The Buryat-Mongols’ Way of Being and Their National Image of the World Cover Image

Buriacko-mongolska droga życia i narodowy obraz świata
The Buryat-Mongols’ Way of Being and Their National Image of the World

Author(s): Irina Boldonova
Subject(s): History, Sociology, Comparative history, Ethnohistory, Social history, Social development, Rural and urban sociology
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: image of the world; landscape; nature; ethnos; nomads; imaginative writing; steppe; water;

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the comparison of two main concepts in the national image of the world of the Buryat-Mongols as it applies to their way of being: the Man of the Steppes and the Man of Water and the Woods. The research is based on the theory of the well-known Russian scholar Georgiĭ Gachev, who connects types of landscape and natural environment to national images of the world. Dwelling around Lake Baikal on the one hand, and at flat steppe territories on the other hand is reflected in two alternative ways of living, as well as images of world and forms of imagination. The author of the article analyzes the two variants of identity, which have always been under the influence of certain geographical and climate factors, economic activities, as well as cultural and historic traditions of various Buryat-Mongol ethnic subgroups.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 5
  • Page Range: 63-78
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: English