Socio-geographic aspects of conservation of ethnocultural identity and traditional forms of  natural use in Setomaa

The systems of traditional intercommunal interaction, the peculiarities of settlement and the features of the ethno-territorial economic specialization of Setos that have developed over the centuries allow highlighting the most significant factors that are important for the preservation of their cultural identity. Currently, the territorial specificity of ethnocultural unity was strongly influenced by three factors: firstly, this is the division of the traditional territory of residence of the ethnic group by state borders, and the difficulties of cross-border interaction have significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and secondly, these are trends in demographic processes — depopulation and migration outflow from rural areas, thirdly, determined by changes in the economic and technological structure of the craft traditions of the ethnos to the needs of the tourism sector. The purpose of the study is to identify, systemize and substantiate modern forms of transmission from generation to generation of the traditions of Seto trades and crafts in conditions of territorial and partly social disunity of the ethnic group. The methods of socio-economic and cultural interaction within and outside the traditional territory of settlement of this ethnic group were also studied. It is important to identify the elements of the traditional culture of Seto that have retained their relevance in the modern way of life, and along with them — meaningfully new types of economic activity of local and network Seto ethnocultural communities.

Keywords

Russian-Estonian border, Seto, traditional culture, trades and crafts, ethno-economic systems

Received

12.10.2021

Publication date

05.12.2021

Number of characters

19009

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GOST	Terenina N., Kliimask J. Socio-geographic aspects of conservation of ethnocultural identity and traditional forms of natural use in Setomaa // Pskov Journal of Regional Studies – 2021. – Volume 17. No4 /2021 C. 47-56 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://prj.pskgu.ru/S221979310017152-0-1 (circulation date: 23.04.2025). DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017152-0
MLA	Terenina, Natalya, Kliimask, Jaak "Socio-geographic aspects of conservation of ethnocultural identity and traditional forms of natural use in Setomaa." Pskov Journal of Regional Studies 4 (2021):47-56. DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017152-0
APA	Terenina N., Kliimask J. (2021). Socio-geographic aspects of conservation of ethnocultural identity and traditional forms of natural use in Setomaa. Pskov Journal of Regional Studies (4), pp.47-56 DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017152-0

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1	Introduction. Socio-political changes over the past hundred years have significantly changed both the social structure and the technological order, have led to changes in the demographic processes and in the structure of Seto settlement, as well as the forms of maintenance and reproduction of the ethnocultural component of the ethnic society. In the changing economic order over the decades of the second half of the twentieth century, traditional crafts gradually receded into the past and the connection between generations in the transfer of traditional technologies and methods of economic activity was weakened. The traditional communal and tribal land use was replaced by collective forms of agriculture, and then the introduction of intensive technologies and a radical enlargement of production volumes as part of the development of regional ago-industrial complexes. In parallel with these trends, there was an outflow of migrants to cities, weakening and breaking of family and clan ties, aging of the population and depopulation of remote farms and villages in the territory of Setomaa — both in the south-east of Estonia and in the Pechora district of the Pskov region.
2	Among the stable and strong positive trends, one can note the burst of national self-awareness of the Setos in the late ХХ — early ХХI centuries, when the national self-identification and the revival of community at the communicative and socio-political levels again began to attract the attention of both young representatives of the indigenous ethnic groups themselves, who also live outside of Setomaa and the public. Digital communication technologies played a significant role in this rise of ethnocultural consciousness and the acquisition of new forms of interaction as well as interaction in the Internet communities and social networks, SMM-promotion of the phenomenon of cultural “otherness” and the search for ethnic ancestral roots. In parallel the collection and systematization, as well as the dissemination of traditional technologies, trades and crafts through Internet resources, moreover, both on a commercial basis, including project and grant, and as a meaningful ethnocultural component of the network communication of social groups and communities.
3	Modern socio-economic and political transformations contributed to the thinning of cultural interaction, the erosion of the established forms of interactions of the Seto ethnic group, the settlement area of which is currently fragmented and rapidly decreasing. At the beginning of the XXI century, after almost two decades of gradual liberalization of the cross-border regime and some support from governments of Estonia and Russia for ethnocultural contacts, the interaction of ethno-territorial communities, separated by the border Russian and Estonian Setos, again turned out to be complicated due to the introduction of restrictions on movement associated with the pandemic of COVID-19.
4	Assessment of the possibilities of preserving ethnic identity and forms of communication of the divided small ethnic group Seto in the modern socio-economic structure of society is a debatable topic from both demographic and humanitarian-cultural points of view.
5	Purpose of the study — systematization and substantiation of new forms of ethnic self-identification and transmission from generation-to-generation traditions of Seto trades and crafts as well as methods of social, economic and of the settlement of this ethnic group. It is important to identify what has remained and is being reconstructed from the traditional Seto culture, and what is meaningfully new filling of local and network ethnocultural communities.
6	It took: 1) track the changes that have occurred in the socio-economic and technological spheres (in the part where it concerns the assessment of the conformity of local traditions of the past and the present, the authenticity of handicrafts); 2) explore modern forms and methods of transmission of traditions of Seto culture, its preservation, reproduction and development; 3) to determine the possibilities of preserving the ethnos and its material and spiritual culture in conditions of territorial disunity.
7	State of knowledge of the problem. Due to the fact that the traditional settlement area of the Seto is old-developed and located in close proximity to state border of Estonia and Russia, features of their settlement, way of life and cultural traditions within Setomaa have been studied in sufficient detail, and expeditions were carried out almost on a regular basis throughout the ХХ century, as well as in recent decades. So, for example, information on the population and the area of settlement of the Seto was collected and presented in the reports of expeditions more than a century ago, in the works of the first researchers of Setomaa, such as M. Mirotvortsev [8], Ju. Trusman [16; 17], Ja. Gurt [2], V. Buck [21]. But it is rather difficult to construct an estimate of the dynamics of the population and to link the data of several studies, since the number of Setos varied depending on the clarity of the clarity of the ethnic self-identification of the local population in different historical periods.

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