Etnografia Polska (Dec 2015)
TOWARDS THE CREATION OF MODERN ETHNICITY AND IMAGINED COMMUNITY: ETHNOFESTIVALS AND CONSTRUCTING THE BURYAT NATION
Abstract
The article presents certain aspects of the modern Buryat ethnicity formation. It concentrates on the conscious and intentional activities on the part of ethnic intellectual elites. In the modern world the conditions and opportunities for intergenerational cultural transmission are fundamentally changing. The transmission of culture cannot be limited to traditionally important means – family life or school education. The author finds that ethno-festivals play a prominent role as significant factor in the selfpresentation, in ethnic mobilization, in developing aspiration to gain the position of accepted ethnos. Through theatrical productions Buryat elites show “the ownership” of ethnic territory. Struggling to claim its rights, ethnic group has to present its specific cultural pattern – reconstruct or construct new ideology from the selected pieces of knowledge furnished by scholars. The author analyses Buryat ethnofestivals: Altargana and Night of Yokhor. The research material used in this article was collected during subsequent field trips in 2012 and 2013.
