Tel.: +7 (846) 207-44-22
59, Gor’kogo str., Samara, 443099, Russian Federation
Full Professor (History), head of the Department of Philosophy, History and Theory of World Culture,
Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
Ivanova A.: e-mail: lulu419@yandex.ru
Tel. +7 (846) 207-44-22
59, Gor’kogo str., Samara, 443099, Russian Federation
Student, faculty of culture and arts, Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
The article describes features of contemporary funeral and commemorative rituals of the Chuvashs in Samara Trans-Volga region (Sok the river’s basin). The relevance of the research is due to the fact, that in Chuvash ethnology up to date there has been no systematic detailed study of funeral and commemorative complexes, which are of interest both from the point of view of preserving their traditional, so-called “pagan” beliefs and rituals, as well as characteristics of contemporary religious Chuvash practices. The article reveals the elements of pagan worship; it shows the influence of Orthodox traditions on forming structure and content of the ceremonies. Pagan tradition is evident at all stages of preparing the dead for the burial, in funeral rituals, in perception of the death and of the magic items used in rituals. The departure from the norms is due to either the loss of understanding of the actions performed or intentional refusal of the actions. The influence of the Orthodox norms is manifested in a priest's participation in a number of rituals with the attributes of a Christian burial, in reading the Psalter and prayers, in memorial food. Changes in the way of life of the local Chuvashs in the 20th — beginning of the 21st century caused by the technological progress and social and economic transformations in society influenced funeral and commemorative rituals, namely commemorative ritual date shift, ceremonial attributes, the depth of religious beliefs and religious experience of the ceremony participants.
Danilov A. A., Danilova M. G. (2016) Istoriya sozdaniya truda Kheykki Paasonena “Gebräuche und Volksdichtung der Tschuwaschen” (Obychai i narodnaya poeziya chuvashey, Hel’sinki, 1949) [History of creation of Heikki Paasonen’s work “Gebräuche und Volksdichtung der Tschuwaschen” ]. Vestnik Chuvashskogo universiteta [Herald of Chuvash University]. 2016. No. 2. Pp. 37–41. In Russian.
Denisov P. V. (1959) Religioznye verovaniya chuvashey. Istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki [Religious convictions of the Chuvashs. historical-ethnographical essays]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Fuks A. A. (1840) Zapiski o chuvashakh i cheremisakh Kazanskoy gubernii [Notes on the Chuvash and the Cheremiss of Kazan’ province]. Kazan’. In Russian.
Gennep van A. (1999) Obryady perekhoda [The rites of passage]. Transl. from English. Moscow. In Russian.
Georgi I. G. (1795) Opisanie vsekh obitayushchikh v Rossiyskom gosudarstve narodov, ikh zhiteyskikh obryadov, obyknoveniy, odezhd, zhilishch, uprazhneniy, zabav, veroispovedaniy i drugikh dostopamyatnostey [Description of all peoples, residing at the Russian state, their worldly rituals, customs, clothes, dwellings, exercises, entertainments, confessions and other peculiarities]. Part 1. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Ivanov V.P., Matveev G.B. (eds.) (2015) Chuvashi Prisviyazh’ya: istoriya i kul’tura [Chuvashs of Trans-Sviyaga: history and culture]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Yagafova E. A. (1998) Samarskie chuvashi (istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki): Konets XVII — nachalo XX v. [Samara Chuvashs (historicalethnographical essays): the end of the 17th — the beginning of the 20th century]. Samara. In Russian.
Yagafova E. A. (2007) Chuvashskoe «yazychestvo» v XVIII — nachale XXI veka [Chuvash “paganism” in the 18th — the beginning of the 21st century]. Samara. In Russian.
Yagafova E. A. (2007) Chuvashi UraloPovolzh’ya: istoriya i traditsionnaya kul’tura etnoterritorial’nykh grupp (XVII — nachalo XX v.) [Chuvashs of the Urals and Volga the river’s basin: history and traditional culture of ethno-regional groups (the 17th — the beginning of the 20th century)]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Kakhovskiy B. V. (1978) Pogrebal’nyy obryad chuvashskogo yazycheskogo naseleniya [Funeral 56Научный альманах ritual of the Chuvash pagan population]. Sovremennye i etnicheskie protsessy v Chuvashskoy ASSR [Contemporary and ethnic processes in Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]. Coll. papers of the Chuvash Research Institute. Cheboksary. Pp. 118–146. In Russian.
Kakhovskiy V.F. (1979) Dokhristianskiy pogrebal’nyy kul’t chuvashskogo naseleniya [PreChristian funeral cult among the Chuvash population]. PhD thesis (History). Cheboksary. In Russian. Komissarov G. I. (1911) Chuvashi Kazanskogo Zavolzh’ya [The Chuvashs of Kazan’ Trans-Volga]. Izvestiya obshchestva arkheologii, istorii i etnografii pri Kazanskom universitete [Bulletin of the Society for archeology, history and ethnography of the Emperor Kazan’ University]. Vol. XXVII. Issue 5. Kazan’. 1911. Pp. 311–421. In Russian.
Kondrat’ev M. G. (ed.) (2004) Simbirsko-Saratovskie chuvashi [Simbirsk and Saratov Chuvashs]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Magnitskiy V. K. (1881) Materialy k ob'yasneniyu staroy chuvashskoy very: sobrany v nekotorykh mestnostyakh v Kazanskoy gubernii Magnitskim, chlenom-sotrudnikom Kazanskogo obshchestva arkheologii, istorii i etnografii [Materials for explanation of the old Chuvash confession, recorded at some localities of Kazan’ province by Magnitskiy, a member-fellow of the Kazan’ Society for archeology, history and ethnography]. Kazan’. In Russian.
Mesarosh D. (2000) Pamyatniki staroy chuvashskoy very [Monuments of the old Chuvash confession]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Mikhaylov S. M. (1972) Trudy po etnografii i istorii russkogo, chuvashskogo i mariyskogo narodov [Studies on ethnography and history of the Russian, the Chuvash and the Mari people]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Nikol’skiy V. (1919) Kratkiy konspekt po etnografii chuvash [Brief abstract of ethnography of the Chuvashs]. Kazan’. In Russian.
Otchet Samarskogo eparkhial’nogo komiteta Pravoslavnogo missionerskogo obshchestva za 1907 god [Report of Samara eparchial committee of the Orthodox Missionary society from 1907] (1908). Samarskie eparkhial’nye vedomosti [Samara Eparchial Bulletin]. 1908. No. 14. Pp. 3–4. In Russian.
Paasonen H. (1949) Gebräuche und Volksdichtung der Tschuwaschen gesammt von Heikki Paasonen, herausgeben von Eino Karanka und Martti Rässanen. Helsinki. In German.
Pallas P. S. (1773) Puteshestvie po raznym provintsiyam Rossiyskoy imperii [Journey along different provinces of the Russian Empire]. Part I. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Prokop’ev K. P. (1903) Pokhorony i pominki u Chuvash [Funeral and commemoration among the Chuvashs]. Kazan’. In Russian.
Rudenko S. I. (1910) Chuvashskie nadgrobnye pamyatniki [Chuvash tomb monuments]. Materialy po etnografii Rossii [Materials on ethnography of Russia]. Vol.I. St. Petersburg. Pp. 81–88. In Russian.
Salmin A. K. (1994) Narodnaya obryadnost’ chuvashey [Folk ceremonials among the Chuvashs]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Salmin A. K. (2007) Sistema religii chuvashey [Religious system of the Chuvashs]. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Sboev V. A. (2004) Zametki o chuvashakh: Issledovaniya ob inorodtsakh Kazanskoy gubernii [Notes about the Chuvashs: Studies on minorities of Kazan’ province]. Cheboksary. In Russian.
Skvortsov V. (1905) Ocherk khristianskogo prosveshcheniya chuvash v prikhode sela NovoYakushkina, Buguruslanskogo uezda (k 40-letiyu prikhoda) [Essay on Christian enlightenment of the Chuvashs in the parish of Novo-Yakushkino village of Buguruslan county (to the 40th anniversary of the parish]. Samarskie eparkhial’nye vedomosti [Samara Eparchial Bulletin]. 1905. No. 3. Pp. 57–63; No. 5. Pp. 157–163; No. 7. Pp. 211–219. In Russian.
Tokarev S. A. (1983) Obshchina i sem’ya [Community and family]. Kalendarnye obychai i obryady v stranakh zarubezhnoy Evropy [Calendar customs and rituals in the countries of the foreign Europe]. Moscow. Pp. 194–202. In Russian.