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WEDDING CEREMONIES OF TOMSK TATARS IN THE CONTEXT OF TATAR ETHNO-CULTURAL COMPLEX // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2013. Issue 1 (1). P. 117-124

Wedding ceremony is a complex set of customs and rituals, where we can find not only the social and legal norms of the present, but also preserved remnants of earlier stages of development. Development of native ethnography occurred in two ways: on the one hand, the actual material was accumulated in ethnography of peoples of the USSR, often only of a descriptive character and on the other hand, at the same time, the theoretical foundation for such research was developed. In the course of work on identifying the specific features of traditional wedding rituals of Tomsk Tartars, we tried to find the specific features of this ritual of microgroups, which formed the group of the Tomsk Tatars (Eushtins, Chats, Kalmaks). The authors who then described the rituals of different groups of Tatars (N.A. Tomilov, R.C. Urazmanova, F.T. Valeev) had no information about it. The information is sketchy. In our description of a wedding ceremony of microgroups of the Tomsk Tatars we employed field data, which was collected by the author of the paper in 2009–2012. We determined the following specific features of the traditional wedding of the Kalmak: plots of land were sometimes offered as the ransom of bride. «To pay» the ransom was hard, which was the reason for the long gap between the matchmaking and marriage; after wooing young couple a year or two; marriage portion was prepared after the matchmaking; the wedding was held the day after nikah; the wedding feast took place in the House of the bride. The Chats are marked by the following characteristics: horse races were held during a wedding celebration; when the bride was transported to her husband, bride wore a lot of clothes. The Eushtins: cradle conspiracy was spread very scarcely; a young couple could get acquainted by themselves. Thus, it becomes obvious that each microgroup had its own set of characteristic features in conducting the wedding ceremony (or a combination of sets), but to identify them in full requires further research and this has not yet been accomplished while writing this work, because these parts are missed in sources. By the way, over the last two or three centuries, microgroups fused into a united «Tomsk» group, and they established a common set of wedding ceremonies. However, the informants still have the memories of a specific character of a ritual. It is clear that this question requires further collection of data and additional comparative analysis. In conclusion, the Tatar culture consists of a variety of local options – Siberian (Tyumen, Tobolsk Tatars), Kazan (Kazan, as well as Chepeck, Perm). Materials were collected by the previous researchers and, first of all, N.А. Tomilov and the contemporary field data shed light on the «Tomsk» version of the local culture of the Tatar people, as manifested in the wedding ceremonies. The traditional wedding ceremony of Siberian Tatars was formed under the influence of the Kazan Tatars, so in the ritual area of «Siberian» (Tomsk, Tumen-Tobolsk) local varieties there are a lot of common features with the wedding ceremony of the Kazan Tatars.

Keywords: Tatars of Tomsk region, wedding rituals, microgroups