Ethnic consolidation versus construction: traditional cultures genesis problem

The problem of traditional culture preservation and resurrection is timely, scientifically and socially significant. Traditional culture, being one of the identity levels, is studied by foreign scientists within the frame of a constructivist approach. Some important conclusions have been made in this direction: one of them describes the artificial nature of ideological perceptions and cultural phenomena created by a certain person or national (political) elite. Rejecting the principle of historicism gives an additional opportunity to analyze the current situation, but does not have any prognostic potential. Studying an ideological phenomenon but not considering the ethnic condition of a social entity in which a construct is placed does not give information on its historical age. Meanwhile, taking as a basis some conceptual ideas of Russian ethnologists on the importance of ethnic consolidation (leading to creation of ethnic conscience, identity, and thus creating one's own culture), it is possible to state that this process on the whole leads to an active search for "new" identities of different levels, starting from ethnic to cultural and then to political ones. During this process, national (political) elite becomes an "executor" for this "order". To make society adopt a construct, it should fit not only the emotional state, but also be based on values and beliefs of that very society, in other words it should take a tradition as a foundation. If migration, acculturation, assimilation are prevailing among ethnic processes, then a tradition will also be smooth, discrete, and members of this society will not be able to relate it to their previous experience. In this case a full denial of such a tradition occurs, and for some time society may entrench itself to ideological constructs which will further its own destruction. The article describes the creation of a "new" traditional culture in Altai society using several Siberian sources. This process is presented as a result of their ethnic consolidation and an "answer" to the historical challenges of the 20th century.

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