The Peculiarities of the Existence of Ethnic Traditions in the Legends of the Russians and Buryats about Barguts
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2024-3-73-80
The article is devoted to the analysis of the structure of Russian and Buryat legends about the Barguts, which belong to the microlocal tradition (Barguzinsky district of the Republic of Buryatia). Comparative studies of the legends created by Russian settlers when settling in new territories compared to the legends of the indigenous peoples are considered important. The work aims to determine the peculiarities of the local tradition of the Buryats and Russians in the legends of the Barguts and the peculiarities of the reflection of ethnocultural features in the conditions of territorial interethnic contacts. The imagological method of analysis will make it possible to trace the process of formation of the image of the stranger (the Bargut) in the Russian tradition in comparison with the Buryat view of this image, and the hermeneutic method of interpretation of the narratives is also required. The legends tell of the Barguts, one of the Mongolian tribes that once inhabited this region. The sources of the study are archival records of Russian legends and field materials of the author of the work. In legends with a similar plot, the reason for the exodus of the Indigenous people of the region is a single motif, namely the appearance of a white birch tree in a coniferous forest, characterized by the opposition’ friend – foe’ by the color code ‘white – black’, the phytocode ‘birch – coniferous’. As part of the study, the structural characteristics of the legends about the Barguts in various ethnic traditions were determined. A variable transformation of the invariant of the exodus motif of the Barguts in the Russian tradition, which is connected with the legends of the Chudes, is revealed: they go away, bury themselves, dig themselves into pits, throw themselves off cliffs, drown themselves in rivers. The motif of the suicide of foreign, hostile people is the most important structural factor in the construction of Russian legends. In the Buryat legends, the stable motif of departure, and not mythological suicide, is connected with the historical events of the exodus of the Barguts, a closely related tribe, and their contemporaries. The most important conclusion is the identification of the phenomenon of folkloric local narrative, in which the content of ethnic and/or historical memory, transformation, and adaptation to a foreign cultural stereotype is manifested. Under the conditions of the cultural border, the ‘foreign’, which acquires an ambiguous meaning, almost becomes the ‘own.’
Keywords: Russians, Buryats, ethnoculture, border areas, local traditions, motif invariant, motif variants, Сhude, exodus
References:
1. Tihonova E. L. Semantika i pragmatika fol’klornoy istoricheskoy prozy russkikh starozhilov Baykal’skogo regiona. Avtoref. dis. dokt. filol. nauk [Semantics and pragmatics of folklore historical prose of Russian old-timers of the Baikal region. Abstract of thesis Diss. Dr. Philol. Sci.]. Ulan-Ude, 2018. 62 p. (in Russian).
2. Andreeva E. D. Fol’klor. Kul’turnyi landshaft. Yetnokul’turnaya identichnost’ [Folklore. The cultural landscape. Ethnic and cultural identity]. Fol’klor i yetnokul’turnaya identichnost’: materialy IV Mezhdunarodnoy Shkoly molodyh fol’kloristov [Folklore and ethnocultural identity: materials of the IV International schools for young folklorists]. Saint Petersburg: Red.- izdat. kompleks Ros. in-ta istorii iskusstv Publ., 2014. Pp. 7–23 (in Russian).
3. Zoriktuev B. R., Sundueva E. V., Mansheev D. M., Bolhosoev S. B., Nikolaeva N. N. Barguty Kitaya [Barguts of China]. Ulan-Ude: Buryatskiy gos. Universitet Publ., 2021. 282 p. (in Russian).
4. Putilov B. N. Motiv kak syuzhetoobrazuyushhiy element [Motive as a plot-forming element]. In: Tipologicheskie issledovaniya po fol’kloru: sbornik statey pamyati V. Ya. Proppa (1895–1970) [Typological studies on folklore: collection. Art. in memory of V. Ya. Propp (1895–1970)]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1975. Pp. 141–155 (in Russian).
5. Silant’ev I. V. Syuzhetologicheskie issledovaniya [Plotological research]. Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskoj kul’tury Publ., 2009. 224 p. (in Russian).
6. Shubin A. S. Kratkiy ocherk yetnicheskoy istorii yevenkov Zabaykal’ya (XVII–XX vv.) [A brief sketch of the ethnic history of the Evenks of Transbaikalia (XVII–XX centuries)]. Ulan-Ude: Buryat. kn. Publ., 1973. 108 p. (in Russian).
7. Moldobaev I. B. Ustnye rasskazy o kyrgyzakh u narodov Sibiri (k voprosu ob yetnogeneze kirgizov) [Oral stories about the Kyrgyz among the peoples of Siberia (on the question of the ethnogenesis of the Kyrgyz)]. Yetnicheskaja istorija narodov Yuzhnoy Sibiri i Central’noj Azii [Ethnic history of the peoples of Southern Siberia and Central Asia]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1993. Pp. 292–297 (in Russian).
8. Centr vostochnykh rukopisey i ksilografov Instituta mongolovedeniya, buddologii i tibetologii (CVRK IMBT) [Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Woodcuts of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetological Studies], inv. No. 2322, l. 57. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Bol’shoe Uro, 1982 g., Gas’kov I. I., 1906 g. r.
9. Krinichnaya N. A. Russkaya narodnaya istoricheskaya proza: Voprosy genezisa i struktury [Russian folk historical prose: questions of genesis and structure]. Leningrad: Nauka publ., 1987. 228 p. (in Russian).
10. Centr vostochnykh rukopisey i ksilografov Instituta mongolovedeniya, buddologii i tibetologii (CVRK IMBT) [Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Woodcuts of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetological Studies], inv. No. 2139, p. 3, l. 44. Respublika Burjatija, Barguzinskiy rajon, s. Barguzin, 1971 g., Bashkir T. Ya., 1909 g. r.
11. Centr vostochnykh rukopisey i ksilografov Instituta mongolovedeniya, buddologii i tibetologii (CVRK IMBT) [Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Woodcuts of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetological Studies], No. 2322, l. 17. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Chitkan 1982 g., Malygina M. I., 1910 g. r.
12. PMA, 1999 g. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Bayangol, Badmaev Sh. M., 1924 g. r.
13. Zhamcarano C. Zh. Putevye dnevniki 1903–1907 gg. [Travel diaries of 1903–1907]. Ulan-Ude: BNC SO RAN Publ., 2001. 380 p. (in Russian).
14. PMA, 2011 g. ARVM KNR, Hulun-Buirskiy gorodskoy rayon, Sheneheen Balgaas, Seseren-Dorzhyn Dolgor, 1940 g. r.
15. PMA, 1999 g. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Baraghan, Gomboev B. C., 1973 g. r.
16. PMA, 1995 g. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Bayangol, Bubeev S. C., 1924 g. r.
17. Yeliasov L. E. Baykal’skie predaniya. Fol’klornye zapisi [Baikal legends. Folklore records]. Ulan-Udje: Bur. kn. izd-vo, 1966. 272 p. (in Russian).
18. Klyaus V. L. “Russkoe Trehrech’e” Man’chzhurii. Ocherki fol’klora i tradicionnoj kul’tury [The "Russian Trehrech’e" of Manchuria. Essays on folklore and traditional culture]. Moscow: IMLI RAN Publ., 2015. 384 p. (in Russian).
19. PM Tihonovoy E. L., 2008 g. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Barguzin, Zarubina G. A., 1946 g. r.
20. Centr vostochnyh rukopisey i ksilografov Instituta mongolovedeniya, buddologii i tibetologii (CVRK IMBT) [Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Woodcuts of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetological Studies], No. 2322, l. 69–70. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Telyatnikovo, Gas’kov F. S., 1897 g.r.
21. PMA, 2010 g. Irkutskaya oblast’, Bohansktiy rayon, s. Haragun, Angazhanov S. K., 1928 g. r.
22. PM Tihonovoy E. L., 1996 g. Respublika Buryatiya, Barguzinskiy rayon, s. Barguzin, Konevin M. I., 1931 g. r.
( 168.09 kB ) 
( 140.15 kB )
Issue: 3, 2024
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 73 — 80
Downloads: 147