“Povtornoe izobretenie” i transformatsiia lokal’noi religioznoi traditsii: erzianskii neoyazycheskii ritual

Abstract

The article examines the social load and functions of neopagan prayers (ozks) that are held in the areas traditionally populated by the Mordvins, predominantly at the sites associated with pagan rituals, in the context of the project of claiming recognition for the Erzya nation within contemporary Russia. The author focuses on the “invented” tradition which has been transformed from a local funeral rite into the event of national scale that entails the (re)construction of pagan ritual practices, for the national “imagined community” claims to have been grounded in the traditional sacred area, is properly “imagined” as a sacred religious community, and is (re)created in the course of a collective ritual where traditional religious practices are inventively transfigured in order to legitimize the modern political project.