FEATURES OF SOCIALIZATION AND FORMATION OF MORALITY OF CHILDREN IN RELATIVES OF EASTERN SLAVS

Abstract

In the article, on the basis of the analysis of ethnographic research of the 19th –beginning of the 20th centuries, peculiarities of folk pedagogy of the Eastern Slavs, in particular the influence of the family customs on socialization and the formation of children`s morality have been considered. The author focuses on the main functions of the ethnopedagogy of our ancestors: the formation of positive character features of the child, the provision of a happy life to a newborn, the provision of connection and harmony between the child and its family accompanied by special rituals.In the Eastern Slavic society, the process of socialization of a child took place naturally. Education was a part of multilateral social relations. Children were not much prepared for the future adult life, they rather gradually joined it due to the complication of their social role, involvement in various spheres of social activity on weekdays and holidays. The upbringing of children was not separated from the life of adults. The content, forms, methods of education depended on lifestyle, gender and age division of labor, family relations, beliefs of our ancestors, etc.Characteristics of ethnographic materials has allowed the author to conclude that the Eastern Slavs developed an effective system of forms, means, methods of folk education, which ensured the preservation of the custom-ritual culture and contributed to the formation of the ethnic group; one of the central places in Eastern Slavic family customs belongs to those aimed at ensuring the happiness and well-being of the child, the acceptation of a newborn into the family and promoting the creation by a child its own future family. Methods of influence on the morality and socialization of the child were basically based on the principles of contact magic.