THE IMAGE OF THE CONFESSIONAL OTHERS: OLD-BELIEVERS WANDERERS IN THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE UPPER PECHORA AND UDORA KOMI-ZYRYANS
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2021-2-102-113
The images of the Others are an integral part of the folklore worldview, also they play a significant role in the (self) identification of ethnic and confessional groups. Folk ideas about the confessional characteristics of the Others, as well as a set of features that allowed to mark them as the Others are formed in the course of direct communication. The article examines the formation and transformation of ideas about a confessional Other in a mono-ethnic and poly-confessional environment, using the example of Old-Believers Wanderers who lived in the Udorskii and Troitsko-Pechorskii districts of the Komi Republic. The article based on the archival data and field materials of folklore and ethno-graphic’ expeditions that took place in the early 2000s. The emergence of Wanderers, who were positioning themselves as keepers of the «true faith», and striving to limit contacts with non-Wanderers as much as possible, became the impetus for singling out this group as confessional Others. On the upper Pechora, where at the time of our research Wanderer’s communities existed, the ideological confrontation between different groups of believers were still persisted, that was reflected in various local nomination of Wanderers. On Udora, where the followers of the Wanderers disappeared in the 1970s, an outer nomination of this confessional group was widely used, which had no evaluative connotations. Their religious practices had a decisive influence on the formation of perceptions of the Wanderers as Others. The key indicator that characterizes the essence of the religion of the Wanderers in the eyes of their confessional neighbors, as for Wanderers themselves, was «flight from the world» – a complete refusal to participate in state and social life, and to have any interaction with representatives of the other faith. No less significant for the system of ideas about this group were the features of the funeral rituals (secret funerals of Udora’ Wanderers) and ritual of baptism (baptism in old age). The closedness of the daily and ritual life of the Wanderers contributed to the spread of rumors, which compensated the lack of information. Objective changes of the reality (the disappearance of Wanderers communities of Udora, the change in the age structure of the communities) led to changes and adjustments of the existing ideas.
Keywords: the image of the Other, Old-Believers Wanderers, Komi-Zyryan, nominations of the confessional group, rumors, ritual practices
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Issue: 2, 2021
Series of issue: Выпуск № 2
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 102 — 113
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