Oriental Studies (Oct 2020)
Ethno-Confessional Landscape of the Altai Republic: Global Challenges and Local Responses
Abstract
Introduction. The article studies the contemporary ethno-confessional landscape of the Altai Republic as part of historical/cultural heritage, and as a factor influencing certain present-day sociocultural processes. Goals. The work seeks to identify constants and development trends in ethno-confessional relations in the region. Methods. M. Weber’s theory of social action and several sociophilosophical concepts, including those of sociocultural neotraditionalism, collective memory and collective trauma, constitute the theoretical framework of the study. The latter summarizes results of 2003-2018 sociological surveys that revealed most significant — for the collective memory of the Altai peoples – historical events to have posed global challenges in modern and contemporary history, namely: disintegration of nomadic power structures and inclusion in the orbit of an essentially differing civilization, transition to modernization, and pressure of world religions. Results. At the turn of the 21st century, a number of trends have emerged that can be qualified as collective responses to such global challenges: revival of family and clan self-organization forms, preservation of traditional economic paradigms, rejection of technocratic attributes of modernization, development of neo-traditional syncretic religious forms. Conclusions. The analysis of statistical data, materials of regional media and social networks, included observations make it possible to distinguish some actual development trends in ethno-confessional relations in the region: conservation (despite the crisis) of local human potential characterized by that quite a number of individuals tackle ethnocultural, religious/mystical, and mythopoetic creativity jobs which, thus, transform the sphere of the sacred into a space for political, civil, and generational discourse. Public consciousness of natives is also marked by dualism of secular and religious aspects, while sacralization of memory might be a means to use cultural heritage in overcoming the collective trauma caused by modernization.
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