September 2017
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206 Reads
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1 Citation
The New Research of Tuva
The article analyzes the deformations in the mentality of the Khakas, a Turkic-speaking ethnos of South Siberia. The authors understand mentality as an internally consistent mode of a people’s existence for the sake of survival of the ethnos as a whole by means of organizing knowledge into an ethnic worldview; through the creation of a stable hierarchy of ethnically articulated needs, interests and values; through a system of auto- and heterostereotypes; and by developing sustainable forms of behavior in various situations. Due to both external and internal impact, the mentality, a historically stable phenomenon, can suffer deformations. We understand these as a change in the basic elements of the mentality (needs, interests, values) leading to reversible or irreversible transformations for the people. To document the mental deformations among the Khakass, the article compares traditional ethnic values with modern ones. The comparison makes use of two studies of values: an interdisciplinary study of the traditional outlook of the ethnos conducted in mid-1990s, an a sociological survey held in 2015. The analysis revealed that the hierarchy of basic traditional values, such as "native land", "Khakass people", "family" preserves its importance for ethnic actors as a resource for the preservation and development of the ethnos even under the conditions of globalization. However, the sociological survey recorded a change in the configuration of the entire value system among the Khakass people. “Family" as a value moves upfront, which follows the general historical pattern: an ethnos in a state of crisis returns to the basic, time-tested social institutions (family, clan). The latter are called upon to preserve the ethnos as a biopsychosocial community.