He Modern Ethnic Identity of the Kalmyk Ethnic Group: the Influence of Material Culture and Ritual Practices

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The article is devoted to the influence of material culture and ritual practices on the modern ethnic identity of the Kalmyk people. Currently, a kind of ethnic “renaissance” is taking place in Kalmykia, which manifests itself both in the transformation and reactualization of existing ethnic trends, as well as in the construction (reconstruction) of neo-ethnics, the search for new motives of ethnic identity. In addition, there is a local “local” identity, an association of oneself with the administrative region of residence, each of which has its own established ethnocultural specifics. Such ethnotransformation processes were reflected in the related religious and civic affiliation, in the view of one's own history and one's own place in this world. The specificity of the ethnic “renaissance” in modern Kalmyk society is associated with the processes of ethnocultural adaptation of Kalmyks among the peoples of the Volga region and the North Caucasus after their arrival on the Volga in the XVII century. In the XIX–XX centuries, the reduction of pasture lands led to a crisis of nomadic economy and caused the gradual transition of the Kalmyk people to a sedentary lifestyle. However, the Kalmyks did not copy the way of life of neighboring sedentary peoples, but adapted it to their needs based on their own ideas about the world order. Ethnic specificity is reflected in the rituals of the life cycle, as well as calendar rituals. Currently, there has been a change in the maternity rite only in the methods and place of delivery. However, during the prenatal period, food and behavioral prohibitions imposed on a woman persist. Thus, the isolated residence of Kalmyks in the Lower Volga region in a non-ethnic, non-confessional and foreign-speaking region, connected by common origin, common history, customs and aware of themselves as a whole since the 19th century, led to the formation of their ethnic identity. Since the second half of the twentieth century, when the Kalmyks gradually lost some of their specific features, this led to a change in ethnic identity. The processes of changing various aspects of ethnic culture represent the life of an ethnic group, a living process of its development and transformation.