Specificity of Representing the "Sacred Grove" Concept as a Socio-Cultural Component of Watsdin Faith
Shizhenskiy Roman Vital’evich, Kocheganova Polina Petrovna
Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University
Submitted: 11.07.2020
Abstract. The paper aims to identify peculiarities of representing the "sacred grove" concept as a socio-cultural component of Watsdin faith. The article considers the status of sacred grove as Watsdin shrine space, examines additional connotations associated with modeling North Ossetia socio-cultural environment, creation of political and national myths. Scientific originality of the study involves the systemic interdisciplinary approach to analyzing the "sacred grove" concept not only as a place of worship and a form of sacred space but as a factor of the Ossetian society consolidation, an element of the regional political myth, an aspect of ecological culture. Such an approach allows the authors to trace evolution of the Ossetian religious worldview, including Watsdin faith, by the example of the modern status of the "sacred grove" concept. The research findings are as follows: the authors prove that in Northern Ossetia, sacred grove is a multicultural sacred space, an important element of the forming "iron din" institution, a consolidating factor for the Ossetian national consciousness, but at the same time a catalyst of interconfessional and social conflicts.
Key words and phrases: уацдин, священные рощи, архетип священной рощи, новые религиозные движения, сакральное пространство, Watsdin, sacred groves, sacred grove archetype, new religious movements, sacred space
Open the whole article in PDF format. Free PDF-files viewer can be downloaded here.
Popov K. P. Svyashchennaya roshcha Khetaga. Vladikavkaz: Ir, 1995. 70 s.
Popov K. P. Svyashchennye ob"ekty dikoi prirody Respubliki Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya, ikh klassifikatsiya, sostoyanie i perspektivy sokhraneniya // Zapovednoe delo v obshchestvennom soznanii: eticheskie i kul'tovye aspekty: materialy Mezhdunarodnoi shkoly-seminara "Tribuna-8". K.: Logos, 2002. S. 132-141.
Troitskii N. A. "Svyashchennaya roshcha" osetin v verkhov'yakh Aragvi // Zakavkazskii kraevedcheskii sbornik. Seriya A: "Estestvoznanie". 1930. T. 1. S. 20-27.
Frezer Dzh. Zolotaya vetv': issledovanie magii i religii / per. s angl. M. K. Ryklina. M.: TERRA - Knizhnyi klub, 2001. 528 s.
Eliade M. Ocherki sravnitel'nogo religiovedeniya. M.: Ladomir, 1999. 488 s.
Shnirelman V. A. Christians! Go Home: A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia (An Overview) // Journal of Contemporary Religion. 2002. Vol. 17. № 2. P. 197-211.