| Ktsoeva S.G. On the Problem of Ethnic and Religious Self-Identification of the Modern Ossetians |
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Religion as the most conservative form of public consciousness often acts like ethnical core: domination of religious consciousness in the society preserves its traditional character, therefore under the condition of increasing impact of globalization processes on public consciousness, weakening the position of traditional cultures the popularity of religion in the society, that tends to preserve its traditional character, objectively begins to grow. The religious views of contemporary Ossetians are controversial: among the representatives of the ethnos there is no common opinion about the religious affiliation of the people, their “title” religion. One part supports the idea of “national” Christianity appealing to the accepted Orthodoxy in Alanya in the Xth century. The other part is convinced that Ossetians are representatives of their own religion that preserved its originality in spite of the strong influence that the institutional religions had on it (mostly – Christianity, less – Islam). Obviously, the tendency to the revival of ethnical traditionalism in modern traditions is explained by the fact that the idea of the revival of ethno-religious traditionalism, which however is not viewed commonly, has prevailed in the society lately. Some people consider paganism to be the traditional religion of Ossetians. Others strongly disagree. According to the opinion of many ethnical representatives the protracted dispute about the Ossetian paganism does not contribute to the cultural consolidation of people, but only disunites them in the face of the threats in the period of postindustrial development of the world. What exactly is the subject of this discussion and what social realities caused it? What is the scientific basis of the strongly rival viewpoints? How right is it to use the term “paganism” characterizing the ethnical features of the Ossetian religion from the scientific point of view? Are there alternative categories in scienceto designate this phenomenon? The answers to these and a number of other questions can be found in this article. Keywords: Ossetian, religion, heathendom, religious self-definition, religious world view, ethnic religion, folk religion.
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