Visualizing identity: Kalmyk number plates and the symbolism of the ethnic

In the early 2010s, Kalmykia allowed using individual designs for vehicle registration plates to mark one's ethnic and subethnic identity, which has become popular with the Kalmyks. The article examines number plates as ethnic identity markers and analyzes the symbolism of their designs with regard to automobility and the ethnic situation in Kalmykia. The analysis is focused on the number plates developed by both Kalmykia residents and Kalmyk diaspora in the USA. In addition, comparative analysis is conducted on the symbolism behind the two categories of number plates and that behind the number plates used by the indigenous population of Canada. It is shown that changes in ethnic identification affect the design of the Kalmyk number plates. This research material raises the question as to why ethnic symbols become spread in certain societies. In the case of Kalmykia, the spread of ethnic symbols appears to indicate the consolidation of the Kalmyk society on ethnic grounds, on the one hand, and the revitalization of local subethnic identity, on the other. The latter started after the 1990s, while the issue of local subethnic identity as such had been hardly discussed in the Kalmyk society before that. The analysis of the number plates used by the Kalmyks in Kalmykia and the US, as well as by the Canadian Indians, indicates that actualized ethnic identity drives other forms of ethnic identification, with manifestations of these found in the car culture which is central to mobility in urban areas.

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