ETHNO-TERRITORIAL GROUPS OF UDMURTS: STATUS OF SOURCES, PROBLEMS AND RESULTS

Abstract

The paper's theme is the internal structure of the Udmurt ethnos of the 19 - early 20 centuries. An overview of the main territorial and local divisions of the Udmurts was made according to the following indicators (criteria): the language, the location of the late Udmurt burial grounds of the 16 - first half of the 19 centuries, the costume complexes, the settling (inhabiting) zones of the main clan groups. The modern ethnological definitions such as ethnographic, ethnic, territorial and local groups used to denote structural elements of ethnos are given in the paper. To reveal the theme the author analyses three main directions. The first is the beliefs and rites of the Udmurts living in the 19 and early 20 centuries, the second is the problem of territories' colonization and the process of the ethnographic groups' formation, and the third is the main factors that influenced the Udmurts' formation. Within the first direction the all-Udmurt religious traits as well as the most important peculiarities of the beliefs and cult practices both of the Northern and Southern Udmurt groups are traced according to the folklore and ethnographic materials. Within the second direction the basic aspects of the colonization of four territorial groups' regions such as the Middle Vyatka River territories, the Cheptsa River basin, the southern part of modern Udmurtia, and the area between the right bank of the Lower Vyatka River and the Lower Kama River are explored according to the medieval archaeological data. The overall characteristics of the archaeological places and the results of their study, as well as the process of the population's formation at the above mentioned four regions are defined at the same time. Some poorly studied aspects of the problem under consideration are indicated. Within the third direction the four main factors for the joining process of the Udmurt ethnos formation are indicated. Among them are the common Perm base of all ethno-territorial Udmurt groups, then the long development including such sociocultural association as the Volga-Kama region, and also the consolidating functions of large district and territorial shrines, as well as the influence of the Bulgarian and Russian cultures