Natural and Social Dominants in the Shaping of Ethnographic Distinctiveness of the Don Estuary Fishermen (18th —21st Centuries)

Abstract

The article discusses the fishing community that had formed in the Don River estuary area after the conquest of northeastern Azov Sea region by Russia. The author provides a brief overview of natural and environmental conditions as well as the process of shaping the contemporary population. She focuses on the worldview of residents of the Elizavetinskaia village farmsteads. Through the examination of oral narratives, a naïve type of worldview is reconstructed and the consequences of systemic impact of natural and economic factors, such as mono-specialization in fishing and specific way-oflife conditions, are analyzed. The fishing industry, as the author argues, has played the leading part in shaping ethnographic distinctiveness of the local ethnic-social community.