Outer garments of the Krasnoufimsk Maris: main types, sewing patterns, decoration

Abstract

The paper is devoted to one of the elements of the traditional costume, namely, outerwear, typical of the Krasnoyfimsk Mari people (a local group of the Mari ethnos living in the upper reaches of the Ufa River, in the south of the Sverdlovsk Region). It describes in detail the peculiar cut designs and decorations of various types of outerwear and considers the differences in cutting out men’s and women’s outerwear as well as the features of its usage in the 20th century. The traditional outerwear of the Krasnoufimsk Maris is treated in historical dynamics, i.e. changes in its composition (disappearance of some types) and areas of its usage (white linen festive or everyday clothes were used in the second half of the 20th century exclusively for praying). Over several centuries, the Krasnoufimsk Mari people have been living in the polyethnic environment, and this could not help but affect their clothes. Borrowings of another ethnic origin are observed in terminology and sometimes in decorations of one of the women’s caftans (iylyan) that still preserves the traditional cut. This paper is prepared using the materials of the author’s field research carried out in Mari villages of the Krasnoufimsk District of the Sverdlovsk Region (expeditions 2002 and 2006). The sources also include the collection of Mari clothes from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography (Kuzeev Institute of Ethnological Studies, Ufa Federal Research Centre, RAS), the collection of photographs made by the author in Mari villages of the Krasnoufimsk District of the Sverdlovsk Region, the photo archive of the Institute of History, Language and Literature (Ufa Federal Research Centre, RAS) and publications of the 19th–21st centuries on the stated topic. The research is based on the comparative analysis to correlate field and museum materials of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with the literature sources published in the 19th century, this enabling us to reveal the evolution of the ethnic tradition and its development in time. The paper introduces new field and museum materials for scientific use. Such a detailed research on the outerwear of the Krasnoufimsk Maris accompanied by cut patterns and fragments of embroidery has not ever been conducted before