E-mail: cvetkova_ad@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (7182) 67-36-80
64, Lomova str., Pavlodar, 140008, Kazakhstan
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Professor, Department of Philology, Toraighyrov University
This article analyzes the pre-burial stage in the funeral rite of the Altai Old Believers, connected to preparation of clothes, the coffin or casket, as well as with dying confession. It is based on recordings made during folklore expeditions in the Glubokovskiy and Katon-Karagaiy districts in the East Kazakhstan region (2009–2014); in the Ust-Koksinskiy district of Altai Republic (2015); and in the Soloneshenskiy district in Altai Territory (2016). Informants were descendants of the two most significant ethnographic groups of Old Believers — Poles and stonemasons (kamenshchiki: Old Believers from the mountains) — who live in these areas. Preparation for death in Altai Old Believer villages is a universal practice and a lengthy ritual action in which the main role belongs to a woman. The composition of the “death pack” is stable in terms of the clothing items and attributes and, overall, corresponds to ideas about the afterlife. Differences in the burial complex among local confessional groups follow from adherence to separate branches of Old Belief. In addition to “death pack”, it is customary in Altai Old Believer villages to make a coffin or prepare material for it; carved coffins are preferred. Although changes in the burial complex have taken place over time, nowadays there is a desire to re-actualize traditional rites.
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