The Structure of Ethnic-Cultural Space in Ethnographic Art Works of the 1920s–30s from the Collections of the T. Yevseyev National Museum of the Mari El Republic

Abstract

The article summarizes the results of a cultural study of the collection of ethnographic art works of the 1920s-30s from the T. Yevseyev National Museum of the Mari El Republic. By examining these works as a reflection of Mari’s world of values and meanings, represented through their everyday, landscapes, and objects, the authors define it as an ethnic-cultural space. Its structural model is broken down into levels, such as geospace, social space of the community, family, subjects, dress as a semiotic space, imagined space. Each level as a separate topic or genre, being an element of the whole, carries information about other levels. Due to specificities of the artistic means of comprehension, the works of the collection draw a multilayer live image of ethnic-cultural space of the Mari people.