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5. The Circassian felt masks of masked in ethnographic collections of the Anthropological museum of Moscow State University

The Circassian felt masks of masked in ethnographic collections of the Anthropological museum of Moscow State University

Tazbash E.A.

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia

Tazbash E.A., e-mail: eleta495@mail.ru

Abstract

Article is devoted to the description of the Caucasian felt masks which are stored in the Research Institute and the Museum of Anthropology of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The collection of felt masks is collected in 1927 by V.I. Levin – the employee of Institute of anthropology of MSU during complex anthropological expedition in several settlements of the Circassian autonomous area (Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia). It includes subjects which were used in the dramatized representations during an agricultural holiday of a plowed land and a crop at Circassians. The tradition of celebration of this event was very steady: neither adoption of Christianity, nor Islam, the Soviet period, couldn’t make essential changes to life of Circassia’s. The analysis of the masks introduced into scientific circulation was given in the context of the known earlier described Caucasian holidays with participation masked, and allows claiming that these masks were an element of ceremonial transformation during the holiday devoted to the end of a plowed land works. V.I. Levin attaches the description of the holiday, which consists of comments of locals how these felt masks could be used. The comments enclosed by the collector allowed revealing some innovations in carrying out a holiday in comparison with known descriptions of the tradition. For example, we can observe social changes in society – participation of the woman in the organization of public affairs, and also changes in traditional life of ethnos connected with political reorganization in the 20th years of the last century.

Keywords

ethnology, Caucasus, masks, ceremonial practice, masked, traditional holidays

Цит.: Tazbash E.A. The Circassian felt masks of masked in ethnographic collections of the Anthropological museum of Moscow State University // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2015; 2/2015; с. 123-129