Bondar, Larisa D. , Zelnitskaya (Shlarba), Ritsa Sh.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2024. IIS 51 (90). P.5-24.

Abstract:
Among the archival papers of Evgenia Georgievna Pchelina (1895–1972), stored in the
St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPbB ARAS),
there is a collection of unpublished material during the researcher’s lifetime, entitled
«”Kavdasards – born in a manger”: on the origin of kavdasards and mentions of them in
folklore». In this collection there is a short essay on this topic, which is published in full in
this article. Certain provisions of this essay in E.G. Pchelina’s working notes are disclosed
more widely. All the material, in accordance with her method of work, was formed into
several thematic collections: «Bibliography of kavdasards», «Kavdasards are slaves raised
in the house», «Nomylus: 1) the mother of the kavdasards, 2) bibliography of nomylus»,
«Categories of kavdasards», «Rights and obligations of kavdasards», «Kavdasards.
Mygkag and fydyn», «Fydyn from the kavdasards and numylus-ancestors», «To whom the
kavdasards belonged», «Class struggle between the kavdasards and their “older brothers”»,
«Liberation of the kavdasards in 1867», «Kavdasards in folklore», «Ossetian styrmygkags –
“strong seeds”», «Kavdasards. An analogy with Kabardian tumas and Russian “otroki”
and “boyar children”. This article presents the materials by Pchelina concerning the ideas
about the nomylus institute, as well as the sources of replenishment of the kavdasard
class. An important source of information reflected in the materials by Pchelina are field
ethnographic records, both personally collected by the researcher and discovered by her in
the archives. The motley source picture, it seems, did not develop into a coherent system
for the researcher, which was natural: modern researchers of social relations in traditional
Ossetian society also emphasize the ambiguity in the representation of the issue under
consideration in the sources and the hypothetical nature of a number of conclusions. These
circumstances obviously did not allow the demanding researcher to prepare a special
publication on the topic under consideration.

Keywords: E.G. Pchelina, social relations, Ossetia, kavdasards, nomylus.

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