Cultural borrowings in the tradition don Cossacks

Abstract

The article sets the task of determining the main factors that influenced the processes of interethnic and intercultural communications on the territory of the settlement of the Don Cossacks, and determining the main results of these processes. The study was carried out using the method of comparative cultural analysis, while cultural processes and cross-cultural borrowings are considered against the general historical background of settlement and colonization of the Don region, starting from the Late Middle Ages and ending with the XVIII century, when the main composition of the Cossack population of the region was finally formed. The main factors of the processes of interethnic and intercultural communications on the Don include, first of all, the features of their living area, defined in the early period of Cossack history as a frontier and social anomie, as well as the tradition of Cossacks, characteristic of many peoples of the region. On the one hand, these factors contributed to the active interaction of different peoples living in the Wild Field, on the other hand, they did not allow individual ethnic groups to close themselves, contributing to constant creative interchange. At the same time, many traditions of the Don Cossacks can be attributed to the so-called cultural universals, and not to the result of cultural borrowings (for example, the presence of a general assembly, elected offices, types of settlements, etc.).

The main results of interethnic communications in the early period of Cossack history can be attributed to the Turkic elements in their traditional dwelling (kuren, ground heating system), men's and women's clothing, food and weapons. The active colonization of the region by the Russian and Ukrainian population in the XVII-XVIII centuries led to the appearance of Middle and South Russian and Ukrainian elements in the Cossack culture (types of dwellings, clothing complexes, rituals). At the same time, there is no confirmation of the opinion that North Caucasian traditions took place in the rites of the Don Cossacks.