The work is based on the field materials of 1998-2000, 2005-2007 collected by the author among the Uymon Old Believers living in the villages of Ust-Koksinsky district of the Altai Republic, as well as in Gorno-Altaisk. The article examines the ambivalent attitude of Uymon kerzhach women to jewelry, red color and brightness of clothing in general: the real existence of these elements in the costume culture against the background of their ideological condemnation based on Christian ascetic principles. The study reveals different levels of correspondence between clothing bans and their implementation.
Keywords: Uymon Old Believers, jewelry, red color, brightness of clothing, rules and prohibitions, asceticism.
"If the Lord had lived on earth, he would have also sinned," the Uymon Old Believers like to say. This proverb reflects the attitude of the people to the most difficult problem of the coexistence of the ideological and practical levels of traditional culture, ideas about how it should be, i.e. various rules and prohibitions, as well as the actual level of everyday life and style of behavior. The problem is particularly relevant for the Old Believers ' culture, which is characterized by an extremely large number of prohibitions, which is clearly understood by the native speakers themselves: "We have such faith - we can't do anything" (PMA, 2005, M. I. Utyatnikov, born in 1946, Gorno-Altaisk). To understand the traditions of the Old Believers more fully, it is necessary to analyze ideological attitudes, in particular, regarding clothing, in the context of their actual implementation in everyday life. If you do not take into account this duality, then you can get an idea of folk culture that does not fully correspond to reality. In this paper, the problem of contrasting the realities of everyday life and prohibitions on their use is revealed. It manifests itself in the traditional culture of the Old Believers of the Uymon valley of Gorny Altai. The study is based on the author's field materials collected in the villages of Ust-Koksinsky district of the Altai Republic, as well as in Gorno-Altaisk in 1998-2000, 2005-2008.
As a result of a comprehensive study of the costume of the Uymon Old Believers, an ambivalent attitude to jewelry, red color and brightness of clothing in general was revealed [Shitova, 2005, p.102]. This is probably due to the actual coexistence of Christian and pre-Christian ideas against the background of ideological denial of the latter.
According to the strict observance of religious precepts kerzhachek, wearing jewelry is a sin: "It is a sin to wear jewelry, then you must repent" (PMA, 2007, A. Utyatnikova, born in 1940, S. Multa). The ban on wearing jewelry is justified as follows:" ... very much so that they do not imagine, do not forget about God " (Ibid.). Such views seem to correspond to the apostolic teaching: "Let your adornment be not the outward braiding of hair, nor the adornment of gold, nor the finery of clothing, but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible beauty of a meek and silent spirit, which is precious in the sight of God" (2 Peter 3: 2-4).
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An Old Believer from the village of Tikhonka recalled how she wanted to get her ears pierced and asked to buy her earrings, and her mother scolded her: ".. why should frogs hang themselves on their ears in the next world? "(PMA, 1998, P. I. Cherepanova, born in 1929, S. Tikhonskaya). By the word "frogs" grandmothers mean primarily snakes. There is a widespread belief that in the next world, snakes will hang or wriggle in places of former earrings, brooches, hairpins, beads, bracelets. Punishment (already in this world) can be a bruise on the body in the place where the decoration was located: ".. you can't wear a brooch, it's a sin, then there will be a frog " (PMA, 1998, L. M. Ogneva, born in 1931, S. Verkh-Uymon).
A. M. Boltovskaya, a resident of the village of Multa, justifies her refusal to wear jewelry with a desire to follow the ascetic ideals of Byzantine Christianity: "John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, and Basil the Great wrote that jewelry should not be worn in any way, especially John Chrysostom" (PMA, 2007, A. M. Boltovskaya, born in 1924, S. Multa). Indeed, the decrees of the Old Believers pay special attention to the Apostolic teaching to cover women's hair, which is usually given in the interpretation of John Chrysostom. It is this prohibition, together with the condemnation of foreign clothing, that underlies the attitude that has developed in the Old Believer ideology towards female panache and adornment: "Those who do not resist the apostolic teaching of the church, and the punishment of St. John Chrysostom, who dare to expose the hair of his head, and create rows and combs in a shameless way, and even sitse without shame they entered the churches of prayer, not yet satisfied with the composition of their flesh, but adding impudent ugliness to themselves with rams and ramparts, instead of God-created beauty, and with the greatest fatness of their bodies, by means of German dispensations, and forgetting the solemn laying on of the church crown with the life-giving Cross of the Lord, and in its place setting up Latin, French and German, Lutheran and Calvinism, like hats and combs made of animal horns and unclean tortoiseshell bone, and decorated with bestial adornment, is like excommunication from the Holy Church, like all the daughters of the Western church of Skulkosh, and with them they commit fornication " [The shortest exposition..., 1993, p. 94].
A. M. Boltovskaya told us an Old Believer parable designed to educate women in an ascetic attitude to their appearance. "According to the scriptures, you can't wear it, frogs will hang. When the Lord has descended into hell and is coming. And she sits all over, and all in this decoration. He (Jesus Christ) says, " Oh!" She says, " I loved jewelry." He says, " How about now?" Here it is in ornaments, and there it is in snakes sitting " (Ibid.). Our interlocutor, apparently vividly imagining these reptiles, when she did not have enough words, made gestures to represent numerous snakes writhing over the head of a sinner suffering in hell.
This Old Believer image, if we do not focus on its Christian ideological interpretation, resembles the character depicted on the famous snake amulets that existed from the XI-XII to the XV-XVI centuries. On the reverse side of these items, two scenes are shown - the severed head of medusa Gorgon with snakes growing out of it and the snake-legged ancestor of the Scythians, also surrounded by snakes. According to B. A. Rybakov, such compositions (head with snakes and maiden-snake) are more common in Russia than in Greek lands. He considers serpentines as an excellent example of dual faith [1988, pp. 653-656].
According to N. I. Tolstoy, the dual faith turned out to be an adaptation of paganism to Christianity, subordinating it to the plus - minus (good - evil) dichotomous correlation, in which the former pagan faith was given a place mainly with a minus sign [1995, pp. 264-265]. If in the Middle Ages the archaic female-snake image was used together with the Christian one and was worn in the upper part of the body (breastplates), then in the middle of the XX - beginning of the XXI century. among the Old Believers of Uymon, these images, dating back to the most ancient ideas, were associated with hell, the underworld. Whatever the origin of the ancient Russian "medusa Gorgon", this image was extremely tenacious. Apparently, it is deeply ingrained in the popular consciousness, since it will not completely disappear even at the beginning of the XXI century. Its reflection is the Old Believer sinners who inhabited hell or simply "the other world". Snakes wriggle over the heads of these women, wrap around their arms and neck, and hang from their ears.
In the Old Believer prohibitions, there is a correspondence between the decoration and the Chthonic creation-the snake. It is implied that the earth decoration is an expression of the Chthonic principle in the real, physical world. This understanding is confirmed by a common educational saying: "Earrings on the ears - ears in frogs." It is known that ancient Russian jewelry, especially designed for Rusalians, was saturated with images that expressed all natural principles [Rybakov, 1988, pp. 736-737]. It can be assumed that the heavenly spheres were already occupied by Christian characters, so the pagan principle, expressed in ornaments, received a predominantly Chthonic interpretation in the minds of the uymonok.
The Old Believer costume is profoundly Christianized, with a special symbolic meaning attached to the belt (Fig. 1, 2) [Shitova, 2008, p. 89]. Jewelry is the only element that is not recognized by Christian law, does not carry Christian symbols, and therefore is prohibited. Fancy dress image,
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Fig. 1. Making a belt by a modern craftswoman.
Fig. 2. Fragment of a prayer inscription made in the technique of hand weaving.
A woman who attracts men's attention is condemned by the holy Fathers: "It is written,' Everyone who looks at a woman who lusts after her has already committed fornication in his heart ' (Mt 5: 28). Truly, a terrible warning, and much sobriety is needed" [St. Ephraim the Syrian word..., 1994, p. 54]. And here is how the dancer is condemned: "The dancing wife, the bride is called Satan, and the fornicator of the devil, and the spouse of the devil. Not only will she herself be reduced to the bottom of hell dancing, but those who pose her with love, and in passion are inflamed by lust " [John Chrysostom, 2001, p. 115]. As noted by B. A. Rybakov, games and dances forbidden by the church were a manifestation of functioning pagan cults in the era of dual faith. At the same time, women's jewelry played a special role in these rites and in expressing the archaic worldview as a whole: "Obviously, the main pagan fun events in the capital cities of Russia were started by princesses, and it was for these national festivals, but secret for churchmen, that master jewelers made their silver patterns with such care and thoughtfulness, permeated with pagan beauty. symbolism" [1988, p. 738]. This observation suggests that the Christian struggle against jewelry arose not out of aesthetic rejection, but out of the opposition of an alternative religion to pre-Christian beliefs. Modesty as an ascetic justification is secondary.
Today, the Old Believers follow ascetic prohibitions more consistently than in the first third of the twentieth century. Now elderly Old Believers do not wear jewelry, although they remember very well that their mothers and grandmothers had them. Some of our interlocutors recalled that there were practically no earrings and brooches: "They didn't wear brooches, they didn't have them, they wore beads - zemschik"," only zemschik - small beads were worn, they didn't wear earrings at all " (PMA, 1999, M. S. Artabolevskaya, born in 1931, P. I. Cherepanova, born in 1929, S. Tikhonskaya). There were also earrings, brooches, and even bracelets. The most common decoration was "zemschik" - beads made of numerous strands of small beads. Less often they wore beaded jewelry, as well as "wax beads" - made of amber. Especially bright and numerous decorations were brought by Bukhtarma brides and guests: "They came from Bukhtarma, you know, they had beads there, everything was hung there-the neck, large ones here, and smaller ones here" (PMA, 1999, U. M. Argokova, born in 1924, Verkh-Uymon village).
Jewelry was worn to protect against the evil eye and "goiter". Their existence corresponded to popular ideas in the field of traditional medicine. Up to the present time, there is still a belief in sorcerers, witches and the evil eyes caused by them to good people, kilas: "Some people put kilas... the disease is like this. They put it in your teeth, even in your legs, even in your hands. Even one woman was put in the womb of a kila... One pigeon put a kila in my throat" (Ibid.). The neck is considered a vulnerable place for such damage. Therefore, despite the prohibitions, beads are most often used from jewelry.
Sometimes, trying to protect them from the evil eye, even animals were decorated. For example, L. P. Chernova told us about how she managed to protect a bird brood from the evil envious eye only thanks to red rags tied around the neck of chickens. In this case, the functional proximity of the decoration and the red color in the meaning of the amulet is clearly manifested. Perhaps this function of red lies at the heart of the ideological rejection of ascetic Old Believers. Echoes of the use of the color red as a non-Christian apotropea are manifested in the ideas about therapeutic properties of the body.
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properties of red fabric. "If a child gets smallpox, it is wrapped in a red blanket or a red diaper" (PMA, 2007, A.M. Boltovskaya, born in 1924, S. Multa). Often red threads were used to make the seam "into the castle" on the collar of shirts, and red threads were used to weave, weave, and embroider. The use of red as an apotrope is not a specific feature of the Uimon people, but it is generally characteristic of Russian peasants (Fursova, 1992).
In the village of Verkh-Uymon in 1998-1999, we recorded bans on both everyday and festive clothing of red color:"...prayers are always made in plain colors. They don't pray in red" (PMA, 1998, E. K. Bochkareva, born in 1934, S. Chendek). Some informants recall that" they didn't wear red " (PMA, 1998, M. M. Chernova, born in 1911, S. Verkh-Uymon). Among the Old Believers, it is not customary to bury in red burial clothes of an unconventional cut. Such a ban appeared relatively recently and is associated with the fact that in the second half of the XX century the tradition of burial in traditional white robes was violated. And now, although infrequently, you can meet Old Believers who believe that the shroud is an obligatory traditional element of the funeral complex, and the rest of the clothes can be modern, bought in a store. With such cases in mind, they say: "... do not put it in red, or immediately in the fire, in eternal flour" (PMA, 1998, E. K. Bochkareva, born in 1934, S. Chendek). Old Believers 'priests draw attention to the undesirability of the presence of red at burial:" But... given the fact that it is now most common to wrap coffins with cloth, we can say that it is highly undesirable to use a bright cloth for this, especially red " [Preface about the dead..., 1993, p. 80]. Such prohibitions clearly link the condemnation of red among the Old Believers with the expectation of the second coming: red is a reminder of the gehenna of fire to which sinners will be condemned. St. John Chrysostom teaches: "And who are the enemies of God?.. On the Dreadful Day of the general Resurrection, the Judge will command them all: "Depart from my curse into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his haggel" (Mt 25: 41) " [John Chrysostom, 1992, p.75]. In accordance with such teachings, the Old Believers explain their desire to avoid red clothing as follows:" ... they say that it is red from fire, red from blood " (Ibid.).
However, red is one of the main holiday colors. According to our observations of Easter celebrations in the village of Multa in 2007, women's hats and partly shirts seem to paint the holiday in this color. Especially bright and contrasting on Old Believers of advanced age are pure red festive kokoshniks made of artificial silk, over which red shawls with floral ornaments are tied. Bright and elegant look shirts and sundresses owners of red kokoshniks. Red color is especially typical for women's outfits, but it can also be found in men's suits.
The Old Believers have preserved samples of red clothing of the early XX century. For example, the wedding suit of the bride Kh. I. Ivanova from Bukhtarma, made in 1925 (Fig. 3). The plain red shirt in this complex belongs to the polykov type. We also recorded red holiday (prayer and weekend) polik and tunic-shaped women's shirts with small patterns, made in the early XX and early XXI centuries.
Our materials do not allow us to talk about a special predilection for the red color of Old Believers-bukhtarminok: among them, a negative attitude towards it is recorded. Different attitudes towards red among Uymon residents are associated with the ethno-cultural specifics of the villages of Verkh-Uymon and Multa. According to local residents, there has always been a slight difference in the attitude to traditions between these villages. The Old Believers of the village of Verkh-Uymon were considered more strict, while the Multinians were considered "a little softer"; at present, these differences are being smoothed out. According to the Old Believers ' ideas, just as fire can be both creative and destructive, so the red color can be both useful and harmful. This is a color that can be associated with blood or hellfire, as well as the most important Christian ideas about the "trampling of death" and the Resurrection of the Savior.
In general, the traditions of festive clothing of the Uimon people are very interesting in the context of the coexistence of asceticism and brightness. Thanks to the works of V. A. Lipinskaya, there is a widespread opinion about the predominance of exclusively dark colors of Uymon clothing [Lipinskaya, 1996, p. 124]. Indeed, the everyday and everyday prayer complex of elderly kerzhachek is characterized by modest colors, but even in it there are clothes of rather rich shades of green and blue. Of course, the Uymon kerzhachki follow the attitude voiced in the Old Believer periodicals: "... it is decent for a Christian to wear modest clothes, not flashy and not seductive " [The shortest statement..., 1993, p. 103]. The Old Believers of the Uymon Valley show a specific understanding of modesty: the emphasis is not on prohibiting brightness in the sense of color saturation, but on condemning variegation. At the same time," variegated " means not so much a variety of colors, but a large pattern on the fabric. For example, at the end of the Cartoon, an elderly woman showed us her new demi-season coat made of fabric with a large black and white pattern. This thing was forbidden to our interlocutor to wear, because it is "motley". Kerzhachki pay special attention to the monotony of the fabric for both everyday and festive clothing. In the absence of such a material-
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3. A girl in a wedding suit by Kh. I. Ivanova.
4. Uymon kerzhachka in a new Easter outfit.
all clothing (including molennoy) is allowed to be sewn from a fabric with a low-key, medium-sized pattern, "small flowers". The festive costumes of the Uymon people of the early XX and early XXI centuries are colorful, striking against the background of general asceticism (Fig. 4). Red, orange, crimson, pink, burgundy, blue, blue, and green materials are used. With such colorful colors, Uymon kerzhachki still realize their ideas about the modesty of a traditional costume - they do not use variegated (with a large pattern) fabrics, they prefer plain colors. At present, the Uymon Old Believers, known for their particular rigor, look much less ascetic than their co-religionists from the Steppe Altai. The tradition of dressing up, preparing new beautiful outfits for Easter, not only from cotton fabrics, but also artificial silk can meet with condemnation from the Old Believers of the Altai Mountains or co-religionists of the Altai Territory.
The brightness and richness of festive outfits are ideologically justified by the Old Believers on religious grounds. "On a holiday, it was necessary to equip yourself, if you respect God. To wear a handkerchief on the left side on a holiday is not to respect God, " explained E. P. Chernova (PMA, 1998, E. P. Chernova, born in 1928, Verkh-Uymon village). In the XX century, on big holidays, even very elderly women wore bright elegant clothes made of expensive fabrics: "I remember babonka, she was too old. But at Easter, for example, he will dress up in bright, beautiful clothes" (PMA, 1999, M. S. Artabolevskaya, born in 1931, S. Tikhonskaya). Despite all the color diversity, the same rule previously applied to festive prayer clothes as to everyday ones - they should be "without flowers", made of plain fabric. The festive outfits expressed a kind of reconciliation of Christian asceticism and the desire for brightness in life. This luxury of clothing, which is not allowed in normal times, is justified as "worship of God." The outfit-a sign of respect for the annual holiday-performs an important psychological function, forming a joyful and elevated mood, emphasizing the Christian significance of the holiday.
In the cases discussed above, there are three levels of correspondence between the ban and its implementation in life: a) actual non-compliance with the ban, ideological denial of the phenomenon; b) partial compliance with the ban and partial ideological justification of the prohibited phenomenon; c) leveling the ban and ideological justification of the phenomenon-
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research institute. These levels differ in the degree of ideological validity of pre-Christian phenomena in the context of the Christian worldview.
In jewelry, we see the strongest pagan trace. Decoration as an apotrope for a long time performed (in the everyday sense) the same functions as the body cross: it is protection from sorcerers, the evil eye, and health protection. Unlike Christian paraphernalia, jewelry served aesthetic and emotional needs. The ideas associated with them proved to be tenacious and at the same time unsuitable for Christian reinterpretation. Therefore, there was an ideological denial of these items. A vivid expression of the overestimation of archaic ideas is the female-serpent images inhabiting the underworld, in which one can recognize similarities with medieval apotropaic pagan images.
Red has a twofold meaning in the Uimon culture. On the one hand, it has retained its relevance in culture as an archaic apotrope and life-giver. On the other hand, this color, having become a symbol of Easter, an expression of the religious content of this holiday, also acquired Christian cultural significance. The red color denied by the Old Believers found an ideological justification in a certain functional cross-section. Interestingly, the Uimonians reconciled a person's natural life longing for finery and ascetic attitudes based on the teachings of the Church fathers. During the annual holidays, the colorful costumes received a religious justification as a Christian law. Thus, we not only found a way to express aesthetic preferences and the desire for beauty, but also significantly strengthened the ideological saturation of the most important Christian holidays.
List of literature
St. John Chrysostom. On the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the words: let us all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and each of us will give a word about himself to God (Rom. 14, 10, 12) / / Old Believers ' Church Calendar for 1993 - Moscow: Tserkva, 1992. - pp. 73-76.
St. John Chrysostom. Orthodox Old Believer Church Calendar for 2002-Kishinev: Publishing house of the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda", 2001. - p. 115.
The shortest exposition of dogmas and traditions, rites and rites and customs of the Old Orthodox Catholic Vetkovo Church / / Old Believers ' Church Calendar for 1994-Moscow: Tserkva, 1993. - pp. 75-104.
Lipinskaya V. A. Old-timers and settlers. Russians in the Altai. XVIII-early XX centuries-Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1996, 269 p.
Foreword about the dead: about our death, and about the sacred rite of burial, and about the commemorations performed according to custom / / Old Believers ' Church Calendar for 1993-Moscow: Tserkva, 1992. - pp. 77-94.
St. Ephraim the Syrian's word on the evil wives // Orthodox-Old Believers ' Church calendar for 1995-Moscow: Tserkva, 1994. - pp. 49, 54.
Rybakov B. A. The Paganism of Ancient Russia, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1988, 784 p.
Tolstoy N. I. Yazyk i narodnaya kul'tura [Language and Folk Culture], Moscow: Indrik Publ., 1995, 512 p.
Fursova E. F. Tselitel'nye svoistva rubakh russkikh krestyan [Healing properties of Russian peasant shirts]. History, Philology and Philosophy. - 1992. - N1. - p. 49-54.
Shitova N. I. Traditional clothing of the Uimon Old Believers. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk State University, 2005, 121s.
Shitova N. I. [Christian symbols in the clothing of the Uimon Old Believers]. science in Siberia. - 2008. - N3. - p. 87-90.
The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 30.03.09.
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