The Great Sovetest Steppe

The Kremlin is the capital of the Great Steppe. And in each of her ulus, a mirror is placed in front of him, where he could contemplate the eastern side of his nature. A group of akyns sits in front of each mirror and sings a song, folk music, words from the Bedecker. And from the group of mirrors, one appears in front of us, and from among the guides comes the eating, later. This time, the role of Amalgama obediently plays the Kalmyk steppe, and the speech of the Aboriginal Elsa Guchinova is revealed by the adhering occasion in the word - "Anthropology".

Studies naturally develop under the stamp of "ethnos". However, the thirst for modernity, despised by an idle tourist, calls other words. Power, business peacefully attached to each other in the title, sentenced to give them a commodity appearance, archaic beauty. The comma between the first is the verb about their dense merchant-visit. The union "and" before the latter hints at some escort services. So, from the first lines, the province splashing with delicate juice is drowning in its own idyll. The author writes:

"It turned out that the source for a socio-cultural anthropologist can serve not only the strictly documented story of a centenary long-liver about what was during it, not only dusty archival materials, but also life itself as such, your own impressions and observations, the stories of neighbors and friends, texts of songs of modern groups and Internet sites, memories of parents and photographs from a family album."

The perspective is seductive, but destroying the distance.

On the cover, which is hypothetically sweet to the heart of Kalmyk, the crowds of images: monumental Ilyich, the Buddhist temple, a folk suit, a chess palace and all the same quadrel akyn - already a monument, possibly personification. In the second preface, made by Guchieva herself, it is specifically stipulated: "The material culture of Kalmyks, for example, instruments of production, clothing, housing, utensils, but not food, remained in the past, its elements can be found only in the museum halls." What does modernity mean for Elista? As it turns out, only the change of kingdoms. That is how, the periods of power are depicted from the fabulous times of Dzhangar until the reign of the party secretary Gorodovikov and the current leader Ilyumzhinov , determined, according to the author, primarily the disposition of the first person.

In general, within the minorities, the concepts are experienced by collapse; Ethnography and nationalism, ethnography and political science become indistinguishable. Statements, about the scientific severity of which I do not know anything, are simultaneously incorrect attacks. Guchieva writes:

"The natural Kalmyk phenotype is one of the most significant factors for fixing ethnic identity. Even if the Tatars living in St. Petersburg consider it impossible to change ethnic identification due to differences in physical appearance, so we talk about Kalmyks representing the classic Mongoloid racial type."

According to the author, the Tatars, who served as an example, in this case anyway. Good Dr. Reznik, according to Guchieva, among others from the Russian diaspora, helped a lot of Kalmyks who came to America. Meanwhile, the rich and cohesive Jewish community lives separately, and new members receive vast preferences, compared to other newly arrived.

These restrained passages can not be called to the end thought out. There are non -counting sayings in them. And no matter what is the fault, the character is personal, the “national” or some deeply scientific truth that puts itself above elementary politeness, but the entertainment tone that makes the work of Guchieva, in the end, simply interesting and informational, is still inappropriate in university work. Which, perhaps, gives rise to the above cheeky failures. As a result, the study is read as a political request to the center not to intervene in the affairs of the republic with the attached to the current authorities, the explanation of the conditions and circumstances in which everything should remain the same for political strategists who want to help the current authorities.

Identity mechanisms are shown superficially, but quite applicable to the Newtonian world of national policy. From each case - with food, custom - the PR moves, compatible with dry soils and directness of horizons, grow invisibly. Since the work on the compilation of the Kalmyk Thezaurus was carried out more or less conscientiously, the brochure could have served a good service and those who treat Ilyumzhinov not as conciliatory as the author. This book could also be useful to a businessman touring in the republic or who sent to the United States and China, if he is aware in advance that he can meet the representatives of the Kalmyk diaspora, dividing his business in his business with him, and would wish to enjoy them and move them to the knowledge of their native culture.

The structure of the composition is quite biblical. The role of "being" is given to the preface (two of them). Next, there is an “outcome” based on the vengeful historical memory of the repressed. In the unit, similar to Danilova’s book, on the rivers of the Babylonian, there are Kalmyks-emigrants. The description of the Kalmyk business is somehow similar to the fragments of the “Revelation” of John, where it is told about the Golden Age (people of capital conscientiously set out their “daily routine”, which is little different from the life of entrepreneurs of other regions). The chapter on the gender beauty of the Kalmyk will remind the "song of the song" with poetry and liveliness, minus the truly eastern sweetness of the original source, but with the addition of comparative characteristics, in relation to Japanese and Frenchwoman (the choice of the author). The final paragraph is “the myth of the leader and the national idea” contains the features of the books of kingdoms and gospels. The central figure is a deeply reserved President of FIDE.

Apparently, this is a joint plan for general anthropological reviews. Actually, the myth of the leader is so effective that Guchiev once mentions: "As the father of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nikolai Ilyumzhinov wrote in his memoirs ..." . That this is the real need precisely in this material, for lack of other, or political excess, I can’t judge. Observing the visible objectivity, Guchiev explains that the republics of boom from Kalmykia still did not come out. But, one way or another, Ilyumzhinov-Sin and the People’s Poet of Kalmykia David Kugultinov remain the most obsessive figures of the book, the speeches of which opened or accompanied all significant republican events and changes.

The latter, the poet, at least decent, but equipped with a certificate that affirms it in the folk status, just like all other Kalmyk poets mentioned in the work of Guchieva, namely, Eredzhenov and Balakaev . Apparently, the phrase “folk poet” is a well -established Kenning, which simultaneously means “great”, “recognized” and “ours”. Such a Homeric approach to the use of epithets, from the point of view of today, should be clarified. But I suspect that the mention of the address where these poets gained this nickname can in the eyes of the reader to diminish the weight of their opinions and the statements.

In general, any text published in the atmosphere of the aftertaste, formed from frequent doses of violence, involuntarily falls under the charm of stationery genres. It seems to be a denunciation, a statement, then a request "in the name", then a festive address. Alas, mirrors also have a heart. And the book of Guchieva, undoubtedly talented in terms of the animal’s liveliness and very interesting in detail (I would note the story of the Kalmyk tea party in different aspects of the world), did not avoid common fate.

The author could not leave a sufficient distance from the object of study and completely fell under the charm of the context. Thus, the historical component of the Kalmyk identity, despite numerous modern examples, is depicted in an ancient synthetic way, indissoluble in its integral essence, although the work of analytical is given to work. The spatial coordinates specified in the essay are also infected with a fair amount of historicism. But they are found in the field of culture geography. Guchiev reports: "For a long time, only three persons were depicted only by three people in the capital of Kalmykia, the Eliste of the Kalmykia: V.I. Lenin, A.S. Pushkin and O.I. Gorodovikov." These X, Igrek and Zet to this day create in those funny and sad places the mysterious impression of a cultural volume.