ETHNOCULTURAL AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC OBSERVATIONS OF RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN TRAVELERS IN OSSETIA (XIII-XIX CENTURIES)

	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.2025.94.55.011 ETHNOCULTURAL AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC OBSERVATIONS OF RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN TRAVELERS IN OSSETIA (XIII-XIX CENTURIES) Besolova, Elena B. Izvestia SOIGSI. 2025. Issue 55 (94). P.5-19. Abstract: The material recorded by Russian and foreign travellers preserved information about Ossetians and various aspects of their life in the Middle Ages, as well as in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. Elements of traditional culture, realities and factors that influenced both the harsh life of Ossetian society and the private life of highlanders were extracted from written observations. This article attempts, using a comprehensive approach, to identify in the extracted material information with elements of incorporated material culture relating to the everyday life of the highlanders: peculiarities of everyday life; social relations; and religious notions. The second part of the article contains verbal descriptions concerning the spiritual sphere of Ossetians: rituals and their terminology; content of customs, rites, and traditions. As for texts or their variants, they are territorially bound. Special mention is made of those observations made by Russian and foreign travellers at different times of one phenomenon or object, but in different aspects: ethnographic and/or cultural, linguistic. Ethnolinguistic study of verbal plan and terminology of archaic Ossetian culture will make it possible to trace key aspects of rituals, verbal formulas, beliefs, beliefs and customs; will help to determine the role of the most important characters, objects and actions in the rituals; will make it possible to discover the role of the word as a sign in the information on archaic Ossetian culture recorded by travellers. The material in the collection makes it possible to reconstruct the conditions of the epochs under consideration, the correlation and connection of the Ossetian language and spiritual culture in different manifestations through the awareness of the common fate of the bearers of ethnographic and linguistic peculiarities that make it possible to superimpose ethnographic and linguistic areas. The factual and arealogical aspects of the material contribute to the reconstruction of both ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic landscapes. The preservation of archaic elements in the sphere of rituals, customs and religious representations of traditional Ossetian spiritual culture in the material recorded by travellers makes it an invaluable source for identifying and describing semiotic phenomena in the ritual text and in various forms of ritual. Keywords: Ossetian language, everyday life, social relations, cultural and historical context, archaic culture, semantics, rituals, terminology, reconstruction. Language:: Russian Download the full text For citation:: Besolova, E.B. Ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic observations of Russian and foreign travelers in Ossetia (XIII-XIX centuries) // Izvestiya SOIGSI. 2024. Iss. 54 (93). Pp.5-19. (in Russian). DOI 10.46698/VNC.2025.94.55.011 + References 1. Tolstoy, N.I., Tolstaya, S.M. K rekonstruktsii drevneslavyanskoi dukhovnoi kul’tury (lingvo-etnograficheskii aspekt) [Towards the reconstruction of Old Slavic spiritual culture (linguistic and ethnographic aspect)]. 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