Old Believer Skete economy in the cultural landscape of Taiga Siberia: gift, alms, commodity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2021.3.8Keywords:
Old Believer skete; Ob-Yenisei region; Tuva; Siberian peasant; gatherer economy; agrarian economyAbstract
The article examines the role of Old Believer sketes in the rise of the cultural landscapes of the Ob-Yenisei Siberia. The author reconstructs the stages of their participation in the local economic systems and offers models of how their economic relations with village communities morphed into the religious ones. In the theoretical sense, the article is based on concepts and ideas of contemporary peasant studies, social anthropology (the institutions of gift and giving) and the historical studies of economic and communicative practices of Old Believers of the Ob-Yenisei region. For the sources, the article relies on the polemical and hagiographical works, diary entries and letters by Siberian skete dwellers, research expedition materials, memories and reports of government officials inspecting Old Believer sketes, with all sources dating between 1875 and 2020.
The study is structured into two blocks: “The skete as a collective agricultural worker” and “The skete as a collective forest gatherer”, and focuses on proving the following theses. 1) The taiga sketes moved from the agrarian economy to forest gathering due to a number of external factors, such as collectivization and Sovietization of the village communities, and the state program of colonizing the Siberian taiga areas. However, this transition was legitimized by internal polemic on money, financial management of the skete and its dwellers’ right to choose the forms of interacting with the outside world as they think fit. 2) The sustainability of skete households depended on how well the denizens of illegal monasteries could modify the hagiographically established concept of the ‘farmer monk’ and use the religious symbolism of ‘alms’ and ‘commodity’ to motivate peasant families to redistribute some of their food and labour resources to the benefit of the skete. 3) Exchanging gifts is the main communication strategy in the relations between the skete and the peasant community, as well as the instrument of building support of the rural environment and guaranteeing a benevolent attitude from the secular authorities.
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For citation:
Dutchak E. E. Skitskaia ekonomika v kul’turnom landshafte taezhnoi Sibiri: dar, milostynia, tovar [Old Believer Skete economy in the cultural landscape of Taiga Siberia: gift, alms, commodity]. New Research of Tuva, 2021, no. 3, pp. 99-110.DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25178/nit.2021.3.8
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Author Biography
Elena E. Dutchak, National Research Tomsk State University
Doctor of History, Professor, Department of Russian History, Faculty of Historical and Political Science, National Research Tomsk State University.
Postal address: 36 Lenin Ave., 634050 Tomsk, Russian Federation.
Tel.: +7(3822)78-52-12.
E-mail: dee010@mail.ru
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