The Funerary Ceremony of the Chuvash and Finno-Ugric Peoples (a comparative study)

Abstract

The article compares the funerary ceremonies of the Chuvash people and their Finno- Ugric neighbors in the Middle Volga area and the Urals (Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts) in 15th – 19th centuries. The discussion is relevant because the ethnic genesis of the Chuvash is still debated. Highlighted are common and distinctive features of topography of the burial grounds, design of burial pits and tomb structures, orientation of inhumations, position of bodies. Along with the archaeological sources, the author invokes ethnographic data on each of the studied peoples. He attempts to identify the origins and reasons for certain funerary traditions spread among these peoples. The results show a remarkable Finno-Ugric infl uence on the funerary ceremony of the Chuvash as well as diffusion of cultures.

Keywords

• archaeology
• Middle Volga area
• 15th – 19th centuries
• Chuvash
• Mari
• Mordovinians
• Udmurt
• funerary ceremony
• burial grounds
• tomb structures.