31 Chapter 1. Performing Ethnicity: Buryat Ethnofestivals … urban environs—is the tossing of a bit of food into the fire. Additional ethnic markers at the festival are names in the Old Mongolian alphabet, which has taken on national meaning today, and the bunchuk, i.e. a pike to which a ring with horse hair is affixed, a sign of national power and unity. Quite naturally, in July of 2014 the Altargana held in Dadal (Mongolia) culminated with a mass public, ceremonial, and multi-circled yokhor accompanied by songs. Fig. 4. The Altargana, Aginskoe, Russia, 2012 (Photo: Ayur Zhanaev) Concluding remarks Observation of the development of contemporary culture exposes an upsurge of ethnofestivals in postmodern cultural reality (Sulima 2001); they are an element of a phenomenon described by Anthony Smith (1981) as ethnicism. This tendency is witnessed in the case of the Buryat festivals, all of which fit into the category of neo-traditionalism. Even if each is distinct, they all refer—via specific elements perceived as authentic—to the same ethnic
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