| Chibirov L.A. B. Kaloev as Nartologist |
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The scientific heritage of B.A. Kaloev can hardly be regarded as not known, yet researchers of his creativity have paid insufficient attention to the investigations of the folklore material, conducted by the scientist at the intersection of Ethnology and folklore studies. The study of the heritage of Kaloev allows to raise the question about the significant contribution of the scientist, not only into the Caucasian, but also into ethnographic study of folklore, particularly in Nartology. In this article the first attempt is undertaken to systematize the Narts’ studies of Kaloev, based on the following pattern: Narts’ epic publications; ethnographic works with broad involvement of Narts’ sagas, legends; lexicographic articles in encyclopedic publications; scientific editing and commenting Narts’ studies. This systematization of scientific publications allows access to the available material and fully explore Narts’ research of the scientist. Kaloev was not limited to the analysis of the texts of Ossetian Narts’ sagas, but compared them with the texts of other national versions of Nartiada and came to the conclusion that Ossetian Narts’ epos is distinguished by the unity of composition, the presence of a number of interesting cycles that do not exist in other national versions. Kaloev agrees with those scholars, who consider VIII—VII centuries BC being the initial stage of the epic formation, and shares the opinion of the researchers of the epic, who traced its nucleus to the Alanian era. The scientist proves that several eras are reflected in Narts’ legends, including the Mongolian period and believes that some legends were formed at the time when the ancestors of the Ossetians were settled far from the modern borders of Ossetia. Kaloev reviews and analyses the epic from the ethnographic point of view, finds a lot of parallels in the areas of cultural and social life of Ossetian and Narts’ society. Revealed similarities confirm the representativeness of the folklore-ethnographic material in an ethnogenetic research. Kaloev has significantly enriched the scientific Narts’ studies, contributed to folklore studies and to the ethnography of the Ossetians, in particular to the problem of the Scythian-Alanian-Ossetian continuity. Keywords: Ethnography, Narts’ legends, ethnographic parallels, material and spiritual culture, ethnogenesis of Ossetians, Nartiada's versions.
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