Maadai Kara

.mov and .mp4 versions of video fileElbek Kalkin, a ‘with-spirit’ (eelü) epic-teller, is son of the famous Telengit bard A. G. Kalkin. In this heroic epic, Khan Maadai Kara’ son (Kӧgüdei Mergen – Heavenly Archer) is raised by the spirit-owner of Altai. When his parents are captured by Erlik, Lord of the Underworld, he rescues them. It has 7,738 7-line verses of which this is an introduction. The project builds on Pegg's research undertaken in the Mountain Altai since 2002. It includes audio-vidual recordings of living endangered traditions related to heroic epic performance. These include 'requests for blessings' and Jangar songs performed within Ak Jang (White Belief) clan rituals held in open-air temples (Küree) in secret mountain locations. Also included is a video recorded by Pegg prior to the WOLP project of the epic 'Maadai Kara' performed by a contemporary 'With Spirit' (Eelü) bard. Elbek Kalkin, Telengit 'with spirit' epic-teller, Ongudai 2002. Copyright C. Peg

Этническое многообразие в социокультурной динамике: опыт России

The article discusses the integration-fragmenting role of ethnic diversity in the development of Russian society (the post-Soviet period). As a theoretical model for research we propose the wave model of a dynamic process that explains its development in the logic of the alternation of two phases of one cycle, which is started by the introduction and then is accompanied by the subsequent distribution of a socio-cultural innovation. The article concludes that the processes of ethnic convergence and segregation are part of social and cultural transformation of societyВ статье рассматривается интеграционно-фрагментирующая роль этнического многообразия в развитии российского общества (постсоветский период). В качестве теоретической модели исследования предложена волновая модель динамического процесса, объясняющая его развитие в логике чередования двух фаз одного цикла, который запускается внедрением и сопровождается последующим распространением социокультурных инноваций. В статье сделан вывод о том, что процессы этнического сближения и обособления являются составной частью социокультурной трансформации обществ

Sensing "place" : Performance, oral tradition, and improvization in the

The discussion that follows will focus on creative practices within contemporary Ak Jang in the central region of Ongudai. They are based on participation at a mountain temple Sary Bur ritual in Lower Talda, Kuroty Valley (Fig. 1), and are supplemented by recorded interviews and performances in 2006 and 2010 of those who had participated in another such ritual held at the temple above Kulady11 in the neighboring Karakol valley (Fig. 2).Dedicated to Arzhan Mikhailovich Kozorokov (1978-2012

Fractures of the Whole : A Depiction of the shamanic universe on Kača drums brought by J.J. Sederholm from Siberia in 1917

This paper is a brief description of two drums brought by Finnish geologist Jacob Johannes Sederholm from the expedition to Siberia in 1917. Research on drums, based on the ethnographical sources and museum collections, was done to identify provenance of the studied objects. Two drums, brought by Sederholm, have not previously been described in the scholarly work. Both of them are in the private collections of J. J. Sederholm’s grandchildren.Peer reviewe

„Divine and demonic possession”? Farewell to a failed concept

The applicability of the widespread general category of “divine and demonic possession” in the phenomenology of religion is not verified by the thoroughgoing analysis implemented of a limited set of religious phenomena: the religious experiences in the Christian culture. The peculiarities of the two effects of different origin, their consequences for the human being are fundamentally opposite to each other. When, in the field of science the scholars tried to look on a lesser, limited subset, to verify a statement formulated for the whole set and it hasn’t been confirmed, then they are ready to draw the proper consequences. I think that the folklorists, ethnologists of religion and the specialists of the comparative science of religion should be confronted by the fact, that they applied without much reservation the concept of “divine and demonic possession”. By this time, it turned out about this notion, that it couldn’t be used as an universal category of the phenomenology of religio

Biblical Legends in the Folklore of the Turkic Peoples in Southern Siberia

The article deals with the ethnic specificity of biblical legends about the flood and the Tower of Babel in the folklore of the Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia (the Altai, Tuva, Khakassia and Shor). These folk legends, rooted in early Christianity, confirm the cultural and historical contacts between the peoples of Central Asia and peoples holding Christian beliefs. The subjects of the legends, associated with the biblical idea of the creation of the world and man and the flood, found their way into Siberia even before the Russians initiated the process of Christianization in the region from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. This assertion is confirmed not only by the specific features of folk legends under discussion, but also by historical data on the influence of Manichaeism and Nestorianism on the culture of the Central Asian peoples, including on the Turkic peoples of Siberia. The persistence of these legends can be attributed to the fact that their plots are often adapted to local realities, concepts, myths, and events. In the construction of these narratives, use is made of national mythological terminology and conceptual systems. The saturation of the folk legends with local mythology and local beliefs in the Siberian context may be a contributing factor to their ongoing existence as a part of the folklore. The appropriation of the contents of biblical legends by the peoples of Siberia also shows the seriousness of their adoption of Christian ideas in the distant past

New crustose Teloschistaceae in Central Europe

Central Europe in general is poor in Teloschistaceae lichen crusts (Caloplaca s. lat.). Diversity of these lichens is increased by the occurrence of some Arctic, Mediterranean and continental species, which are here close to the limits of their range. Examples include: 1) Caloplaca interfulgens, previously known from arid territories of northern Africa and western Asia, is recorded, surprisingly, from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and southern Russia. In Central Europe, it is restricted to scattered xerothermic limestone outcrops. 2) Caloplaca scabrosa, previously known only from Svalbard, is recorded from the Sudetes in the Czech Republic. It is similar to, but not conspecific with, C. furfuracea. Its diagnostic characters include a blastidiate thallus and the presence of atranorin. Our results show that atranorin is absent in the majority of taxa related to C. furfuracea with only two exceptions: the sample from Eastern Carpathians, here called C. aff. scabrosa, and in one Sudetan sample identified as C. crenularia. 3) Caloplaca emilii, newly described below, is closely related to the Mediterranean C. areolata. We consider C. emilii a Mediterranean species rarely occurring in higher latitudes in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany. It is distinguished from C. areolata mainly by the presence of vegetative diaspores (blastidia); a possible role of blastidia in the distribution pattern of C. emilii is discussed below. Status of the names Caloplaca areolata, C. isidiigera and C. spalatensisis, formerly used for the new taxon, is clarified. 4) Caloplaca molariformis, newly described below, belongs to the Pyrenodesmia group (a lineage of Caloplaca without anthraquinones). It is a continental species, frequently collected on limestone or lime-rich tuffs in steppes or deserts in Turkey, Iran, western Kazakhstan and southern Russia, and is also known from eastern Ukraine and southern Slovakia. Caloplaca molariformis is characterized by its thick thallus with fungal and algal tissues arranged in high stacks. 5) Caloplaca substerilis, newly described below, is distinguished from the closely related C. ulcerosa by its endophloeodal or minutely squamulose thallus with soralia formed in bark crevices or on margins of squamules. While C. ulcerosa has a maritime distribution in Europe, C. substerilis is typically a continental species. North American continental lichens called C. ulcerosa are phylogenetically closer and more similar to C. substerilis. The positions within Teloschistaceae of the taxa considered are demonstrated by ITS phylogenies. The distributions of C. areolata, C. emilii and C. interfulgens are mapped. The new species are fully described using more than a hundred phenotype characters, and diagnostic characters are indicated separately. Copyright © British Lichen Society 2013

EVALUATING RANGELAND CONDITIONS IN NEIGHBORING PROTECTED AREAS OF RUSSIA AND MONGOLIA

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, demands on the vast steppe rangelands and other natural resources in Mongolia, Russia, and other Central Asian states experienced drastic changes. Moving from a socialistic system into a free-market economy of supply and demand saw regulatory institutions, which historically managed natural resources like rangelands, dissolved or without the capacity to enforce their work requirements. Like other places in Russia, the region of the Kosh-Agach Wildlife Refuge experienced a decrease in demand for livestock products, which forced many rural peoples to move to urban areas in search of work. The opposite occurred in the region of western Mongolia where the so-called Cluster A of the Siilkhemiin Nuruu National Park is located. That Region saw an increase in migration from urban to rural areas to embrace their traditional pastoralist lifestyle in order to make a living. This study uses satellite imagery, remote sensing analysis, and field data to assess rangeland conditions in these two protected areas over the past twenty years. The study concludes that rangeland conditions are deteriorating in both areas. Yet more research is needed in order to assess the levels at which climatic and anthropogenic factors are influencing this decline