Ethnocultural Identity of the Mari People in the Virtual World
Abstract
Recent experience has demonstrated that the development prospects of ethnocultures have been decreasing without a proper transformative leap forward in the digitalization of ethnocultural space; ethnocultural identity tends to get lost against the backdrop of mainstream culture that has taken place in the virtual environment. This work attempts to define the degree of integration of the Mari culture into the Internet and the influence of its integration on Mari identity. A systems analysis was used to examine the ethnocultural space of Mari on the Internet. This method promoted defining identity as a system and included some interrelated components: axiological, linguistic, communicative, regional, mental, and the component of everyday life. The works of both foreign and Russian scholars on the theme of ethnocultural identity and the peculiarities of its transformation served as a useful methodological tool. Turning to the peculiarities of the Mari ethnocultural identity that have taken place in the virtual environment, the author considered methods and techniques of representation of Mari culture in virtual reality. It was concluded that the globalization of the information and communicative area not only helps harmonization and standardization of cultures but also encourages the integration of ethnocultural space, manifestation, the realization of basic needs of identification, and the decision-making process on ethnocultural everyday life in a virtual ethnocultural space. On the Internet, ethnoculture is saved and maintained; it acquires a new quality of life due to symbolic forms referring to its historic background.
Keywords: virtualization, Internet space, ethnocultural, Mari, language, ethnocultural identity
References
[1] Kostina AV, Gudima TM. Cultural policy in contemporary Russia. The ratio of ethnic and national. Moscow: URSS; 2007. [2] Hall S. Questions of cultural identity. Hall S, du Gay P, editors. London: Sage Publications; 1996.
[3] Hegde RS. Disciplinary spaces and globalization: A postcolonial unsettling. Global Media and Communication. 2005;7(1):59-63.
[4] Lie R. Spaces of intercultural communication: An interdisciplinary introduction to communication, culture and globalizing/localizing identities. Creskill: Hampton Press; 2003.
[5] Yadov VA. The strategy of sociological research. Description, explanation, understanding of social reality. Moscow: Omega-L; 2007.
[6] Platonov YP. Ethnic factor. Geopolitics and psychology. Saint Petersburg: Rech; 2002.
[7] Weber M. Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism. Moscow: East View; 2002.
[8] Trevor-Roper HR. 1914 — The crisis of the seventeenth century. New York: Harper & Row; 1967. Available from: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/ The%20Crisis%20of%20the%20Seventeenth%20Century%20-%20Religion%20- %20The%20Reformation%20%20and%20Social%20Change.pdf
[9] Bakhtin MM. The work of Francois Rabelais and folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literature; 1990.
[10] Levi-Strauss C. Structural anthropology. Moscow: Nauka; 1985.
[11] Shkalina GE. Spiritual foundations of the cultural heritage of the Mari people. FinnoUgric World. 2018;10(1):110-120. [12] Ervel Mari RB. Mari people of Kazan (official group). VK.com; 2021 Feb 19. Available from: https://vk.com/wall-156494070_3748
[13] Mari keyboard layout. Mari-Lab.com; 2020 Oct 26. Available from: http: //mari-lab.ru/index.php/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81% D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0% D0%B4%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0% B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D1%8B.
[14] GTRK Mari El. In Ioshkar Ola, a school of Mari priests has been established. GTRK Mari El Today [Internet]. 2018 Oct 10 [cited 2021.01.18]. Available from: https://www.gtrkmariel.ru/news/news-list/in-yoshkar-ola-opened-a-schoolfor-training-of-priests-of-the-mari/?sphrase_id=2469351
[15] The Mari people. Finno-Ugric peoples with great influence of Turkic ethnic group. Who are they? YouTube: TAMIK; 2020 Dec 2. Available from: https://youtu.be/L7v69- R2Lxo
[16] Prokhorov LA. Nizhny bardym Mari Song. YouTube: Leonid Prohorov; 2015 Jul 10. Available from: https://youtu.be/OUuT-049BdE