Sergei Shtyrkov

• European University at Saint Petersburg

The article deals with a pattern of Soviet civil rituals of the 1960s where a soldier killed at the WWII was “given” a personal voice to address the living. In an atheist state, listening to the voices of the dead should not have been a conventional metaphor; however, the organizers of these ritual performances took what was happening as seriously...

The Russian Orthodox Church is implementing projects to mark the space of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania as Orthodox, that is, as a legitimate space for its activities and institutional dominance. This policy also involves representing the Ossetian past as Orthodox, notably through the restoration of ancient buildings connected with Orthodoxy...

This collection of contributions addresses the theme of religiously motivated and religiously framed civic activism by bringing together anthropology and theology. The main goal is to put forward a concept of religious activism as local, non-elitist responses challenging dominant discourses and regulation of the religious in authoritarian and more...

In 2020, in the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, excavations of a burial ground near the medieval chapel in the village of Nuzal started. This architectural object is very important for the historical memory of Ossetians, as it is considered the tomb of Os-Bagatar, the last king of an independent medieval state of Alans, ancestors of Ossetians....

This contribution examines how ethnic activism in a republic of the Russian North Caucasus region, namely North Ossetia-Alania, is viewed by various social groups as a religious protest movement. This interpretation is influenced by anti-colonial discourse and an ideological agenda linking issues of religious identity and political loyalty. At the...

The methods of “material religion” elaborated in social anthropology and the materialistic (Marxist) approach to the study of religious life are methodologically different ways of turning our accustomed understanding upside down: the spiritual activity of Homo religiosus, acting as generating source, produces something material—sacred images, house...

The infrastructural turn in the social sciences comes from a tendency to change the anthropocentric epistemology in social research. This new approach corresponds to the classic program of social anthropology as it makes the known unknown and provides one more perspective which helps reveal the invisible politics, inequalities, and social tensions....

The article describes khadzars—special ritual houses built in the courtyards of residential areas of Vladikavkaz (Republic of North Ossetia—Alania) that have become elements of informal social infrastructure. As a venue for ritual feasts, khadzars are built by families living in a multi-storey house or complex of houses and are the responsibility o...

So-called spiritual tourism, the most important part of which is travelling to “places of power”, is a dynamically developing trend in the tourism industry. However, the market for services in this field is far from being transparently and pragmatically structured in every place. Sometimes it is consistently transformed through the creation and pro...

The protest of the North Ossetian nativist religious movement against discourses of dominant institutions in the public sphere involves as its necessary component ‘re-description’ of religion in general and ‘re-constructed’ religious systems in particular. Usually, this means revealing allegedly forgotten ancient meanings of indigenous customs, rit...

Several of the most prolific and influential conspiracy theories have originated in Eastern Europe. The far reaching influence of conspiracy narratives can be observed in recent developments in Poland or with regard to the wars waged in Eastern Ukraine and in former Yugoslavia. This volume analyses the history behind this widespread phenomenon as w...

Several of the most prolific and influential conspiracy theories originated in Eastern Europe. The efficacy of conspiracy narratives can be observed in recent developments in Poland or with regard to the wars waged in Eastern Ukraine and in former Yugoslavia. This volume analyses the history behind this widespread phenomenon as well as its relation...

This article is devoted to a canonization initiative - to bring the local (Vladimir diocese) saint, Maria Shvarnovna (Yasynia) (c. 1158-1206), grandmother of Alexander Nevsky, to the Church-wide veneration. Maria Yasynia is seen to be of Alanian (Ossetian) origin, and hence the great interest to her personality among Orthodox activists in today's N...

This article considers mechanisms of identity construction in one of the present-day communities of Subbotniki in Southern Russia. The study is based on the field recordings made in 2000 among Subbotniki in Stavropolskii krai. The sect of Subbotniki appeared in the 18th century, when some Russian peasants, ancestors of contemporary Subbotniki, repu...