Common and Divergent Features of Udmurt and Mari Costumes in the Ethnic Contact Zone (The Case Study of the Republic of Bashkortosan)

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2026-3/26-47

Authors

Keywords:

traditional costume complex, southern Udmurts, eastern Mari, ethnocultural contacts, technologies, ornamentation

Abstract

This article is based on field data collected by the authors in the summer of 2025 in the compact settlement area of ​​the Udmurts and Mari in the Yanaul, Tatyshlinsky, and Mishkinsky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It attempts to study the costume complexes of the two Finno-Ugric peoples — the Udmurts (southern Udmurts) and the Mari (eastern Mari), which developed by the mid-20th - first quarter of the 21st century. The authors aim to identify their common and unique features. It was revealed that, having migrated to other areas from their historical habitats, the Mari and Udmurts maintained mutual contacts in their new places of residence. For example, in the Yanaul, Tatyshlinsky, and Mishkinsky districts both the Udmurts and the Mari settled in both compact and dispersed groups, which allows them to interact and influence each other, and this is particularly evident in their traditional national costumes. Furthermore, both Udmurt and Mari costumes are significantly influenced by the traditions of the neighboring Tatar and Bashkir populations, while maintaining their own distinct ethnic identity.

Author Biographies

  • Fail Safin, Kuzeev Institute of Ethnological Research – Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences

    Safin, Fail G. — Doctor of History, Professor, Chief Researcher, Head of the Department of Ethnopolitology, R. G. Kuzeev Institute of Ethnological Research – Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of the Department of Philosophy, History and Social Engineering, Ufa State Petroleum Technological University (Ufa, Russian Federation). E-mail: failsafin@mail.ru ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4862-1386

  • Natalya Amirova, Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University

    Amirova, Natalya V. — Ph.D. in Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Arts and Innovative Design, Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University (Naberezhnye Chelny, Russian Federation). E-mail: asdfghjk.1973@mail.ru ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8333-0676Х

  • Rail Fahrutdinov, Kazan Federal University

    Fahrutdinov, Rail R. — Doctor of History, Associate Professor, Acting Director, Institute of International Relations, History, and Oriental Studies at Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University (Kazan, Russian Federation,). E-mail: fahrutdinov.rail@mail.ru ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6798-8904

    For citation: Safin, F. G., N. V. Amirova, and R. R. Fahrutdinov. 2026. Common and Divergent Features of Udmurt and Mari Costumes in the Ethnic Contact Zone (The Case Study of the Republic of Bashkortosan). Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 3: 26–47.

    Funding: The study was carried out as a part of the research plan of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ufa Federal Research Center for 2025–2027. Project No 1022040500508-1-6.1.1. 

    References

    Belitser, V. N. 1951. Narodnaia odezhda udmurtov: materialy k etnogenezu [Udmurt Folk Clothing: Ethnogenesis Materials]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR. 142 p.

    Chernykh, A. V. 2020. Traditsionnyi kostium narodov Permskogo kraia. Udmurty [Traditional Costume of the Peoples of the Perm Region. Udmurts]. Saint Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo «Mamatov». 468 p.

    Chernykh, A. V. 2021. Traditsionnyi kostium narodov Permskogo kraia: mariitsy [Traditional Costume of the Peoples of the Perm Region: Mari]. Saint Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo «Mamatov». 528 p.

    Gryazev, G. G. 2024. Udmurty. Narodnoe iskusstvo [Udmurts. Folk Art].  Izhevsk: Udmurtia. 176 p.

    Khristolyubova, L. S. 1993. Evoliutsiia odezhdy i ee sovremennoe bytovanie [Evolution of Clothing and Its Modern Use]. In Udmurty: istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki [Udmurts: Historical and Ethnographic Essays], ed. by V. V. Pimenov. Izhevsk: Udmurtskii institut istorii, iazyka i literatury Ural’skogo otdeleniia RAN. 141–149.

    Khristolyubova, L. S. 1994. Udmurty Bashkortostana: (istoriia, kul’tura, sovremennost’) [The Udmurts of Bashkortostan: (History, Culture, Modernity)]. Ufa: Respublikanskii tsentr narodnogo tvorchestva. 55 p.

    Lebedeva, S. Kh. 1993. Traditsionnaia odezhda i ukrasheniia [Traditional Clothing and Jewelry]. In Udmurty: istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki [The Udmurts: Historical-Ethnographic Essays], ed. by V. V. Pimenov. Izhevsk: Udmurtskii institut istorii, iazyka i literatury Ural’skogo otdeleniia RAN. 125–141.

    Lebedeva, S. Kh. 2008. Udmurtskaia narodnaia odezhda [Udmurt Folk Clothing]. Izhevsk: Udmurtiia. 208 p.

    Molotova, T. L. 2020. Mariiskii kostium: al’bom k 100-letiiu obrazovaniia Respubliki Marii El [Mari Costume: Album for the Centenary of the Republic of Mari El]. Yoshkar-Ola. 383 p.

    Nechvaloda, E. E. 2019. Traditsionnaia zhenskaia odezhda udmurtov v materialakh ekspeditsii Shapp de’Otrosha [Traditional Udmurt Women's Clothing in the Materials of the Chappe d’Auteroche Expedition]. Ezhegodnik finno-ugorskikh issledovanii 1: 101–108.

    Nechvaloda, E. E. 2020. Udmurtskii zhenskii golovnoi ubor aishon v opisaniakh i grafike XVI–XVIII vv. [The Udmurt Women’s Headdress Aishon in Descriptions and Graphics of the 16th–18th Centuries]. Vestnik ugrovedeniia 10 (4): 728–738. https://doi.org/10.30624/2220-4156-2020-10-4-728-738

    Nechvaloda, E. E. 2022. Evoliutsiia traditsionnoi rubakhi krasnoufimskikh mariitsev vo vtoroi polovine XIX–XX vv. [Evolution of the Traditional Shirt of the Krasnoufimsk Mari in the Second Half of the 19th–20th Centuries]. Ezhegodnik finno-ugorskikh issledovanii 16 (1): 139–154. https://doi.org/10.35634/2224-9443-2022-16-1-140-155

    Pimenov, V. V. (ed.). 1993. Udmurty: istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki [Udmurts: Historical and Ethnographic Essays]. Izhevsk: Udmurtskii institut istorii, iazyka i literatury Ural’skogo otdeleniia RAN. 388 p.

    Sadikov, R. R. 2016. Finno-ugorskie narody Respubliki Bashkortostan (istoriia, kul’tura, demografiia) [Finno-Ugric Peoples of the Republic of Bashkortostan (History, Culture, Demography)]. Ufa: Pervaia tipografiia. 276 p.

    Sepeev, G. A. 1967. Vliianie kostiuma tiurkskikh narodov na kostium vostochnykh mariitsev [The Influence of the Costume of Turkic Peoples on the Costume of the Eastern Mari]. Trudy MarNII XXII: 194–209.

    Valeev, F. Kh. 2002. Tatarskii narodnyi ornament [Tatar Folk Ornament]. Kazan. 295 p.

    Vladykin, V. E. 1997. Odezhda [Clothing]. In Etnografiia udmurtov [Ethnography of the Udmurts], ed. by V. E. Vladykin, L. S. Khristolyubova. Izhevsk: Udmurtiia. 71–82.

Downloads

Published

21.09.2026

Issue

No. 3 (2026): Vestnik antropologii (Herald of Anthropology)

Section

Ethnography of the Urals–Volga Region