Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify the potential of visual culture in contemporary studies of ethnocultural identity. The author examines in detail visual images, which he considers not only as ways of representation of ethnocultural identity, but also as important mechanisms of its construction. At the same time, the potential of the so-called images of identity becomes especially important due to the fact that visual images play an increasingly important role in the modern globalized world. Understanding and using their potential becomes a key aspect in the study of ethnocultural identity today, when visual culture is a powerful tool for understanding how images reflect sociocultural realities and how they interact with a wide range of social and cultural processes, and the study of ethnocultural identity becomes especially relevant in the light of globalization and digitalization of modern society. The author uses visual studies as the main research methodology, where the unit of research is the image as a carrier of meanings and an active participant of sociocultural processes. The main conclusions of this study are the following: visual culture is a dynamic space where visual practices and images not only reflect, but also actively shape ethnocultural identity, contributing to the critical rethinking of cultural interactions. Images of ethnocultural identity may include not only signs and symbols that are decipherable when perceived by a representative of a particular ethnocultural group, but also meanings that have a special potential hidden in visual images. Images of ethnocultural identity create a unique visual impression that reflects and shapes the values and traditions of a certain ethnocultural group. The study of the role of the visual in the context of identity allows us to conclude that visual images play a key role in its research to date.

Keywords: Meaning, Symbol, World view, Visual turn, Identity, Image of identity, Ethnocultural identity, Visual culture, Visual image, Image

Abstract: The article discusses a new trend to have wild animals (big cats, foxes, ferrets, etc.) in some homes, and it turns out that since they have been raised since childhood, loved and cared for, they behave like pets (dogs and cats). The question is whether these animals can still be considered domestic or not. To solve this problem, characteristics are given that make it possible to distinguish between wild and domestic animals, and the question is raised whether they can be applied to this case. To understand this new class of animals, the concept of "anthropomorphic" is introduced and it is shown that their psyche differs from that of wild animals, it is closer to domestic ones. An explanation is offered for the experiments of geneticist Dmitry Belyaev on the domestication of silver foxes.   The author argues that the evolution of foxes was influenced by two factors, not only genetic selection, as Belyaev believed, but also the impact of the environment created by man, an environment conducive to the formation of anthropoids. Attention is drawn to the fact that humans continue to crowd large wild animals. Humans increasingly need land for goats, cows, horses, pigs, poultry, and agricultural land. The paradox ‒ our big cats of anthropoids are fed the meat of these pets. At the end of the article, Belyaev's hypothesis, according to which we are "self-domesticated" monkeys, whose innate psychological tendencies, behavior and social structure have radically changed under the influence of selection for reduced aggressiveness, is compared with the author's hypothesis about the role of signs in human origin. He shows that domestication occurred as a result of the transition of hominids to "paradoxical behavior", which required the creation of a sign based on a signaling system. The latter allowed the hominids to act contrary to biological evidence at the command of the leader. A necessary condition for this was the imagination conditioned by signs, which helped to invent the first tools.

Keywords: experiment, foxes, environment, behaviour, mentality, origin, domestic, wild animals, human, genetics

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to characterise the characteristics of birch bark crafts of one of the ethnic minority groups, the Oroqen people who live in north-eastern China. The following research methods were used: description, synthesis and classification. The paper examines the characteristics of the handicrafts of the Oroqen people, namely forms, patterns and cultural connotations of ethnic birch bark art. including the cultural component, historical evolution of art and its distribution.Research objectives: to study the characteristic features of traditional fine arts of ethnic minority Oroqen people, classification of traditional art, analysis of the production technology, analysis of the general characteristics of traditional art. Scientific novelty of the study: The art of ethnic minorities in Northeast China has a long history and diversity of types, has a deep cultural connotation, while the Oroqen people have a diverse heritage of folk arts, and birch bark craftsmanship is one of the most important elements. This fact determines the scientific novelty of this study. Conclusions: The paper concludes that the ethnic birchbark art of the Oroqen people has been influenced by the following factors: lifestyle, religion and cultural heritage.The art of the people is determined by their style and standard of living, religion and cultural heritage.

Keywords: characteristics, cultural connotations, design, evolution, origins, ethnic minorities, Orochon, Craftsmanship, artistic, Forms of art

Abstract: This article discusses the cult of the tutelary spirits (thành hoàng) in Vietnam. These are spirits venerated as patrons of villages, rural communities and urban areas in Vietnam are expected to protect area against calamities, disasters, epidemics, wars, etc. These are mythical, historical and pseudo-historical characters who have merits to the area and its inhabitants. The veneration of them is rooted in the traditional culture. It is an integral part of the Vietnamese folk religion (tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam). The spirits of the area are included in the pantheon of numerous deities and spirits (thần) worshipped by the Vietnamese nowadays despite the anti-religious policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam (in the second half of the 20th century). The article describes the main features of the Vietnamese folk religion, which is the context in which the thành hoàng cult still exists, describes the role of the cult and its connections with other phenomena of the Vietnamese folk religion. Our comparison of the thành hoàng cult with similar cults of neighboring peoples allows to identify the influence of alien religious and philosophical systems - Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, ideologies of the 20th century. This comparative analysis allows to reconstruct the origins and milestones in the development of the thành hoàng cult. The cult has not previously been studied by Soviet and Russian orientalists. I propose the first systematic description of the cult, its place in the Vietnamese religious system and its origins.

Keywords: spirits cult, spirits veneration, Asian Studies, Far East religions, syncretism, deities, folk religion, tutelary spirits, guardian spirits, Vietnam

Abstract: The subject of this research is the traditional dwelling in the natural and cultural space of the Russian North and the Arctic. The goal of this work is to examine the peculiarities of a peasant house in Purnema settlement as a factor of formation of the cultural landscape of Onezhskoye Pomorye. The dwelling is examines not as an isolated structure, but an integral part of the North Russian cultural landscape, one of the key elements of the traditional culture of Pomorye— the Russian variant of marine culture in the Arctic. The research is based on empirical data acquired in the course of expedition in 2020 on the territory of Onezhskoye Pomorye, settlement of Purnema, Arkhangelsk Region. The article emplopys archival sources of the State Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev (Moscow), wooden architecture sites in the open-air museum “Malye Korely” (Arkhangelsk Region). Empirical data was obtained via photographic evidence of architectural sites, schematic measurements, and ethnographic questionnaire of local residents, using the method of interview. The research also leans on methodology developed by the Doctor of Culturology A. B. Permilovskaya on the architectural and ethnographic survey of the wooden architecture sites. The conclusion is made that the architectural-construct peculiarities of the dwelling and type settlement demonstrate the specific lifestyle of the Russian people in the harsh forest zone and their adjustment to the local climate. In the conditions of the North and the Arctic, a peasant house manifests as a stabilizing factor of adaptation, which ensures sustainable coexistence of population and cultural landscape formed therein; and thus, the effectiveness of ethnosocial and environmental development of the Northern and Arctic territories of the Russian Federation.

Keywords: traditional culture, vernacular architecture, cultural landscape, rural historical settlement, spatial planning, dwelling, Russian North, Arctic, Onezhskoye Pomorye, Purnema village

Abstract: This article conducts a semiotic model of Japanese models of communication with the Alien. The authors analyze the syntax of the system of relations with the Alien/Other, as well as the semantics of particular images of the Alien. Certain homogeneity of Japanese society makes encounter the Alien/Other an exceptional phenomenon, which reflects the behavioral patterns of Japanese cultural tradition, as well as peculiarities of otherness of the Alien that initiates the cultural contact. All of the aforementioned turns the analysis of this phenomenon of cultural encounter into a special heuristic problem that should be resolved within the framework of various disciplines and methodological approaches. The specificity of Japanese representations with regards to otherness is analyzed using the semiotic methods, primarily structural method, which allow determining the main oppositions help to establish a communicative paradigm of relationship with the Other: center/periphery, Japanese/Barbarians, openness/closeness, ordinariness/sacredness. Alongside the structural method, the author also uses the historical methods for examining this phenomenon in diachronic and synchronic aspects. Special attention is given to comparativist approach that allows correlating the image of the Alien with certain images of the Other, currently functioning in Japan in the context of youth fashion. The authors determine the common moments characteristic to representations of liminality of the Alien/Other, which transfer it from the area of ordinary to the area of supernatural. The analysis demonstrates that Japanese model of communication with the Alien is considered a multilayer phenomenon, based on the static traditional approach, as well as pragmatic dynamic approach. All of these leads to a complex classification of the Alien/Other that considers minute details capable of helping a subject to build such communication.

Keywords: European influence, shogunate, homogeneity, otherness, The other, alien, japan, colonial possessions, barbarians, center

Abstract: The subject of the research is the structural and decorative particularities of a traditional dwelling of the Russian (European) North and Arctic Region. The object of the research is a sign system of decorations as a reflection of peasant world view. The empirical basis of the research included 34 architectural ethnographic expeditions to 368 settlements of the Archangelsk and Vologda Regions and Karelia. The source for the research included archives and monuments of wooden architecture in wooden architecture museums: Malye Korely (Archangelsk Region), Kizhi (Republic of Karelia), collections from All-Russian Decorate Art Museum, etc. The research was based on a set of methods such as the systems approach, cultural-historical, ethnocultural, semiotic and historiographical methods. The research is based on using the method offered by Permilovskaya that implies using an architectural and ethnographical research of wooden architectural objets. The method was tested and published in monographs, research books, architectural encyclopaedia (Great Britain, 2017), etc. The research is devoted to the decoration of the roof of a folk dwelling, in particular, the final element - horse-ridge (“ohlupen”) that often had zoomorphic symbolics and was sculpturally depicted in the form of horse or bird or elk or antler horns. The author makes a new scientific guess that that the ornament of carving in scultured figures that decorate the house reflects a traditional archaic picture of the world of those who built the house. The results and conclusions of the research demonstrate that a classification of decorations of a folk wooden dwelling can be represented as a triad 'function - canon - decoration'. The scope of application of the results may include research activity, teaching, building open-air museums and restoration of wooden architecture monuments. 

Keywords: sign system, solar symbols, tradition, roof without nails, Arctic, Russian North, archaic world picture, horse-ridge (“ohlupen”), decor, folk dwelling

Abstract: The subject of the present research is a visual representation of ethnic (Buryat) masculinity based on the analysis of Solbon Lygdenov's film 'Bulag. The Sacred Spring'. During her descriptive analysis, Dashibalova has discovered visual markers of the masculinity crisis in a modern society as well as construction of various codes of Buryat ethnicity. She has based her description of the rural Buryat community on forming and deconstructing characteristics of identity: boyhood institution, internal rules and autonomy of the male union, moral code of masucline behavior, military service, kindred-community associations, patterns of verbal communication, physical habitus, fatherhood, and decay of family. When analyzing the film 'Bulag', the researcher also describes parameters of Buryat ethnicity through kindred patterns, system of gestures, linguistic space of the film, audio sequence, ethnic anecdotes, religious cults, physical habitus and body practices. During sociological analysis of the film the researcher has used a combination of structural and narrative approaches. Dashibalova has reconstructed the plot, described the frame space and film segments based on David Bordwell's approach. The researcher's description of social characteristics of characters and modern realities of a Russian village is based on actual concepts of theoretical sociology. The main conclusions of the research are as follows: 1) The researcer has defined binary oppositions of male scenarios in a modern Buryat community conveyed in the film 'Bulag' and polar lines of social behavior. On the one pole, there is a standardized pattern of masculinity as a reference to the 'real man' code. The opposite pole of modern masculinity fixes a representation of a deprivation state. 2) The researcher has also discovered the need to develop the phenomenon of ethnic masculinity constructed in works of fiction and film construct. 3) The original film offers the audience to return 'ad fontes' and in this sense, it creates te ethnomobilisation rhetorics. The author's contribution to the research is caused by the fact that she reveals the phenomenon of ethnic masculinity, and its ambivalence in a modern society. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author describes parameters of ethnic (Buryat) masculinity depicted by the means of cinematography.

Keywords: visual text, social deprivation, male habitus, masculine patterns, ancestorial patterns, rural community, boyhood institution, ethnic identity, cinema film, ethnic masculinity

Abstract: The objects of research are the moral imperatives of the Knights of Malta. In his article Lestev in details described the basic concepts of the knight identity: honor, loyalty, justice, mercy and obedience in terms of the formation of a special system of military-religious order. Despite the universal nature of these concepts, their semantic content as well as localization are different  in a variety of military communities and cultures. This determines the importance of examining the spiritual aspirations, spiritual quest of man, his moral imperatives in the study of a particular culture. In addition to the general historical research methods, the author also used socio-psychological and comparative (comparative cultural studies) methods to describe the development of the system of moral imperatives of knights of the spiritual Order and to compare them with similar concepts of secular knights. As the main result of this study, Lestev shows the transition made by members of the Order of Malta from feudal thinking to thinking about whole Christian world, generally good-Christian, which was the forerunner of modern humanistic ideas and international organizations providing humanitarian assistance in all parts of the world. It was the first time the knights of religious orders were able to counter and implement the idea of the common good opposing to the idea of profit and personal advantage. 

Keywords: Crusades, Christianity, Morality, Knighthood, Existential, Imperative, Loyalty, Honor, Order of Malta, Military Culture

Abstract: Despite the fact that there is a great variety of anthropological concepts and schools, anthropology is guided by the paradigm of human reason. It is the awakening mind tentatively learning the world and producing a bunch of strange and exotic practices the ancestors of human paid much attention to. The dichotomy ‘instinct or reason’ confine most of anthropological researches. The present article is aimed at undermining the authority of this dichotomy and carrying out a research of something the third, something between instinct and reason – a strange instinct excluding reflective performance algorithms. The author solves the Gordian knot by reconstructing and comparing a number of factors which create a rather limited picture of the alternative logic and the meaning of human evolution. As a result, a new vision of the outcome of history has been created. This is the vision of the history developing within the framework of species competition and driven by the initiation of the defensive instinct when an individual stands above the irresistible circumstances of isolation and his dedication is approved in the cult as the historically the first instrument of retaining humanity.

Keywords: Instinct, consciousness, spontaneity, ritual, genotype, phenotype, evolution, archanthrope, competition, sacrifice.

Abstract: The article is aimed at analyzing changes in the system of private and alternative systems of education and inclusion of scientific projects not only as the fields of research but also innovation-based education of preschoolers and primary school students in order to develop efficient skills of intercultural communication, formation of cultural and national identity and natural tolerance. At the present time more and more parents get involved into the process of educating their children due to disrespect towards state preschool and especially school education. Some parents choose private education, others take children to infant development centers. Some parents are quite skeptical about social institutions of up-bringing and education and therefore practice homeschooling in a new modification – ‘no schooling’ theory. Parents’ initiatives regarding education of their children are becoming systematic which requires to include academic community in the process, too. The author of the article presents practical experience of implementation of ethnic education.

Keywords: cultural research, ethnic education, intercultural adaptation, tolerance, national identity, innovationbased education, ethnography of childhood and child’s pedagogy, communication creativity, dialogue of cultures (cultural communications), empathic dialogue.

Abstract: The authors of the article study semantics and evolution of the “East” in the West European and Russian orientalism paintings of the 19th century on the materials of the works by J.A.D. Ingres, E. Delacroix, V. Vereschagin. The target of the study is to analyze evolution of the Eastern woman’s images in the West-European and Russian orientalism in the context of evolution of the dialogue between the East and the West. It is proved that semantics of “East” is closely connected with semantics of femininity. The novelty of work is caused by several facts: 1) the study is about not only aesthetical but also ideological differences between French (West European) and Russian orientalism (V. Vereschagin); 2) development of the Postmodernist and Feminist concept of gaze (that was founded by Laura Mulvey) based on the classical paintings of the 19th century; 3) demonstration of the “inversion” opportunities of gaze in the orientalist painting; 4) the study analyzes specifics of the dialogue between the East and the West in the West European and Russian paintings of the 19th century.

Keywords: cultural studies, femininity, orientalism, the Other, dialogue between the East and the West, race, sexuality, ‘spectator’s opinion’, inversion of gaze, gender analysis.

Abstract: The article continues the theme of the ethnical gypsy court, one of the main institutions of behavior control which is still used by certain gypsy tribes in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. The author of this article describes the main features of the gypsy court as the method of institutional resolution of confl icts between communities as well as transformations ongoing at a modern stage of development.

Keywords: cultural research, ethnology, gypsy court, non-judicial confl ict resolution, institutional confl ict resolution, authority and social-age status, composition of court, mixed court, cross border courts, International Romani Union.

Abstract: Ethnic gypsy court is one of the central and mostly developed topics in gypsy researches nowadays. It was discussed during a number of discussions in scientific literature, however, experts still do not have a common opinion about the nature of this phenomenon, its conents, functions and origin. The purpose of this particular article is to disaprove some scientific myths and ethnologists’ views on the ethnic court based on field materials collected over a 30-year period in Central, South East and Eastern Europe. The authors of the article describe the expansion of the institution of gypsy court among different ethnic and territorial gypsy tribes in the aforesaid reginos as well as provides the definition of gypsy court, its participants and court decisions.

Keywords: cultural research, gypsies, gypsy court, gypsy slavery, service nomadism, expansion among ethnic tribes, matchmaking, bride stealing, gypsy dialects (romani), myth about gypsy barons.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the custom of swadding of babies at the Northern Caucasus and its role from the point of view of cultural anthropology and psychology. The author of the article describes the composition of a child’s cradle and its specifi c features in different ethnic groups living in the Northern Caucasus as well as rituals of putting a baby into a cradle. The article analyzes the pagan roots of these rituals and their transformation in modern socio-cultural practices under the infl uence of Islam.

Keywords: cultural studies, cultural anthropology, psychology, Northern Caucasus, socio-cultural practice, ritualism, swadding, diaper determinism, cradle, infl uence of Islam.

Abstract: The article casts light on the major results of a so far short experience of the festival of audio visual anthropology called The Ethnographic Cinema Days, as well as the tasks it solves. The world science has accumulated plenty of audio visual methodological and theoretical materials which is actively used in teaching and researching. However, visual anthropology performs an auxiliary function, at its best, in the Russian academic environment. It prompted in 2009 the Russian Institute of Cultural Studies to come forward with an initiative to arrange an annual cinematographic festival of audio visual anthropology The Ethnographic Cinema Days aimed at solving important tasks in theory and practice.

Keywords: cultural studies, anthropology, ethnology, audio visual methods, visual anthropology, festival, audio visual technologies, documentation, memory, cinema.