E-mail: azagor@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (499) 973-40-94
6, Miusskaya square, Moscow, 125993, Russian Federation
PhD in History, Associate Professor, Teaching and Scientific Center of Social Anthropology, Russian State University for the Humanities
The article was prepared within the framework of the project “The Role of the Ethnic Factor in Ensuring the National Security of the Russian Federation and the Socio-Economic Development of the Border Territories of Siberia and the Far East” (part of the program for fundamental and applied scientific research “Ethnocultural Diversity of Russian Society and the Strengthening of All-Russian Identity,” 2020–2022)
Russian Nanai and Chinese Heje were once part of the same ethnic community; at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries they perceived the border region as a single zone, but the events of the mid-twentieth century led to their isolation from each other. Among modern Chinese Nanais (Heje), traditional hunting rites and rituals have lost their functional significance, and there has also been an almost complete loss of the language. The state policy of the PRC as a whole tries to maintain the ethnic identity of the Heje through the institution of national districts and representation in higher, regional and local authorities; in addition, much attention is paid to the preservation of traditional holidays. Heje holidays reflect comprehensive information about traditional crafts, animistic beliefs, and spiritual culture. Participation of the Russian Nanais in these holidays is essential, since they have largely preserved their language, dances and some traditional activities (hunting). Cross-border cooperation may be based on the common historical memory of a people separated by a border. At a certain moment, the border began to play an isolating role, preventing cross-border contacts, and the two parts of the one people existed in different political and cultural environments. Their symbolic reunion in the form of a holiday restores the single shared space that once existed.
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