The Ritual Year of the Nekrasov Cossacks in Turkey and in Russia: Reflecting on the Adaptation to New Environments

Abstract

The Nekrasov Cossacks belong to an ethno-confessional group that had to cope with adaptation to new environments several times. This happened due to multiple rounds of migration. Originating mainly from the southern Russian provinces with agriculture as a predominant type of economy, we would expect them to follow the agricultural calendar well, but ethnolinguistic expeditions to the Nekrasovites in 2010–2013 showed only some remnants of these motifs in the descriptions of the ritual year. Analyzing the causes of this, the article traces the Nekrasovites’ adaptation to the changing natural, economic, religious, and cultural context. The author pays attention to the different dominant in their economy in Turkey, where fishing acquired a higher status than agriculture. In addition to this, climatic differences between Turkey and southern Russia are noted, because they may underline the fact that some of the calendar omens and agricultural prescriptions may have lost their relevance. The necessity of religious consolidation of the Christians in the Turkish Muslim community led to the elaboration of the confessional dominant in the Nekrasovites’ ritual year, which maintained its stability even later, in the atheistic Soviet state. After their re-emigration to Russia, the Nekrasovites adapted to the rules of the new Soviet atheistic society and another round of changes in the predominant activities, since part of them settled in the region specializing in viticulture and winemaking. The changes in the ritual system, which followed their migrations, are analyzed in the article.