OSSETIANS IN TURKEY: FAMILY AS AN INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL TRADITIONS

	ISSN 2223-165X
	Izvestiya SOIGSI

Home Editorial board Publication ethics Current Information Archive Peer review guidelines Contacts Address: Pr. Mira, 10, Vladikavkaz, 362040, RNO-A, Russia E-mail: soigsi@mail.ru	DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2026.99.60.001 OSSETIANS IN TURKEY: FAMILY AS AN INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL TRADITIONS Kanukova, Zalina V. Izvestia SOIGSI. 2026. Issue 60 (99). P.83-97. Abstract: The presented study is aimed at filling one of the ethno-cultural gaps in the diaspora life of the Ossetian-Muhajirs in Turkey – the family, its structure, internal regulations and rituals. The ethnog¬raphy of the Ossetians in Turkey has been little studied, serious attempts to study it were made only in 2013-2015 during complex folklore and ethnographic expeditions of V.I. Abaev North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Studies to places of compact residence of Ossetians. The family plays a key role in preserving the ethnic identity, language, and culture of the people, especially in conditions of a foreign cultural environment, urbanization, and dispersion of settlement, when other mechanisms of consolidation of migrants weaken or disappear altogether. It should be noted that the state national policy of Turkey, especially in its Kemalist period, contributed little to the preservation and any demonstration of the ethnocultural identity of the muhajirs, which was forced into a narrow framework family and kinship space. Therefore, the family and family life become the main subject of ethnographic research. In addition to the materials of these expeditions, the source base of this study consists of written ethnographic sources, the chronology of which allows us to trace the dynamics of the Ossetian family throughout the twentieth century and to include representatives of all generations of muhajirs in the list of informants. It is revealed that in the conditions of complex adaptation processes, the Ossetians tried to preserve family traditions, to marry each other, which was extremely compli-cated by the strict norms of exogamy and prohibition to conclude marriages with relatives, as well as the traditions of observing the class equality of marriages. The desire to preserve ethnic identity was in conflict not only with customary law, but also with existing realities, which led to the emergence of innovative practices of marriage choice, and inevitably to the creation of interethnic families. At the same time, the Ossetians in Turkey have retained the mental attitudes that have weakened or disap¬peared in their homeland, some forms of the traditional system of avoidance in an exaggerated form. Keywords: Ossetian family, Turkey, ethnic identity, adaptation, marriage policy, avoidance system, family rituals. Language:: Russian Download the full text For citation:: Kanukova, Z.V. 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