Adaptive Potential of Ethnic Culture (According to the Data from Russian Germans of Narym Territory)

Russian Germans; Deportation; Narym Territory; physiological and cultural adaptation; ethnic culture. The problem of the transformation of ethnic culture in the extreme socio-political situation is viewed in the article, based on field materials of the author and participants of ethnographic expeditions to Alexandrovo, Kargasoksky, Parabel and Kolpashevsky districts of the Tomsk region, took place in the years 2013-2016. The problem is investigated in relation to the culture of the Russian Germans who were deported to Narym Territory at different times, but mostly in the secondary deportation at the autumn of 1942. The process of adaptation to difficult conditions of the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war are reconstructed. The proposed division of the national historiography of culture on "ethnic culture" and "culture of ethnos" is used to explain uncovered adaptation processes. Non-traditional ways of the self-sustaining of deported Germans are reviewed. The role of the traditional occupations during the adaptation process: agriculture and trucking, as well as tailoring are emphasizes. Updating the archaic traditions that were in the parent culture in the recessive state - "plastyanka" (small residential or auxiliary building made up of sod) and half-dugouts are demonstrates. The loss of ethnic and cultural traditions in the post-war decade are observed. The German traditions in the house (role of an oven in a plan of the house, oven and bed in the interior) and household building (parallel, perpendicular, and L-shaped arrangement in relation to the house, fusion constructions in a row), food (prevalence of starchy foods, vegetable and meat ingredients, the most typical dishes - «Strudel», «Kraut und Prei», «Riewelkuche») are identified. Renewed in the Narym territory German holidays - Christmas and Easter - are determined. The author made a conclusion about chronologically different levels of adaptation. It was aimed at the physical survival of the ethnic community; it was under the ethnic culture and relied on unconventional for it in 1940-ies. In 1950-ies adaptation involved the ethnic culture and was accompanied by a revival of its individual elements, primarily related to housing, food and ritual sphere. Factors contributing to ethnic and cultural adaptation became compact resettlement of the deported Russian Germans, the active functioning of the mother language and the preservation of religion.

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