Вестник Майкопского государственного технологического университета (Mar 2023)
The atalychestvo institution of the adyghs in the perception of foreign authors: a historiographic aspect
Abstract
Historical and ethnographic descriptions of the unique Adygh pedagogical institute of upbringing in a stranger’s house (atalychestvo) are informative sources that allow later researchers to clarify the important aspects of its formation and features of functioning. In this research foreign sources are considered that have a much wider time coverage than Russian descriptions of the atalychestvo. The work uses historical and ethnographic descriptions of Western and Eastern travelers, missionaries, political agents who visited Circassia in the 15th-19th centuries. The use of the problem-chronological approach made it possible to reflect the phased nature of the formation of ideas about this pedagogical institute, exotic for foreigners. It is important that these sources also reflect the second side of the atalychestvo, when it was used as a way to consolidate suzerain-vassal relations both within Circassia and between the Circassian nobility and the Gireys - the ruling house of the Crimean Khanate. The work revealed that the foreign political variety of atalychestvo is more adequately described by the eastern authors. The article presents the author’s original interpretation of ancient sources (the dedication of Tsar Bosporus Levkon I) about the much earlier sources of the formation of the atalychestvo institution than previously imagined
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