The resurgence of national and historical awareness among the people of what was once the USSR has been nowhere stronger than among the Russians themselves. Some of the larger projects of rediscovery amount to a reinterpretation of traditional culture. This carefully annotated collection of recent studies of Russian folk religion, village organization and family life, including the rituals associated with childbirth, special attention to women's roles and to the specificity of Siberia in Russian culture, will be a revelation to a wide array of readers. It is intended for use not only in anthropology departments but more widely interdisciplinary courses in Russian studies, peasant studies and women's studies.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Religion and Ritual; The Introduction of Christianity in Russia and the Pagan Traditions; The Christianization of the Russian Peasants; Russian Folk Culture and Folk Religion; Forms of Transformation of Pagan Symbolism in the Old Believer Tradition; Archaic Elements in the Charms of the Russian Population of Siberia; On the History of Icon Painting in Western Siberia; Gender and Family Life; The Woman in the Ancient Russian Family (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries); Russian Rituals, Customs, and Beliefs Associated with the Midwife (1850-1930); "She Entered a Nunnery ..."; Customary Law, Daily Life, Medicine, and Morality; The Living Past; Traditional Norms of Behavior and Forms of Interaction of Nineteenth-century Russian Peasants; The Commune and Customary Law among Russian Peasants of the Northern Cis-Urals
