Abstract: The object of this research is ritual attributes applied in different ceremonies, associated with the spirits Ichchi and celestial deities of Aya, which possess a superior modeling and communicative function. The article describes the ritual sacred items that were not used in everyday life, such as the sacrificial spoon of the Aya-shaman, kumis ladle, fortunetelling spoon, and spatula of the potter. Interdisciplinary approach allowed applying a historical-cognitive method of research, which views an item as a narrative text and a creative tool for transforming the sacred space. The novelty consists in the fact that despite the sufficient examination of correlation between a myth and a ritual, semiotic aspects of functionality of one or another item, organization of the sacred space, etc. of the Sakha people, these ritual attributes did not become a subject of semiotic study and determination of their structural-functional role within the mythical-ritual space of the Sakha people. The conclusions is made that these ritual attributes have a mediating function that establishes a communicative link between the Aya-shaman and transcendental space; in all ritual acts they are involved in modeling a stable life environment. It is revealed that mixing of raw materials (kumis, clay) was similar to the act of creation of Man and Nature, and the Aya-shaman performed the function of a demiurge. The author believes that all these functions could underlie a single ritual attribute – the sacrificial spoon, which later became a prototype of the shamanic drum mallet.

Keywords: Ysyakh, ritual attributes, mythological and ritual space, creation myths, ethnosemiotics, traditional culture, sacred space, sacrificial spoons, semiotics of things, aiyy shaman

Abstract: In the presented article, the object of research is the commemorative practices of cultural and historical reconstruction. The subject of the study is the inversion of temporality in the festival practices of cultural and historical reconstruction. The purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of temporal representations of historical reenactors through the prism of the concept of inversion of social time. To achieve it, a secondary analysis of the interview data of the organizers and participants of the festival of historical reconstruction "Times and Epochs" was carried out. The empirical base of the study was made up of materials from Russian media. The most informative was the content of the portal "The City", which posted interviews with participants of the historical reconstruction movement representing various Russian cities, socio-demographic and professional groups of the population. The novelty of the research is the introduction of new theoretical and empirical material into scientific circulation. For the first time in the context of the temporal approach, memorial culture and cultural and historical reconstruction are considered as significant and effective factors of the collective format commemoration. The analysis allowed the authors of the article to determine the multivariability of motivations and intentions that form the basis of commemorative practices of cultural and historical reconstruction. The festival "Times and Epochs" is considered by the authors of the article as an example of non-traditional commemorative practices, where the subject of commemorative activity is the collective past, actualized in the socio-cultural space of the metropolis within the framework of the project-network approach. The problems of the development of the festival as a memorial project, the prospects of its integration into the urban environment are revealed.

Keywords: social urbanism, city, urban community, inversion, memorial culture, temporality, cultural and historical reconstruction, memory, comment, social time

Abstract: The subject of the study is the first stage of the creation of the Beijing Choreographic School, the object of the study is the teacher of the Moscow Choreographic School O. A. Ilyina. Her contribution to the creation of the first professional education system in China is emphasized. The role of Soviet choreographers and teachers who carefully studied the Chinese specifics of teaching is noted. Based on the Russian choreographic education system, with its accumulated valuable theoretical and teaching experience, they laid the foundations for the creation and development of a ballet training system in China, thereby creating a serious basis for the professional development of Chinese classical ballet.     The novelty of the research of this work lies in the analysis of the influence of O.A. Ilyina on the early Chinese ballet. In this regard, the tasks are being formed – to consider the features of her diverse activities in China (first as the creation of the Beijing Choreographic School, then as a teacher who has done a lot to train national ballet cadres) and to assess its significance for the development of Chinese ballet. The scientific novelty of the article is caused by the fact that the activities of O.A. Ilyina in China have not yet been studied.A significant role in the preparation and creation of the first professional ballet school in Beijing was played by teachers of the Moscow Choreographic School at the Bolshoi Theater, in particular Olga Alexandrovna Ilyina.

Keywords: cultural relations, faces of the new era, Cultural life of China, professional choreographic school, Dance culture of China, Beijing Choreographic School, Moscow Ballet School, Moscow Choreographic School, Olga Ilyina, Classical dance

Abstract: This article examines the development of Confucianism in the conditions of globalization. Globalization represents one of the most discussed in recent decades mainstream trends of global development. For quite a long time it remained one of the least strongly identified social and political phenomena. The article determines that in the process of globalization, the ideas of Confucianism ensure theoretical support for the development of cultural diversity. It is underlined that the fundamental principles of Confucianism coincide with the core moral-ethical principles of the “global ethos”. The article also describes the peculiarities of the concept of Chinese culture in the conditions of modern globalization processes. The main vector of research among Chinese scholars dealing with the questions of globalization, is the analysis of the process of cultural globalization and the pursuit of their place within it. Such analysis is based on the concept of culture accepted in Chinese science; however, there is yet to unified assessment of cultural globalization among the Chinese researchers. The key role of moral norms and cultural principles in governance is established. At the same time, based on the the analysis of status quo of globalization, it is suggested that the development and integration of culture should rely on the maintenance of cultural subjectivity. The author assumes that in future, the development of cultural globalization and Confucianism in order to fulfill the needs of modern society, would greatly impact cultural diversity with regards to preservation of cultural identity.

Keywords: humaneness, humanity, Golden mean, reciprocity, subjectivity, cultural diversity, Confucianism, globalization, harmony, translation of metaphysics

Abstract: This article analyzes how the young ethnic Muslims of 2nd and 3rd generations who were born in Germany, as well as Muslim students studying in Germany, spend their spare time. The author used such methods as field ethnographic observation and unstructured interview with the respondents. The pool of respondents was formed via snowball sampling. Studying the pastime of Muslim youth, the author was able to trace the degree of their integration into German society. Since multiple sociocultural needs are usually fulfilled during the spare time, examination of the leisure of youth allows determining moral and spiritual image of a person. This article is first to analyze leisure time of ethnic Muslims residing in Germany based on the field material acquired by the author, which defines the scientific novelty of this research. The conclusion is made that usually ethnic Muslims of 2nd and 3rd generations (young people without higher education) spend their spare time on the Internet, doing sport or entertaining activities. Young Muslims studying in the universities prefer intellectual leisure activities: reading, visiting museums and exhibitions. The priorities of young Muslims of the 2nd and 3rd generation resemble a slow paced level life, keeping it easy, with no ambition in getting higher education. For Muslim students or Muslims who already received higher education, the priority in pastime include spiritual and cultural development, accumulation of investments and landing a highly-skilled job with decent salary.

Keywords: the youth, muslims, leisure, priority, Muslim community, immigrants, free time, Germany, young muslims, podcast

Abstract: The object of this research is the Great Imperial Crowns of the Russian monarchs in the XVIII century. The goal consists in clarification of the circumstances of creation and existence of the Great Imperial Crowns in Russia during this period, determination of their artistic peculiarities, and analysis these regalia as the works of jewelry art with consideration of stylistic evolution. For achieving the goal, the complex method based on the synthesis of art and historical-cultural approaches is applied. The author refers to a range of sources: unpublished archival documents, memoirs of the contemporaries, and visual material. This article presents a first comprehensive study on creation of the Great Imperial Crowns in Russia. The examines archival documents allow specifying names of the artists who created these regalia, many of which are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time. The analysis of artistic image of Great Imperial Crowns is carried out. The research demonstrates that in the XVIII century this image transformed under the influence of stylistic preferences in the Russian art culture, as well as due to succession of the court jewelers who belonged to different jewelry schools. Up until Paul I of Russia, who made these regalia hereditary, the Great Imperial Crowns were usually taken apart after the coronation ceremony they were made for.

Keywords: Russian emperors, Samson Larionov, the art of jewellery, regalia, Russian empresses, coronation, Great imperial crown, Johann Heinrich Zahrt, Jérémie Pauzié, Georg Friedrich Eckardt

Abstract: Religious art is one of the most complex and controversial phenomena in the history of art. The attempts to conceptualize this phenomenon are relatively recent, and are carried out mostly in the context of the existence of confessional, ecclesiastical/nonecclesiastical, cult/atheistic art. Therefore, religious art within the Russian humanities traditionally receives ambivalent interpretation. In a narrow sense, religious art implies a combination of artworks with dogmatic, doctrinal, and liturgical meaning. In a broad sense, religious art represents a set artworks that reveal religious themes from ideological and figurative perspectives, reflect religious worldview, faith and experience, but do not carry sacred statues, nor intended for reverence, worship, liturgical practices.  The author concludes that neither definition describes the distinctness and novelty of the religious art. The appropriate interpretation describes religious art as d both, ecclesiastical/non-ecclesiastical and cult / atheistic art. This leads to a terminological confusion, and doubts the need for introducing the concept of “religious art” and the phenomenon itself. The key towards understanding this phenomenon and a new definition of the concept of “religious art” can be their context – the European and Russian secularization. It is not coincidental that the first was addressed, and the second was deliberately formulated at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries. Religious art mainstreams during the historical periods when the boundaries of secularization/religion become flexible, initiating struggle for them.

Keywords: desecularization, secularization, non-cult art, cult art, out-of-church art, church art, confessional art, Religious art, evolution of religion, contextual analysis

Abstract: This article examines the phenomenon of preservation of the traditional cult practices of Abkhazians in the current context. The key tasks of this research include studying ritualism in terms of the traditional beliefs (religion) of Abkhazians, creation of the “scenario” of ritual practice, and assessment of the relevance and role of this phenomenon in life of the modern Abkhazian ethnos. The conclusion that the cult practice manifests as a form of Abkhazians’ identity, a so-called cultural core, and allows the ethnos to preserve itself in the conditions of globalization and multiple destructive modern trends that  destructive for the ethnos.  The main results of the conducted research consists in the statement that the modern Abkhazian society marks dominance of the traditional values and beliefs (religion), against the background of which are implemented Christian or Islamic practices. Traditional religion is perpetuated, holistic, regulated by the institution of priests and the true faith of the entire Abkhazian ethnos. Reliability of the research is substantiated with the author's expedition materials, acquired as a result of expedition work in 2013-2017.

Keywords: priests,, identity,, globalization, traditional faith,, cult practice, traditional culture, Abkhazians, sanctuaries, Anih, sacred space

Abstract: The problematic of studying Latvian art culture after declaring independence in 1918 did not receive due coverage in the works of national researchers. Based on the new facts of artistic biography of the prominent cultural figure of Latvia –  the painter August Ivans (1895-1975), analysis is conducted on the isolated phenomena of the Latvian art culture of the 1920s – 1930s, namely the establishment of higher art education in the Republic of Latvia. The preserved sayings of the painter allow revealing the role of graduates of Russian schools of art in formation of the Latvian Academy of Arts. The author highlights the painter’s role in the process of democratization of the country's art life, which consists in his work on illustrations to the satirical magazines. The establishment of art education in Latvia is reviewed on the basis of life and creative path of the Latvian painter August Ivans for the first time. The role of the graduates of Russian art schools in formation of the Latvian Academy of Arts is also noted. In the 1920s – 1930s, the art life in Latvia became more public, and artists acquired more opportunities to exhibit their paintings. More artists were able to sustain themselves by selling their works. Printing numerous satirical publications designed by A. Ivans led to the process of democratization of art life of the country. This article is also first to publish the information on the death and burial place of the artist.

Keywords: the result of artistic creativity, democratization of artistic life, satirical magazines, magazine graphics, artistic culture of Latvia, Penza Art School, new facts from the biography, dynamics of cultural processes, national perception, art education

Abstract: The subject of this research is the works of the unique Khanty artist Mitrofan Alekseevich Tebetev (1924-2011), viewed from the perspective of its sociocultural origins. The artistic path of the artist took place at the intersection of two intertwined cultures: patriarchal culture of the Ob Ugrians and the culture of Soviet official circles. M. A. Tebetev quite organically infused both cultures. It may seem that his visual art is characterized by propensity for the naive style. However, such assessment in many ways devaluates analysis of the content of artist's paintings. Therefore, certain alienation from the excessive narrow-focus art discourse can propel the analysis of his works to a different, general cultural level. The crucial role in this research is played by the works of such theoreticians as P. Tillich, Dvořák, A. Hauser, and V. N. Prokofiev, which outlined the theoretical and methodological framework for this article. The sources for this research became the works of M. A. Tebetev, exhibition catalogues, and reproductions of his paintings, as well as writings dedicated to his works. The main conclusion consists in the thesis that the works Of M. A. Tebetev feature the attributes of visual historical-ethnographic sources. The evolution of Russian painting from photographic accuracy towards latent iconographic simplicity and open archetypical paganism reflects profound changes in the worldview of the late XX – early XXI centuries.

Keywords: Raishev, sociocultural analysis, Khanty, ethnos, Tebetev, traditional culture, art form, naive painting, Soviet officialdom, sociocultural inversion