E-mail: nkryu@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (495) 938-18-20 3
2a, Leninsky av., Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation
Postgraduate student, N. N. Miklukho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Tel.: +7 (495) 250-61-02 6,
build. 2, Miusskaya sq., Moscow, 125047, Russian Federation
Lecturer, Center for Social Anthropology, Russian State University for Humanities
The article studies the folk Christianity in Armenia — the religious everyday life, which includes a special perception and understanding of Christianity as well as specifi c practices that diff er from the forms of manifestation of religiosity and worship offi cially approved by the Armenian Apostolic Church. It analyzes such a complex phenomenon as surb, this term may denote any sacred places in a house, inside a village or beyond. In the minds of village inhabitants, they are all in a common sacred fi eld and diff er only in the degree of their holiness. The article also considers the cult practices of village inhabitants of some Armenia regions, mainly the Aparan region of Western Armenia, including such an ancient rite of sacrifi ce as matakh. The article examines the relationship between the offi cial Church representatives and those who practice the rites of the folk Christianity. The topic is presented through analysis of statistic data, in-depth interviews and day-to-day narratives of people with the researchers’ observations as a background. The fi eld work done in 2015 and 2016 is a part of the framework of a research project devoted to the problem of constructing of life meanings and life values which is held by Center of the Social Anthropology, Russian State University for Humanities, in 2015–2017.
Abramyan L. (2006) Armenian identity in a сhanging world. CA. In English.
Abramyan L. (2011) Description and (re) construction in Sovietera anthropology. In: Exploring the edge of empire. Soviet era anthropology in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Berlin. Pp. 297–312. In English.
Abramyan L. (2011) Konstruktivisty rannego Srednevekov’ya: sluchay Armenii [Constructivists of the early Middle Ages: the case of Armenia]. In: Antropologiya sotsial’nykh peremen [Anthropology of social changes]. Moscow. Pp. 87–114. In Russian.
Abramyan L., Hambardzumyan Z., Shagoyan G., Stepanyan G. (2018) Th e chain of seven pilgrimages in Kotaik, Armenia. Between folk and offi cial Christianity. In: Sacred places, emerging spaces. Religious pluralism in the post-Soviet Caucasus. New York; Oxford. Pp. 70–96. In English.
Agadzhanyan A. S. (2016) Etnos, natsiya i religiya: nauchnyye paradigmy i real’nost’ Yuzhnogo Kavkaza [Ethnos, nation and religion: scientifi c paradigms and reality of the South Caucasus]. Gosudarstvo, religiya, tserkov’ v Rossii i za rubezhom [State, religion, church in Russia and abroad]. 2016. No. 2. Pp. 331–356. In Russian.
Antonyan Y. (2011) Religiosity and religious identity in Armenia: Some current models and developments. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica. 2011. No. 56 (2). Pp. 315–332. In English.
Antonyan Y. (2014) Church, god and society: Towards the anthropology of church construction
in Armenia. In: Armenian Christianity today: Identity, politics and popular practice. London; NY. Pp. 35–56. In English.
Antonyan Y. (2015) Political power and church construction in Armenia. In: Religion, nation and democracy in the South Caucasus. London; NY. Pp. 81–95. In English.
Armyane [Armenians] (2012). Ed. by L. M. Vardanyan, G. G. Sarkisyan, A. E. Ter-Sarkisyants. Moscow. In Russian.
Arutyunov S. A. (2009) Byk i baran: parallel’ ili oppozitsiya [Bull and ram: parallel or opposition]. URL: http://levonabrahamian.com/cntnt/ publicatio/articles_b/stati/sarutyunov.html (retrieved: 19.06.2018). In Russian.
Avakyan G. (1999) Armyanskaya Apostol’skaya Tserkov’, eyo mesto v sovremennom armyanskom obshchestve [Th e Armenian Apostolic Church, its place in the modern Armenian society]. URL: http://www.ca-c.org/journal/cac-03–1999/st_21_ avakyan.shtml (retrieved: 19.06.2018). In Russian.
Corley F. (1996) Th e Armenian Church under the Soviet regime. Part 1: Th e Leadership of Kevork’. Religion, state and society.1996. No. 24 (1). Pp. 9–53. In English.
Corley F. (1996a) Th e Armenian Church under the Soviet regime. Part 2: Th e Leadership of Vazgen. Religion, state and society. 1996. No. 24 (4). Pp. 286–343. In English.
Harutyunyan S. B., Kalantaryan A. A. (2001) Tukh Manuk [Th e Dark Youth]. Yerevan. In Armenian.
Kabitskiy M. E., Kryukova N. V. (2015) O chem govoryat v Armenii: kratkiy ekskurs v narodnyy diskurs [What do they talk about in Armenia: a brief excursion into the people’s discourse]. Novyye rossiyskiye gumanitarnyye issledovaniya [New Russian humanitarian studies]. 2015. No. 10. URL: http://www.nrgumis.ru/articles/1970/ (retrieved: 19.06.2018). In Russian.
Kryukova N. V. (2015) Nekotoryye aspekty konstruirovaniya smysla zhizni i zhiznennykh tsennostey v aktual’nom armyanskom diskurse. Pervichnyy analiz materialov dvukh polevykh ekspeditsiy v Armeniyu 2015–2016 gg. [Some aspects of constructing of the life meaning and life values in the actual Armenian discourse. Primary analysis of the materials of two fi eld expeditions to Armenia in 2015–2016]. In: Polevyye issledovaniya studentov RGGU. Etnologiya. Fol’kloristika. Lingvistika [Field research of RSUH students. Ethnology. Folklore studies. Linguistics]. Vol. Х. Moscow. Pp. 53–67. In Russian.
Kryukova N. V. (2016) “U nas neveruyushchikh netu!”: otnosheniye k religii v sovremennoy Armenii [“We don’t have unbelievers!”: attitude to religion in modern Armenia]. Novyye rossiyskiye gumanitarnyye issledovaniya [New Russian humanitarian studies]. 2016. No. 11. URL: http://www.nrgumis.ru/articles/1998/ (retrieved: 19.06.2018). In Russian.
Mikaelyan G. (2014) Armyanskaya apostol’skaya tserkov’ i obshchestvo v sovremennoy Armenii [Armenian Apostolic Church and society in modern Armenia]. In: Bol’shoy Kavkaz dvadtsat’ let spustya: resursy i strategii politiki i identichnosti [Greater Caucasus twenty years later: resources and strategies of politics and identity]. Moscow. Pp. 216–262. In Russian.
Primiano L. N. (1995) Vernacular religion and the search for method in religious folklore. Western folklore. 1995. Vol. 54. Pp. 37–56. In English.
Shagoyan G. (2012) Vremya igrat’ svad’bu: mifologicheskaya i ekonomicheskaya obuslovlennos’ armyanskogo svadebnogo sezona [Time for wedding: mythological and economic conditionality of the Armenian wedding season]. Armyanskiy gumanitarnyy vestnik [Armenian humanitarian herald]. 2012. No. 4. Pp. 140–152. In Russian.
Siekierski K. (2013) Th e Armenian Apostolic Church and vernacular Christianity in Soviet Armenia. Keston Newsletter. 2013. No. 18. Pp. 15–20. In English.
Siekierski K. (2014) “One nation, one faith, one church”: Th e Armenian Apostolic Church and the ethno-religion in post-Soviet Armenia. In: Armenian Christianity today: Identity, politics and popular practice. London; New York. Pp. 9–34. In English.
Ter-Sarkisyants A. E. (1998) Armyane. Istoriya i etnokul’turnyye traditsii [Armenians. History and ethno-cultural traditions]. Moscow. In Russian