RECEPTION OF TRYPILLIA HERITAGE IN NATIVE FAITH MOVEMENT OF UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL IDENTITY

Abstract

One of the topical issues in modern religious studies, requiring a proper coverage, is the study of the Trypillia spiritual heritage perception by representatives of modern neo-pagan religious organizations (usually called in Ukraine as native faith or native beliefs, originally "ridnovirski" from the Ukrainian words "native" and "believe" that identification clearly indicating the autochthonous characteristics of beliefs, customs and rites represented by a particular confession). Today in Ukraine there exist a number of different religious confessions and several communities, which differ significantly from each other in their beliefs and religious practices. Despite the fact that the vast majority of native faith communities in Ukraine are patriotic and nationally oriented, historically there is a certain "chronological paradox", in that the first mention of the name "Ukraine" appears in the Kyiv chronicle in 1187, while officially the process of Ukrainian lands (that time called "Rus") christianization began in 988. Such dissonance naturally actualizes the issue of searching for an alternative ethno-confessional identity in the native faith environment, as the vector of modern native believers religious activity targets at reviving autochthonous pre-Christian beliefs and spiritual values, that is, towards an older chronological retrospective, among which objects quite often there appear the Trypillia spiritual heritage. Trypillia culture (also called Cucuteni-Trypillya) – is a Neolithic–Eneolithic archaeological culture, whose name comes from the name of the village of Trypillya in Kyiv region, it flourished between 5500 and 2750 BCE, was located between the Carpathians and the Dnieper in modern Ukraine, Moldova and Romania (Trypilian culture). The novelty of this work is that for the first time in this research perspective, the issues of both the reception of the spiritual heritage of ancient Trypillia by modern natives of Ukraine and the problem of ethno-confessional identity in the Ukrainian native movement are considered. The methodological basis of our study relays upon the conceptual work of the French philosopher Vincent Decombe (Decombe, 2015, 281 р.). In particular, the concept of "ethno-confessional identity" is a component of the collective identities concept developed by the researcher, i.e. those that formulate answers to the question: "Who are we?". At the same time, this term represents the situation of ethnic and confessional identities integration, which in the context of understanding the religious processes of the native-faith movement in Ukraine do appear as an actual phenomenon of religious life in its inseparable integrity. The research publication highlights the problem through the prism of the most prominent religious confessions and communities in the religious field of Ukraine, which render certain visions regarding their own reception of the ancient Trypillians spiritual heritage.