traditional cuisine (soups, porridges, casseroles, flour products, drinks) has been documented in the menus of populations currently living in compact Mordovian villages in polyethnic Bashkortostan. Some dishes have become symbols of Mordovian culture (Mordovian pelini dumplings, dumplings with lard (tsemarat/tsemara), and the drink kuvaz) and are served at national events. The commonality of many Erzya and Moksha dishes has been identified, with some local variants (such as different sizes of pilini among the Erzya in Sadovka village, Sterlitamak district, and the Moksha in Kuzminovka village, Fedorovsky district of Bashkortostan; the preparation of noodles from prebaked and sliced pancakes in the village of Nwoboriskino, Orenburg region, and from homemade noodles in Kuzminovka village). The traditional use of stewed herbal tea among the Erzya and Moksha is demonstrated, as well as the revival of the custom of its preparation and consumption. The influence of Russian (Slavic) culture is evident in shared dishes (e.g., kulaga) and names (e.g., selyanka). The study concludes that the persistence of traditional dishes is due to the preservation of traditional economic activities (agriculture, cattle breeding, gathering), reliance on self-produced food products, and the transmission of traditions across generations. Changes are related to cooking technology (from ovens to gas equipment) and other modern developments (the availability of modern cookware), as well as to the introduction of new dishes to the menu (such as basic dishes in Mordovian cuisine). Keywords: Mordvinian Moksha, Mordvinian Erzya, traditional cuisine, cooking recipes, preservation of traditions | 169 | |||||
| 652 | This article compares and analyzes the semantic connections of words with the common root elements ur-/ür-, or-/ör-, and the shared seme ‘rise, movement upward/forward’ in Mongolian languages. The relevance of this work lies in the need to study how language expresses human perceptual experience during world cognition and to examine linguistic units that reflect the physical perception and comprehension of surrounding reality by a language personality. The novelty of the study is in identifying motivating factors that contribute to the nomination of phenomena and processes associated with rise and growth, as well as in identifying several semantically related lexical-semantic groups. The aim of the study is to identify phonetic-semantic correlations in words with the common root element ur-/ür- in Mongolian languages by analyzing the acoustic-articulatory features of the sonant [r] (impact, energy, strength, impulse, movement). In the process of verbalization, this consonant acts as a sound sensory reaction to the physiological perception of the movement of internal strength and energy. These features motivated the nomination of ‘rise of internal strength’ in Mongolian languages. The hypothesis that semantics depend on the acoustic-articulatory features of this consonant, symbolically embedded as the basis of the nomination, made it possible to establish and describe a number of lexical units with the root consonant [r], which are connected by their phonetic-semantic structure and content and form a common semantic continuum. The factual material for the study is based on data from dictionaries of Written Mongolian, Khalkha-Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk languages. Semantic connections between two large lexical-semantic groups of words with the root element *ur- and a common meaning are considered and justified as: 1) ‘up, rise’ (WMo. ergü- ‘to raise (up)’; urγu- ‘to grow’; üre ‘fruit’; urma ‘inspiration’; orgi- ‘to bubble up, surge’; ürgü- ‘to be frightened’; orboyi- ~ örbüyi- ‘to ruffle, stick out’; örbis- ‘to flare up’) and 2) ‘forward; before; to be first’ (WMo. uruγši ‘forward; to the south’; urid, urida ‘before, in front of’; öris- ‘to get ahead, to warn’; uruldu- ‘to compete in a race’). Keywords: Mongolian languages, Turkic languages, phonosemantics, synesthesia, lexical-semantic group, root morpheme, paired words, reduplication | 161 | |||||
| 653 | In the mythology and religion of Eastern peoples, the cult of the bull has deep roots, as evidenced by unique archaeological finds and historical, ethnological, and ethnographic facts. This article is the first to examine the bull cult in Buryat traditional culture. Studying the religious and mythological origins of the bull cult enables us to present the legendary figure of Bukha noyon baabai (‘father of the bull-lord’), who is considered the patron saint of the Buryat people and the progenitor of one of the largest tribal groups among the Western Buryats, the Bulagats. The bull cult is vividly reflected in the mythology of the western Kudinsk Buryats, particularly in the famous myth of two heavenly bulls as recorded by Buryat researcher M. Khangalov. The myth of two heavenly bulls descending to earth was closely connected with the cult of the god of thunder and, according to Buryat scientist, ethnographer, and folklorist D. Dugarov, is widespread among Indo-Iranian and Indo-European tribes and peoples. The bull cult permeates the cultural heritage of the Buryat people: legends, spells, songs, and musical instruments. In particular, in the now-disappearing genre of traditional Buryat culture known as tugal oogolho (taming of the calf), cattle-breeding plots, early folk chants were recorded for the ritual of taming a calf when the mother refused to accept her newborn. The cattle-breeding spell of the tugal oogolho calf, as well as the teege lamb, was performed in exceptional situations when the mother did not accept her cub, or when it was necessary to tame an orphaned calf whose mother had died. After smearing the calf with maternal colostrum, the female owner performed the tugal oogolho spell in a gentle voice, bringing the newborn calf to the mother's udder. Of particular importance is the study of the semantics of the bull cult in the context of the genesis, construction, and sacredness of the Buryat traditional musical instrument suukha khura, a single-stringed bowed instrument with a soundboard made from a bull's bladder, which is currently being revived in modern Buryat culture. Keywords: bull cult, semantics, myths, legends, spells, musical instruments, Buryats. | 153 | |||||
| 654 | This article continues the examination of Permian denasalization, specifically the simplification of medial Proto-Finno-Ugric clusters of ‘nasal + consonant or affricate,’ which resulted in the emergence of voiced consonants and affricates in the Permian proto-language (*-nt- > *-d, *-ŋk- > *-g, *-nč- > *-ǯ, *-ńć- > *-ʒ ́ ). The author attempts to date Permian denasalization and outline its historical context. Earlier theories suggesting that this process continued at the beginning of early Permic-Bulgarian contacts are rejected. Based on the analysis of reconstructed phonetic processes and the stratification of borrowings into the Permian proto-language, the beginning (middle to second half of the 1st millennium BC) and the end (second half of the 1st millennium AD, between the 7th and 9th centuries) of Permian denasalization are proposed. Since this dating coincides with that of a similar phonetic process in Old Hungarian, as established by Hungarian researchers (first half to middle of the 1st millennium AD), the article proposes revisiting the possibility of parallel Permian and Hungarian denasalization during the secondary contact of these languages in the middle of the first millennium AD. It is suggested that these contacts occurred in the territory of modern Bashkiria, in the lower reaches of the Kama River and the Belaya basin, where, in the middle of the first millennium AD, there was close interaction between speakers of the post-Pyanobor cultures of the Belaya River basin and the late Glyadenovo culture of the Middle Kama Region (Proto-Permians) and the bearers of the Kushnarenkovo-Karayakupovo tradition (ancient Hungarians)–along with the southern Permians and ancient Hungarians, speakers of Sarmat-Alanic dialects ancestral to the Ossetian language (the creators of archaeological sites of the Late Sarmatian tradition in the Southern Urals and the Middle Volga region) also played an active role in this interaction. In addition to denasalization, the active interaction of these languages is reflected in the development of common morphological elements and lexical borrowings, whose phonetic features reflect the state of the respective languages during this period. Keywords: Permic languages, Hungarian language, Ossetian language, denasalization, historical morphonology, linguistic reconstruction, language contacts, prehistory | 152 | |||||
| 655 | This research addresses gaps in the study of the human-natural environment relationship in Russian ethnographic science. Efforts to resolve this issue focus on understanding the zoomorphic images created and used across traditional cultures, with ornithomorphic images occupying an important place. Among these, the falcon is a common image across various ethnic groups and is attributed specific functions. The purpose of this work is to identify the image of the falcon in the traditional worldview of the Buryats. To achieve this, the following tasks were set: to determine the etymology of the names of Falconidae based on lexical data from Mongolian peoples; to trace the origins of the falcon image in Buryat culture; and to identify the body of Buryat mythological beliefs about this bird. The sources for this research include lexical, folklore, and ethnographic materials. Based on the results, the following conclusions were drawn. The modern names for Falconidae among the Buryats and other Mongolian peoples share a common origin in medieval Mongolian, which borrowed them from the ancient Turks. It was also found that the image of the falcon among the medieval Mongols has parallels in ancient Turkic culture. In the traditional worldview of the Buryats, the image of the falcon is concise and carries a positive connotation. This bird bears celestial symbols and is predominantly associated with masculine qualities. The concept of shapeshifting is also linked to it. A review of the Buryat epic reveals that a military cult was associated with this diurnal bird of prey. The falcon is also connected to the motif of likening a horse to a bird of prey. In shamanic poetics, this ornithomorphic image is embodied in the mythical character Shonkhor-khatun. Keywords: Southeastern Siberia, Buryats, traditional worldview, mythological representations, falcon | 151 | |||||
| 656 | This paper, based on lexicographic sources in the Tatar dialect of Tobolsk Province, examines the semantics of lexemes denoting a person's moral and ethical qualities (253 units). The study focuses on lexical and semantic oppositions such as ‘good – bad,’ ‘righteous – sinful,’ ‘kind – evil,’ ‘friend – enemy,’ ‘faithful – unfaithful,’ ‘generous – greedy,’ ‘polite – rude,’ ‘merciful – cruel,’ ‘patient – angry,’ ‘chaste – promiscuous,’ ‘modest – vain,’ ‘honest – deceitful,’ ‘sincere – hypocritical,’ ‘simple – cunning,’ ‘decent – criminal,’ "shameful – brazen,’ ‘hardworking – lazy,’ ‘joyful – envious,’ ‘magnanimous – vengeful,’ ‘sober – drunkard,’ and ‘humble – arrogant.’ The novelty of the study lies in the use of little-studied lexicographic sources from the 19th to early 20th centuries, the identification of synonymous and antonymous relationships among the analyzed units, and the determination of the moral and ethical values of the Tatars in the Tobolsk Province. The vocabulary examined reveals value relationships among people regarding labor and property. It has been established that there is a predominance of pejorative units characterizing a person in relation to vices such as promiscuity, anger, lying, hypocrisy, greed, and shamelessness, and meliorative units in relation to kindness, mercy, righteousness, and magnanimity. The authors identified dialectal words (basyk, kapshagay, mast, sata, syaktya, tsagutse), phonetic variants, borrowings from Arabic and Persian, and obsolete lexemes with Turkic roots. Dictionaries record not only primary nominations but also secondary ones (ilan ‘snake; flatterer’, myatskai ‘evil female spirit that feeds on blood; gluttony’, ubyr ‘demon; gluttony’), as well as phraseological units (kan inkutse ‘bloodsucker’, ah kazlu ‘with hungry eyes’, ike yuzle ‘with a double heart’, etse kara ‘with a black gut’). The linguistic material studied can be used to compile dictionaries of dialectisms, obsolete words, and borrowings, thereby determining the practical value of this article. Keywords: dialect, Tatars, Tobolsk Province, person, morality, ethics, pejorative, meliorative, synonym, antonym, dialectism | 149 | |||||
| 657 | One of the core issues in modern linguistics is linguistic variation. Language, as a complex dynamic system, is constantly evolving and changing. Changes in socio-political, economic, cultural, scientific, and technological spheres are inevitably reflected in language. The lexicon develops most intensively because extralinguistic factors exert greater influence on it than on other layers of language. Polysemy is a linguistic universal and an integral part of language. Words and phraseological units form a universal basis for the development of polysemy, as nearly any linguistic unit can acquire new meanings. Since Yakut archaisms have not been the subject of a comprehensive linguistic and cognitive study, this investigation constitutes a preliminary attempt in this area and opens a new research field. The subject of this research is the category of polysemy in Yakut archaisms, which exhibits a specific structure of divergent semantic transfer of linguistic units. The purpose of the research is to study the divergent direction of semantic transfer in polysemantic archaisms in Yakut. The objectives of the study include reviewing and analyzing existing literature on archaic vocabulary and polysemantic words; determining the semantic structure of archaisms; classifying archaic vocabulary into lexico-semantic groups; and defining the direction of divergent transfer in Yakut polysemantic archaisms. We use componential and conceptual analysis methods. To reveal the semantic structure of archaisms, we conducted dictionary-definition analysis. The general research method is inductive-deductive. The dominant source of semantic transfer in the analyzed Yakut linguistic units is material reality. The primary recipient semantic areas are anthropological conceptual spheres, especially ‘characteristics of man,’ ‘emotional state,’ ‘spatial object,’ ‘natural phenomenon,’ ‘abstract notions,’ ‘interpersonal relationships,’ and ‘intellectual characteristics.’ Keywords: Yakut language, semantics, polysemy, archaic vocabulary, indirect meaning, concept | 143 | |||||
| 658 | At the current stage of research on ancient Yakut burial rituals, identifying the earliest monuments from the 15th to 17th centuries remains challenging. Using modern dating methods, archaeologists studying Yakut ground burials have classified them as a distinct group. In the past decade, researchers have uncovered a significant layer of archaeological heritage from the late medieval period that requires scientific attention and initial analysis. This work discusses several monuments identified through exploration by the Srednelensky group of the archaeological expedition of the Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the Zhersky and Oktemsky naslegs of the Khangalassky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). These findings provide new materials and opportunities for reconstructing the worldview of the ancient inhabitants of Central Yakutia. Analysis of existing sources provides new information on the spatial arrangement of archaeological objects. The study reveals a dependence of burial monument placement on the landscape. This research also examines elements that have not previously been documented in ancient Yakut burial rituals. Fieldwork has identified a variety of deviant postures of the deceased, such as lying on the side, semi-side, and semi-sitting with tucked legs. It is suggested that this diversity in corpse positioning may be linked to several factors, including physical characteristics and ancient beliefs about sleeping postures. Thus, the late medieval populations of Central Yakutia sought, within their worldview, to ensure the greatest comfort for the deceased to prevent their return to the world of the living. The analysis of accompanying grave goods, together with other data, provides opportunities to determine the social status of the deceased during their lifetime. Furthermore, the materials reveal the previously undocumented phenomenon of postinhumation intervention – the removal of the skull followed by the ‘tangling’ of the legs to neutralize the deceased. The research employs historical-comparative and historical-systems methods. Keywords: Yakutia, early Yakut burials, Khangalassky district, Yakuts, Middle Ages | 132 | |||||
| 659 | This article based on an analysis of field data, examines the practices of home-brewing and organizing beer festivals timed to coincide with church calendar dates. The relevance of this topic stems from interest in public holidays as a means of uniting rural communities. The research focuses on the social function of homebrewing in the context of celebrating Kanun, a beer festival in the Vym region. The article draws on ethnographic materials collected in 2003 under T. Chudova's program among the Vym Komi, an ethnographic group of the Komi (Zyryans). The informants were women born between 1910 and 1920. In addition, the narrator's husband actively participated in one interview, demonstrating his knowledge of the beer festival's organization. Oral histories provide reliable, first-hand information about home-brewing practices, revealing archaic features such as a consistent set of utensils, the use of heated stones in brewing, and top-fermentation as the most ancient fermentation method. They also highlight the traditions of beer festivals, timed to coincide with church calendar dates (St. George's Day, St. Paraskeva's Friday, St. Peter's Day, St. Elijah's Day, the Second Savior's Day, or the Transfiguration of the Lord), which were held in the square near the church or chapel. A recurring theme in field records is that kanuns (eve-festivals) were once held, but the traditions commemorating them have faded from historical memory. The practice of mutual guest-hosting formed a network of villages united by familial, kinship, and economic ties. The social function of the ritual drink, prepared in excess, is linked to the cohesion of the rural community. The tradition of celebrating the Kanun was also characteristic of the Russian North, which does not seem accidental, since Russians and Komi live in adjacent territories, have long-standing economic and cultural contacts, and are adherents of Orthodoxy. Keywords: Vym Komi, home-brewed beer, beer brewing technology, festive culture, eve | 131 | |||||
| 660 | This article examines the current decline in the number of Selkup reindeer herding farms, highlighting a crisis in the reindeer herding sector of the Selkup economy. The study draws on the author's field observations during expeditions to northern Selkup-inhabited Selkups from 2004 to 2024. This period of Selkup reindeer herding has not yet been studied by other researchers, which constitutes the scientific novelty of this work. The research led to the following conclusions. The crisis in modern Selkup reindeer herding originates in Soviet economic reforms: the collectivization of reindeer, the establishment of large-herd reindeer herding, and the specialization of collective and state farm workers in specific economic activities. The subsequent collapse of the Soviet economy forced the Selkups to return to traditional small-scale reindeer herding. Still, the legacies of the Soviet era – settlements and fishing enterprises – remained, continuing to draw Selkup fishermen away from reindeer herding. Advances in science and technology led to the widespread adoption of new means of transport among the Selkups, particularly snowmobiles, which replaced reindeer sleds. The convenience of snowmobiles and the comfort of settlement life reduced the willingness of Selkup reindeer herders to remain in the forest and endure the traditional hardships of reindeer husbandry. In the past twenty-five years, the challenges of maintaining reindeer herds have increased significantly due to the arrival of large numbers of wild reindeer and the wolves that followed them into Selkup territories. Today, Selkup reindeer herding is sustained by the Selkups' familial attachment to reindeer, state support, and new methods of herd management. Keywords: Selkups, traditional culture, reindeer herding, Soviet past of Selkup reindeer herding, crisis of modern Selkup reindeer herding | 121 | |||||