Paper short abstract:

Our field studies in the Arkhangelsk’s North in 2018/19 showed that the male is being replaced with the female in some areas of the significant statuses’ field. We discuss the new elevated role of woman during the performances at the time of calendar holidays.

Paper long abstract:

Social emancipation of women and demographic changes that has accelerated since XX century are in the basis of the social and cultural context of the modern society, where woman’s symbolic position and role status are elevating. The strongest push for this global movement and, particularly, in Russia was World War II and its aftermath. Russia is a huge country. In order to generate a more or less stable core for the society with a change in the gender norms and roles, there should be a “for the change” spirit and certain positive practice of the “gender coup”. The latter is a specific “bending of the rules” in the local communities across the spectrum of different ways of people’s engagement in the public life. Our work addresses the research into violation of the boundaries of the male and female in the ethnical communes in the Arkhangelsk’s North and in South Siberia, which are populated by Khakass and Altaians. A clear identification of the area being analysed, in the opinion of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the first researchers of the komi’s land in the North, is an extremely important moment, which helps avoiding multiple inaccuracies in generalizations.