Choduraa K. Irgit
Publications by the Author
3 publications
SOURCES ON TUVAN ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE SCIENTIFIC ARCHIVE OF TNIIYALI-TIGI-TIGPI
The article is devoted to the study of sources on the ethnography of Tuvans, stored in the scientific archive of the Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian and Applied Socio-Economic Research. The research material included handwritten documents, illustrative materials, information from oral folk art, and tangible artifacts from the Institute’s scientific archive. Both historical methods of actualization, logical analysis and the “close–up” method are used, as well as source studies – analysis, synthesis, interpretation – to obtain a set of data on sources and their typologization. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the presentation of an overview analysis of the sources in the collections of the Institute’s archive and the definition of their typological diversity, which can be used for ethnological research. The author comes to the conclusion that since the establishment of the Institute in 1945, its main tasks have been to collect materials necessary for the scientific study of the history and culture of Tuvans, to acquire collections of sources, and to record the memories of informants who lived in pre-revolutionary traditional Tuva. As a result of studying the materials of the archive’s collections, the sources are divided into written, folklore (oral), material, audio recordings and visual. They contain ethnographic data with varying degrees of completeness. Among the written materials, there are little-known ones that need to be thoroughly investigated, while physical and visual sources require careful analysis and attribution in order to further introduce them into scientific discourse. It is important to expand and deepen the source studies and historiographical research on the ethnography of Tuvans in the future, chronologically covering the period up to the present.
MODERN SOCIAL PRACTICES AS A WAY OF REPRESENTING OF THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE OF TUVANS
The article is devoted to the study of social practices as one of the ways of representing the traditional culture of Tuvans in a changing socio-cultural reality. The work is based on materials collected by the author during the visits to public events in the republic on the day of their holding (Naadym, Shagaa, festivals and competitions), interviewing Tuvan craftsmen as subjects of ethnic entrepreneurship and active actors in ethnosocial processes to revive the Tuvan material culture, as well as studying Internet content as a platform for expressing ethnic identity of Tuvans, and analysis of scientific literature. The author comes to the conclusion that in the context of a changing socio-cultural paradigm, Tuvans, as carriers of ethnic culture, are mastering other ways of communicating, and broadcasting their identity and cultural heritage, which leads to changes in their ways of actualizing, transmitting, and storing information. Five blocks of public practices have been conditionally identified. These include national and folk holidays in a modern format, festivals and competitions as a way to revive and popularize traditional culture, educational activities with a regional and ethnic orientation of its content, ethnic entrepreneurship as a way to adapt tradition to market relations, the active development of the Tuvan digital world and the formation of the “Tuvan” cyberspace as a place of ethnic identity transmission. What they have in common is the activity of organizing events, activities, and other activities that represent elements, images, symbols, forms, and knowledge about Tuvan traditional culture. Their analysis shows that the values and forms of ethnocultural practices of the former tradition are being reconstructed and integrated into the information space of modern society acquiring the characteristics of modern social practices.
THE FIRST EXPEDITIONS ON THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH OF TUVA IN THE LATE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES
The article is devoted to the first expeditions to Tuva and its inhabitants at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, organized by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. This society, founded in 1846, is associated with the institutionalization and formation of Russian ethnology. With its assistance, the peoples of Russia and adjacent territories, which included Tuva in the XIX century, were investigated. The author has carried out a review analysis of the materials collected during the expeditions to Tuva by P. E. Ostrovsky and F. Ya. Kon.The further fate of the works was publication or storage of manuscripts in archives, museums in Russia and Europe. The author has noted the importance of the first expeditions, which were aimed not only at collecting materials, but also at acquiring the first ethnographical collections for Russian museums. They are the source base for the research of Tuvan ethnological science.