Apocryphal Stories in the Folklore of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia at the Turn of the 20th–21st Centuries

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-2/195-209

Authors

Keywords:

Russian folklore, oral folk traditions, Semey folk culture, apocrypha, apocryphal stories, spiritual poems, folk legends

Abstract

The article reveals the relationship between oral and written traditions in the folklore of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia at the turn of the century and the connection between folklore and apocryphal literature and examines the oral existence of apocryphal stories among the Old Believers. Since the religious books played a large role in the spiritual life of the family, the influence of written sources on oral folk art was also significant. They provided answers to all the everyday questions, excuses or censures for their actions, explanations for many prohibitions and rules. Therefore, the folklore culture of Semey people was constantly influenced by Christian literature. The authors analyze the forms of existence of the apocryphal work “The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos” in the folklore tradition of Semey, the structure of the text and its content, the plots/motives of spiritual poems that had been preserved and continued to exist in oral folk legends and apocryphal works at the turn of the 20th — 21st centuries in the Old Believers’ villages.

Author Biographies

  • Lyudmila Kushnareva, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

    Kushnareva, Lyudmila L. – Ph.D. in Philology, Research Fellow, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation). E-mail: makosh76@mail.ru ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8139-3197

  • Svetlana Buraeva, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

    Buraeva, Svetlana V. – Dr. of History, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation). E-mail: ladys@inbox.ru  ORCID ID:  http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4184-3066 

    For citation: Kushnareva, L. L. and S. V. Buraeva. 2023. Apocryphal Stories in the Folklore of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia at the Turn of the 20th–21st Centuries. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii). 2: 195–209.

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Published

01.06.2023

Issue

No. 2 (2023): Herald of Anthropology

Section

The Old Believers in History and Culture