ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

The article analyzes the ways Scythians used various alcoholic beverages. The data found in the sources enables to assume that Scythians manufactured special beverage like koumiss. Written and archaeological sources indicate that wine consumption was widespread among Scythians. Scythians bought it from Greeks. Scythians themselves were not engaged in grapes growing (viticulture) and wine-making. The analysis conducted allows the author to contest the conclusions of some researchers on beer brewing by the Scythians. Archaeological sources give reason to believe that beer brewing using hops could have been mastered by Alans of the North Caucasus by the very period when similar beer appeared in Western Europe. However, according to the author, the origin of Scythian and Alanic traditions to use alcoholic beverages goes farther and was associated with other sacred drinks, represented by soma of Indo-Aryans and haoma of Iranians.

Keywords: Scythians, alcoholic beverages, archaeological data, written evidence, Alans, Ossetians.

Substantial part of the agricultural works in field husbandry of Ossetians was carried out by single households. However, they did not always cope with the full volume of the fieldwork. There were many reasons: shortage of manpower for some labor-intensive operations, absence of equipment, necessity for rapid harvesting, lack of draught force for soil tillage, etc. These factors led to the emergence of labor cooperation in agriculture of Ossetian people. Three types of cooperation and mutual aid organization were spread known as ækhkhuis, ziu, tsædis.

Keywords: husbandry, cooperation and mutual assistance forms, ploughing.

This text presents another study of the Balkan-Caucasian folklore parallels and suggests a new viewpoint about the Balkan ritual Kalush from the perspective of the North Caucasian Chopa / Tzopai. The existence of early and related types of religiosity in the folklore heritage in the Prepontian territories is quite predictable among the descendants of the Indo-Iranian (Scythian-Sarmatian, Alan) and other Indo-European communities though today thay have different languages and faiths. In both folklore manifestations (Chopa / Tzopai, Kalush) a common archaic context is visible in myth-ritualistic ideas and similar behavioral models of rituality (in the ideas about the Superior thunder god; about a transition / and transience – of the nontraditional deceased and of people in marginal psychosomatic state, believed to be the chosen ones and mediators; in the music symbolization of the ritual environment). This context namely leads to the projections of the mythical time and training within mytho-logos, whose “finalis”, however, was heralded long ago. Furthermore, this text is about rituality not recommended for “training”.

Keywords: Kalush, Chopa, Tzopai, Bulgarian-Caucasian folklore parallels, myth, ritual.

The article is devoted to Savva Kokiev’s activities in ethnographic Ossetian studies. His creative collaboration with prominent Russian scientist V.F. Miller in research of the Ossetian language, ethnography and folklore is considered. Kokiev’s participation in preparing Miller’s Ossetian-Russian-German dictionary (compiling Ossetian-Russian glossary, organizing the board of authors and coordinating data collecting for the dictionary) is shown. A two-week scientific expedition of V.F. Miller to Ossetia in summer of 1880 for collecting the folklore for the first part of his book “Ossetian etudes” is described. The assistance S. Kokiev provided in accompanying the expedition, in searching informants who knew oral folklore, in producing records in the Digor dialect new for the academician is being analyzed. Particular emphasis is placed on the inclusion of folklore and ethnographic materials provided by Kokiev into "Ossetian etudes" by V.F. Miller. The information Kokiev supplied to M.M. Kovalevsky during a scientific expedition in 1883 on social and family life of Ossetians is being investigated. Valuable materials on customary law, family community, kinship system, and terms denoting varying degrees of kinship among the Ossetians are highlighted, as well as the use of Kokiev’s field data and published materials in the fundamental work of Kovalevsky “Modern custom and the ancient law”. Kokiev’s article “Notes on the life of Ossetians”, published in 1885 in the first edition of “Collection of materials on the ethnography, published at the Dashkovsky ethnographic museum” is subjected to analysis. Articles, written by Kokiev “Bride price among Ossetians” and “Funeral rites of Ossetians”, published in the newspaper of “Terek statements”, are being considered. Assistance S.V. Kokiev provided to V.F. Miller in collecting materials on the grammar of the Ossetic language, onomastics of Ossetians and other peoples of the North Caucasus is being assessed. The letters Kokiev wrote to Miller are reviewed. All this allows us to conclude that the contribution of S. Kokiev into ethnographic Ossetic studies was very significant.

Keywords: S.V.  Kokiev, ethnography, social and family life, material culture, customary law, religious beliefs, onomastics.

The article presents several documents from the Turkish Republic Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives related to the settlement of Ossetians in Central and Eastern Anatolia at the beginning of 1860s. The identification of the evidence on Ossetian immigrants in the Ottoman sources is a complicated task due primarily to the specificities of reflection of the Caucasian ethnic nomenclature there. So far we have found not more than a dozen of documents containing information about Ossetian subethnic and clan-caste groups (Digorians, Tagaurians / Tagiatas, Badeliatas) usually referred to as “tribes” within the wider entity of “Circassian Muhajirs”. Despite the limited nature of the body of available information, it still reflects a number of important aspects of the resettlement, colonization and adaptation of the migrants in the Ottoman state: methods and criteria for selecting the places of settlement, tendency to preserve communal unity, guardianship by the authorities of the traditional nobility and Muslim clergy, religious and educational integration, land conflicts with the local population, attempts to return to the homeland, etc. In case of further research – given that the opening of new archival collections is being witnessed regularly – some expansion of the scope of the known materials on the topic could be expected.

Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Anatolia, Ossetians, Circassians, immigration, colonization, archival sources.

The article estimates the contribution of the outstanding scientist of the XXth century Georges Dumézil to Nart studies, accentuates the researcher’s input in studying the Ossetian Nartiada. The main works of the French scientist are analyzed, in which his trifunctional theory was developed on the Ossetian materials and the direct continuity of epic tradition from Scythians – Sarmatians – Alans to modern Ossetians was highlighted. G. Dumézil’s researches of the Nart epos’ mythology, characteristics of key cycles and legends’ heroes are of great value. Folklore parallels of Nartiada with eposes of the European peoples (Arthurian legend, Celtic and Scandinavian legends), the priority in studying of which belongs to G. Dumézil, are of special interest. The scientist proves deep archaism and informativeness of the Ossetian Nart epos, insisting on the Scythian-Alanian origin of the initial core of the Caucasian Nartiada. G. Dumézil’s creative heritage laid the foundation of modern Nart studies.

Keywords: Dumézil, Narts, legends, archaism, heroes, parallels, epos sources.

The analysis of Old Germanic compound anthroponyms allows regarding element -lac as a regular component of the onomasiological process. We presume that the Germanic masculine proper names with this or similar exponent were generated with the help of the words, which are reflexes of the Indo-European root *loca- meaning ‘people, world, man’ and, consequently, these words are cognates of the reflexes of this very root in different Iranian languages, as well as of the Ossetic lӕg/лӕг – ‘man, husband’. This phenomenon can be interpreted in terms of genetic cognation of languages. However appearance of the Iranian roots can be accounted for by typological contacts of the peoples, who lived on contiguous territories and shared communal historical fates in the late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Trying to set tracks of Iranian-Germanic interrelation in the investigated fragment of German onomastics, we attribute this not only to the borrowing of proper names. This could have been penetration of denominative words that in the course of time within the system of the recipient language became active elements alongside with indigenous lexemes.

Keywords: anthroponym, etymon borrowing, Old Germanic, Sarmatians, Alans, the Ossetic language.

The Ossetian enlightenment starts with Ossetia joining the Russian state in the XIX century. The enlightenment completed the spiritual work of forming a new philosophical perception of the world. The first Ossetian enlighteners studied in Russian schools and, consequently they knew the Russian language, Russian culture and literature and were greatly influenced by the advanced Russian public, political and philosophical and aesthetic ideas. General principles of the ideology of Ossetian enlighteners were: the principle of labor, the principle of conscience, the principle of self-improvement, the principle of good, the principle of freedom, etc. And since the first Ossetian enlighteners became first writers, these principles were laid as a solid foundation for emerging Ossetian literature, which they perceived as the most important public platform. Philosophical and socio-political views of the Ossetian enlighteners were enclosed in their artistic creativity, journalism, actively manifested in their real-life positions, activities, actions and behavior. They did not engage in theoretical arguments concerning questions about the nature of existence, the structure of the universe and about the nature of human cognition. However, the essence of human existence in the real specifics of its spatial-temporal reality (“here and now”) of the enlightenment, of course, was the goal of their philosophical quest, a cornerstone of their ethical views and their ethical teachings as a whole. This article discusses, how in the emerging Ossetian literature, particularly the works of such enlightenment writers as I. Kanukov, S. Gadiyev and K. Khetagurov, the important principles of work, freedom of conscience, which determined the humanistic orientation of the Ossetian literature at the most difficult stage of its development, were implemented.

Keywords: enlightenment, Ossetian literature, characters, genre, personality, artistic thinking, artistic consciousness.

The article considers repetition as a means of systemic organization in poetry of Irlan Khugaev. Being as feature of functioning language system, repetition remains in the centre of linguistics, where it is regarded as a means of arrangement and harmonization of text. Application of linguistic analysis to repetition allows considering it within the composition of narrative. Repetition represents an important factor in the structure of poetry, as it organizes the motifs and images in the poetic text and gives an insight on semantic and stylistic system employed by the author. Various types of repetition as the author’s original principles of poetic arrangement were identified in the poem sunder analysis. Repetition in Khugaev’s poems contributes to the development of the poetic text and makes it more appealing to the reader.

Key words: repetition, mechanism of text formation, lyrical subject, language units, poetic paradigm.

In the present article different epic texts of the peoples of Russia and Asia are subjected to comparative analysis. The birth of warrior-magician in ancient epics of quite a number of peoples is accompanied by natural disasters, fright-reaction of representatives of wildlife and different natural omens. In Balkar-Karachai version we have the myth of the unusual birth of the first hero descending from the Father-Heaven and Mother-Earth, while natural disasters signal the birth process itself. In the later Chechen epic of Illi (epic song) and Ingush lyrical song “Bride complaint” descriptions of natural phenomena and reaction of the most revered representatives of the animal world to the birth of a hero or heroine turned into artistic means of idealizing the hero of illi and heroines of lyrical songs, not retaining its mythological content.

Keywords: heroic-historical illi, aesthetic system, later epic, marvelous birth, epic motive, myth, parallelism.

The key issues of the article are the ideas of academician S.M. Tolstaya, who claims that “the symbolism of an object can be motivated by its various qualities and features” and that “one and the same feature can bring forth several different symbols”, and also that “not necessarily all the objects that a man has learned to use should be involved into the system of symbols and rituals”. This accounts for the selectiveness with which culture endows some terms with the ability to exist in cultural contexts, while others are bereft of both cultural functions and symbolic meanings. The authors’ aim was to reveal cultural contexts, cultural semantics and functions of such an element of a traditional culture as (a) hair, whether it is involved in the system of symbols and rituals, in what symbols this natural realia is expressed and whether the primary symbols, images and allegories, secured in the symbols of (a) hair have been preserved in the perception of modern people. The research was based on the works of ethnographers, on popular scientific literature and on field data gathered by the authors themselves.

Keywords: magic views, cultural semantics, symbolic function, symbol, genetic code, mascot, beliefs, system of beliefs.

The methodology for identifying mythological semantemes in their ancient version requires peeling off the layers brought about over time. Mythological semantics of the traditional Ossetian three-legged low table – fyng – was also subjected to such layering of later motivations. Three-legged fyng, closely associated with Ossetian’s religious and mythological views on the universe, was widespread in the people’s life till the beginning of the XX century. Sacredness of fyng was endowed to four-legged big rectangular / square table which replaced it. In the course of time semantics of three legs of fyng was reconsidered and, eventually, was reduced to the utilitarian functions, according to which the three-legged design of fyng provided it the greatest stability. However, the form of fyng cannot be separated from prestigious ritual meals. The semiotic analysis of fyng simulates its place in the religious and mythological picture of the World of Ossetians. Three-legged table f yng had different shapes – round, triangular, oval, and they all represent the Model of the World. Forms of three-legged fyng are identical to the traditional ritual Ossetian pies, also having a circular, triangular and oval shape. Peculiar modeling of the world creation was carried with the help of a ritual meal at the three-legged table.

Keywords: mythology, semiology, ethnography, ritual prestigious meal, three-legged table, Fyng, Model of the world, the World Mountain, ritual.

The selection of documents is related to the subject insufficiently studied in Russian historiography, and presents a response to an existing need to study the effects the Revolution and the civil war made on the Russian society. For the first time the documents concerning the Former Red Partisans and Red Guards Commission activities are presented. The Commission functioned not only as a social security institution for former combatants of the Revolution, but was tracking their mindset, post-war public and private life, giving or denying them the right to career development, pension, free medical care. Holdover documents allow tracing the general trends of social adaptation of former red partisans and the authorities’ attitude to them.

Keywords: partisans, privileges, social policy, questionnaire, social lift.