Postal Photo-Postcards as Ethnographic Sources for Bashkir Children's Clothing in the Early 20th Century: V.K. Fedorov's Collection

Abstract

The article analyzes the attributes of Bashkir children's clothing. The object of the study were photopostcards published in the printing house of A.P. Friesen in the village of Davlekanovo, Belebeyevsky District, Ufa Province, purchased in his bookstore. Photo-postcards were used in postal communication in the first decades of the 20th century. The analysis of the images showed that at the specified time, boys' clothes, shoes and hats were made in the likeness of men, while girls' costumes were copied from female attributes. The depicted children's clothing demonstrates the ethnolocal features of the costume complexes of Bashkirs who lived in the south-west, north of Bashkortostan and on the territory of the Chelyabinsk Region. The girls' costume included a long dress with long sleeves, a doublet, a scarf. The ethnolocal markers of the southwestern Bashkirs were a takiya cap and a rounded breast ornament embroidered with silver coins, coral beads, jewelry brooches with semiprecious stones and bells on the edge, the northern and Trans-Ural Bashkirs — a kalpak headdress and a twist with rows of coins. In the photos of boys, you can see the upper loose clothes of the Cossacks, shirt, boots ichegi, work shoes laptops and several types of headwear. A photo of boys with a fez headdress with tassels testifies to the penetration of a non-ethnic fashion to Bashkirs. The penetration of urban fashion into the environment of wealthy Bashkirs is also obvious.