Analysis of Russian Types of Men's Pants in Southern Siberia Late XIX - Early XX century: The Question of the Western and Eastern Components

Pants of Russian men are still little involved as an ethnographic source because of the early influence on her by urban standardized forms at the end of XIX - early XX century. Source base of the study were field materials of the author, collections of the capital and regional museums, departments of manuscripts and descriptions of clothing collections of the early twentieth century. The article attempts to analyze the origins of the three main types of male waist clothing of Russian old-timers and immigrants of the late XIX - early XX century in South Siberia. The peculiarity of the author's approach is to use for the study not only such well-known features of clothing such as material, design, terminology, technology, but also the principles of formation, i.e. sequence to create forms from flat pieces cut by connecting them by hand. The study results significantly expand the existing ideas about the complexity of ethnic and cultural composition of the Siberians of East Slavic population, a ratio of the western and eastern parts of their traditional clothing. The principle of formation of the first type of pants with asymmetrical design reflects the archaic features of ancient clothing in the form of swing skirts, well-known in ethnography, not only in Asia (Siamese, Khmer), but amongst the male population of Europe (Irish, Scottish). Pants of this construction, except for Russian, Belarusian and part of the Ukrainians, have been known for many agricultural nations, like neighboring Siberia (the Komi-Permian and Zyrians), and geographically distant locations (among the peoples of the north-western India, China, Central Asia XV-XVI cc., Koreans and others). The second type of pants of symmetrical design with wedges (Chembar) is considered to be typical Siberian tradition, but they were known also among Siberian Tatars, and further - among the nomadic herders in Central, Southwest Asia. These pants were made to sew spacious, as in cold days they ran the garments and trousers pulled over Valen wool shoes (felt boots). Embroidery of the leg of this type is not typical for the Russian tradition, although among the Eastern ornaments typical Northern Russia patterns are found. Wide trousers (bloomers) with wide straight leg, apparently, were brought to Siberia from western provinces by service people from Don, representatives of which, according to many sources, participated in the formation of the service old-timer residents. The old trousers (bloomers) were similar in design to the "pants" of neighboring Turkic peoples of Siberia (Tatars), as well as more distant Turkic-speaking peoples of the Volga region, Central and Southwest Asia. The originality of the situation lies in the fact that the Eastern tradition has come to the severe Siberian region from the west, that is, from Ukrainian territory.

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