Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses the changes of the ritual year of the Nekrasov Cossacks influenced by the altering natural, economic, and cultural context after their migration firstly to Turkey and then back to Russia.

Paper long abstract:

The Nekrasov Cossacks are an ethno-confessional group, which endured the adaptation to new environments twice: firstly, after Nekrasovites emigrated from Russia to Turkey, because they refused to follow church reforms in Russia in the 17th century, and secondly, after their return to Russia in the 1960s. Originated from the southern Russian provinces with agriculture as a predominant type of economy, they might preserve the sphere of the folk agricultural calendar well. But ethnolinguistic expeditions to the Nekrasovites in 2007–2012 showed only the remnants of agricultural motifs in the descriptions of the ritual year.

Analysing the causes of this, the paper follows Nekrasovites’ adaptation to the changing natural, economic, and cultural context. I pay attention to a different dominant in their economy in Turkey, where fishing acquired higher status than agriculture; the climate difference between Turkey and Southern Russia, which may cause the fact that timed calendar omens and prescriptions could lose their relevance. The necessity of religious consolidation of the Christians in the Turkish Muslim community led to the formation of the confessional dominant in the Nekrasovite’s ritual year. After their re-emigration to Russia, Nekrasovites endured the adaptation to the new rules of the Soviet atheistic society and another round of changes in the predominant activities, being settled in the region specializing in viticulture and winemaking. The following changes in the ritual system and the use of certain calendric elements (e.g. the Shrovetide round dance) as the base for the performances will be analysed.