ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

Keywords: S. A. Tukkaev, ethnography, folklore, fests, family rituals, V. F. Miller, beekeeping, land tenure, land use

The article traces the activities of S. A. Tukkaev in the Ossetian studies. The fruitful cooperation of Tukkaev with outstanding Russian scientist V. F. Miller is considered in detail. While creating by Miller his famous «Ossetian Etudes» Tukkaev was a consultant on Digor dialect of the Ossetian language, folklore and ethnography of the Digorians. The Tukkaev’s folklore and ethnographic materials widely used in the first part of the «Ossetian etudes» and in the «Religious beliefs of Ossetians», which consisted the second part of the book, are characterized. On the basis of the letters of Tukkaev to Miller their friendship that bounded a wonderful representative of the Ossetian intellectuals and outstanding scientist is demonstrated. The most significant scientific work of Tukkaev — the historic and ethnographic essay «In the Mountains of Digoria» concerning the land tenure and land use in the mountainous Ossetia and the process of stratification of the Ossetian peasantry — was analyzed.