Rituals of burial and commemoration of chuvashs in the context of prohibitions: traditions and transformations

The article deals with prohibitions in Chuvash burial and memorial rituals and the factors of their mutability in the process of transformation. The study aims to analyze the prohibitions in the context of their study as a mechanism of regulating people's behavior at funerals and commemorations and the nature of changes in the prohibitions in modern conditions. The task of the study is to examine the prohibitions that occur in Chuvash funeral and memorial rituals through the prism of such key concepts as time, space, ritual actions, the composition of participants, objects, offerings, and the stability and variability of the prohibition system under the influence of globalization and cultural modernization. The work is based mainly on the authors' original field material collected between 1994 and 2022 in various Chuvash settlement areas in the Ural-Volga region. The methodological basis of the study is understanding the prohibition system as an integral part of the socio-normative culture that regulates human behavior in daily and ritual life. As a result of the study, it was found that the subject of prohibition norms in this area can be any area of the economic, daily, and ritual life of a person, whether the time, place of action, ritual attributes, composition of participants, clothing, food, offerings, behavior. Recently, the prohibitions in this area have changed significantly regarding safety and functionality. Under the influence of the sociocultural changes of the XX – early XXI century, the scope of prohibitions has significantly decreased, and a significant part of them is no longer considered binding. This is due to the fact that in modern reality, the boundaries between the profane and the sacred have become blurred, the economic and domestic way of life, employment, and the rhythm of people's lives have changed, families have been atomized, and the transmission of cultural traditions between generations is no longer guaranteed. As a result, many prohibitions no longer play a role in people's minds. In general, the changes noted are part of the general process of transformation of ethnic culture in the context of globalization and modernization of culture

Volga-Ural region, Chuvash, customs and rites related to the death of a person, prohibitions