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Взаимосвязь религиозного и этнического сознания на примере алтайского бурханизма
The focus of this paper is on the correlation of religious and ethnic consciousness as such, considered on the example of modern Altaians. The features of a new religious movement – white faith or Burkhanism – are described, and a hypothesis that this movement could have been created artificially is put forward. To test this hypothesis, the structure of the white faith is considered as a phenomenon of religious consciousness, to which categories “one’s own” and “foreign” could be applied. In the course of the research, it is noted that the white faith has characteristics of several religious systems that are not mixed with each other. In addition, in its structure, the categories “traditional” and “historical” do not coincide, origi- nating from different sources. This allows the author of the article to conclude that the inter- est in religion that has recently increased in Altai could be regarded as one of the signs of the struggle of the national consciousness of the Altaians with some internal crises that began in the first decade of the last century. Using the example of Altai Burkhanism, the possibilities of manifestation of ethnic self-consciousness through religious consciousness
and the categories connecting them, “one's own” and “foreign”, are analysed.