Oriental Studies (Dec 2022)
Works and Concerns of Iki-Khurul Shabinar Clan, Mid-19th to Early 20th Centuries: History of Kalmyk Everyday Life Approached
Abstract
Introduction. The current community demand for ethnic identity search and its paths makes insights into everyday life of the past topical enough. So, there is also a growing interest in past Kalmyk everyday life which proves unique in many respects. Another research motive is that the phenomenon remains understudied and is limited to some fragmentary observations of a small circle of authors. Goals. The paper aims at characterizing a history of Kalmyk everyday life through the example of deeds and concerns of one shabinar clan to have inhabited Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Governorate. The chronological framework — mid-19th to early 20th centuries — is explained by the abundance of innovations witnessed by the period to have caused essential changes in the slow-paced nomadic life. Materials and methods. The study analyzes a wide range of archival sources to focus on records management documents housed at the National Archive of Kalmykia (collections ‘Kalmyk People’s Executive Department’ and ‘Executive Office of Baga Dorbet Ulus’) and thus introduced into scientific circulation. The study employs a complex of general scientific and special historical methods, with a fundamental role to be played by the civilizational/cultural and interdisciplinary approaches in combination with the principles of historicism and objectivity together supposed to yield maximum truthfulness in descriptions of examined phenomena. Results. The period under study is distinguished by a dramatic destruction of the clan/tribal isolation once inherent to Kalmyk society, this caused by both administrative measures (the 1910 consolidation of aimaks and khotons) and socioeconomic changes to have resulted in essential stratification of society and labor migrations of impoverished individuals and families (including beyond borders of Governorate proper). The latter processes were aggravated by Russian peasant inflows to Kalmyk Steppe and additional land-related problems.
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