Search

IDENTIFICATION ASPECTS OF MARRIAGE PREFERENCES AND WEDDING CEREMONIALISM OF THE BELARUSIAN PEASANTS-MIGRANTS // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2019. Issue 3 (25). P. 141-151

The article is devoted to identification aspects of marriage preferences and wedding ceremonialism of descendants of the Belarusian peasants-migrants of the second half of XIX – the beginning of the 20th centuries living in the territory of Siberia and the Far East of Russia. Based on comparison of results of modern field researches in areas of compact living of the migrants and ethnographic descriptions which have been made in places of their exit, the features of preservation and transformation of wedding rituals are considered. The wedding ceremonialism of the Belarusian migrants had an all-Slavic basis and is typologically close to its South Russian and Ukrainian versions. In the territory of Asian Russia, because of close contacts of different groups of migrants, in the first half of the 20th century it is possible to observe examples of synthesis of various local variations of wedding ceremonialism. It is established that the moment of the choice of the marriage partner from the own resettlement group or from an external ethnic environment in many respects defined the further strategy of ethnocultural identity of a family which had an impact on identity of all local community to which it belonged. Transformations of wedding ceremonialism of a certain resettlement group can be considered as the peculiar markers reflecting the processes of assimilation and ethnic integration as well as modernization of its way of life. During the period from the 1920th to the 1940th, despite preservation of a traditional basis of wedding ceremonialism of all East Slavs living in the territory of Siberia and the Far East, its many components began to become simpler or be reduced. During the post-war period, due to arisen demographic crisis, the choice of marriage partners in the ethnocultural principle finally lost its former value. Since 1950-60 the features of wedding ceremonialism which developed in the urban environment have been introduced into villagers. At the same time, at the beginning of the 21st century we can see the nostalgic interest of some people in reconstruction of certain elements of traditional wedding ceremonialism most of which often have the stylized way.

Keywords: wedding ceremonialism, marriage preferences, Belarusians in Siberia and in the Far East, peasant migrations, ethnocultural identity, ethnic interactions