Kryashen Traditions of Hospitality through the Experience of Autoethnography

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/-304-316

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the tradition of hospitality among the Kryashens, an authentic ethno-confessional community, characterized by a combination of the Tatar-speaking and Orthodox faith. The research is based on both written sources and original field materials concerning mainly two ethnographic groups of the Kryashen population of the Republic of Tatarstan – Molkeevskaya and Zakazan, each of them having its own ethno-cultural specificity. The ethnographic material analyzed in the article refers to the period from the turn of the XIX – early XX centuries to the present day. The task is, firstly, to study the manifestations of hospitality in a specific ethnic environment in its functional varieties; secondly, to trace the transformation of this custom in modern conditions. The self-reflection of the author-researcher on the problem of the mutual influence of the object and the subject of study (ethnographic observation), the role of subjectivity in the scientific comprehension of another ethnic culture is shown. Understanding the relationship of the dialogue between the researcher and the informant is considered as a significant analytical approach. In this regard, the experience of fieldwork among the Kryashen population of the Republic of Tatarstan reveals the impact that the tradition of hospitality in its contemporary form had on the field research of ethnologists. Mutual disposition and trust, largely based on the custom of hospitality, turned out to be the most important resource in the process of an ethnological study.

For Citation: Sevastianov, I.V. 2021. Kryashen Traditions of Hospitality through the Experience of Autoethnography. Herald of Anthropology  (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 304–316.

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