The symbolism of the traditional wedding ritual of Altai-kizhi

This article is dedicated to the traditional wedding of the south Altaians - one of the Turkic peoples in South Siberia. Nowadays, research into the people's traditions has special meaning, because of the need to protect and preserve ethnic and cultural heritage. The purpose - to characterize the traditional wedding ritual and identify its elements. The objectives: 1) to identify the structure of the traditional wedding ritual, 2) to give the interpretation of custom activities, 2) to identify the traditional culture's elements which are important in the wedding ritual. The wedding ritual is among the most stable components of traditional cultures. It should be taken into account that the traditional wedding ritual of the south Altaians combines some different elements of tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Rituals' characteristics are given based on literature and information that was collected during a field trip in Ust-Kan region of the Republic of Altai. The following methods have been hold in writing this article: the component analysis is used to characterize a holistic phenomenon by identifying and characterizing its separate elements. This method was used to make the basic elements of the traditional wedding - a felt mattress, an Altaian hat, a chest and traditional foods. The functional method is also used in the analysis of these elements which resulted in the identification of its practical use. Furthermore, the interpretative method was used to identify the symbolism of some elements and rituals. The descriptive method was used in writing about the traditional culture of the Altaians. Theoretical documents of the west researchers were used in the description of the ritual sphere of a traditional culture. Family rites were considered as rites of passage (emphasis added - A. Gennep). An approach to the ritual symbol was taken from work “Symbol and ritual” by V. Terner as the symbol which has a lot of meanings in different rituals. The American anthropologist K. Geertz in his work “Interpretation of Cultures” analyzed an integrating/disintegrating ritual function. The Russian researcher A. Baiburin in his monography “Ritual in Traditional Culture” took ritual as a vehicle of rationing for the behavior of people which is expressed in symbolic form. This article presents the structure of the traditional wedding ritual of Altai-kizhi in the 21-st century and the scientific analysis of rituals and its interpretation. The symbolic meaning of wedding traditional elements was identified - of traditional foods, an Altaian hat, a felt mattress and a wedding chest.

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