FORMATION OF THE ‘KOLMAK’ TRIBAL COMMUNITY WITHIN THE BASHKIR ETHNIC GROUP | |||
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Year | 2017 | Number | 2 (55) |
Pages | 78-87 | Type | scientific article |
UDC | 397 | BBK | 63.529 (235.55) |
Authors | Aznabaev Bulat A. |
Topic | ETHNOCULTURAL DYNAMICS |
Summary | Extension of the discourse approach developed by M. Foucault to the nomadic studies has recently nudged the academic interest in the social structure of the Eurasian nomads. The most challenging attempt at the deconstruction of the existing academic representation of steppe societies was made by D. Sneath in his book “The Headless State”. According to him the understanding of nomadic societies required getting back to the feudal society discourse, meaning any type of a hierarchic society organization. The author of this article challenges the D. Sneath’s thesis according to which the hierarchy was inherently present in all steppe societies of Eurasia. Thus the Bashkir society of the 17th — 18th centuries was an egalitarian, kin-based society. This was most apparent in the pattern of integration of other ethnic groups of the region into the Bashkir society. Contrary to the established historiographic belief that the foreigners' incorporation in society occurred solely by means of adoption, the author argues that the representatives of other ethnic groups could form their own independent kinship-based communities. One of the largest formations of this type was the Bashkir ‘Kolmak’ tribe. The cultural and political rapprochement between the Bashkirs and the Kalmyks was in part a result of a lengthy, almost century long military confrontation, in the course of which a set of commonly shared rules of war was developed. The history of the Auki Kalmyk integration into the ethnic structure of the Bashkir people followed the ‘patronage-clientele’ pattern. However, unlike the classical patronage relations the integrated part of the Kalmyks acquired an equal legal status with the ethnic Bashkirs. | ||
Keywords | Bashkirs XVII — beginning of XVIII century, the Kalmyks, the tribal structure, social hierarchy, nomadic feudalism, patronage | ||
References |
Kradin N. N., Skrynnikova T. D. «Stateless head». Notes of revisionism in the studies of Nomadic Societies // Ab imperio. 2009. № 4. P. 117–128. |
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