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Philosophy and Culture
Reference:

The value core of the traditional culture of the Buryats as an object of socio-cultural design

Namzhilova Elena Sadoevna

ORCID: 0000-0002-7395-461X

Postgraduate student; Department of Theory and History of Culture, Arts and Design; Transbaikal State University

687000, Russia, Zabaikalsky Krai, Chita, Babushkina str., 125

elenasnam@yandex.com
Tsyngueva Dulmazhab

PhD in Cultural Studies

Senior Lecturer, Aginsky Institute for Advanced Training of Social Sector Workers of the Transbaikal Region

687000, Russia, Zabaikalsky Krai, village. Aginskoe, Komsomolskaya str., 13

dtsyngueva@mail.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0757.2024.3.70059

EDN:

IRPZWY

Received:

06-03-2024


Published:

20-03-2024


Abstract: The authors consider in detail the features of the socio-cultural design of ethnocultural activities based on the actualization of traditional values and heritage in the Aginsky Buryat district. Since the end of the twentieth century, there has been an intensification of activities for the development of ethnic culture in the district, and often the initiative comes from the people, and it is implemented in the form of socio-cultural projects of cultural institutions, education, non-profit organizations. In connection with these features, it becomes relevant to analyze the value core of the Buryat culture, which becomes the object of socio-cultural design at the present stage. To study this issue, methods of external and included observation, content analysis of ongoing socio-cultural projects were used; scientific literature on the topic of socio-cultural design and values of Buryat culture was analyzed. The research material was social practices and projects implemented in the Aginsky Buryat district. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the socio-cultural processes emerging in the social environment, initiated by tribal communities and social groups of peers, are studied. In the Agin Buryat district, these social groups are the subjects initiating innovative social practices aimed at actualizing and reviving the cultural core of the people. On the basis of these practices that have arisen in the popular environment, social projects of government bodies and institutions of the social sphere, culture, and education are being created and implemented. As a result of the conducted research, it was revealed that socio-cultural design at the present stage actualizes the values of the native language, the continuity of the family and tribal community, love for the native land, strengthening friendly ties with fellow countrymen and peers during the implementation of socially significant practices.


Keywords:

values, value core, traditional values, socio-cultural design, socio-cultural projects, social practice, phenomenon fellow countryman, family-clan communities, peers, innovative practices

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

Introduction. In the light of the state policy on the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, one of the main issues of socio-economic development of the regions is the actualization of the value core of the culture of the peoples of Russia. In the Aginsky Buryat District, which since 2008 has been part of the Trans-Baikal Territory as an administrative-territorial unit with a special status, the preservation and development of culture is additionally guaranteed by Article 14 of the Federal Constitutional Law No. 5-FKZ dated July 21, 2007 "On the Formation of a new Subject of the Russian Federation within the Russian Federation as a result of the unification of the Chita Region and the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug". Over the past 16 years, in the new status in the district, there has been an intensification of activities for the development of ethnic culture, and often the initiative comes from the people, and it is implemented in the form of socio-cultural projects of cultural institutions, education, non-profit organizations. In this regard, it becomes relevant to analyze the value core of the Buryat culture, which becomes the object of socio-cultural design at the present stage.

Methodology and methods of research. To study this issue, methods of external and included observation, content analysis of ongoing socio-cultural projects, the method of socio-cultural design were used, scientific literature on the topic of socio-cultural design and values of the Buryat culture was analyzed.

Literature review. The theoretical basis for the development of the content of the article was the study of the value core of culture as an object of socio-cultural design. Modern research on values as a system-forming component of culture goes back to the works of V. Windelband, G. Rickert, M. Weber. R. Inglehart's research is of great importance for the development of an understanding of the interdependence of values and living standards [1]. The issues of the determinacy of individual values by social institutions that form value attitudes were investigated by Sh. Schwartz [2]. The digital approach to the topic of dissemination of cultural values and cultural heritage is currently productive [3].

The research of philosophers, sociologists, cultural scientists, and educators is devoted to the study of sociocultural design as an actual phenomenon in modern society. In Russian science, research on socio-cultural design is based on the work of A. P. Markov, G. M. Birzhenyuk, who in 1998 described the methodological foundations of socio-cultural design in relation to Russian reality [4]. The works of Y. S. Putrik, E. V. Tyurina [5], V. A. Seleva [6], T. M. Khasiyatullova [7] and others are devoted to the effectiveness of socio-cultural projects in the field of tourism and sports; O. N. Astafiev, O. N. Shelegin consider socio-cultural design in education [8]; socio-cultural design in education is studied T. D. Skudnova [9], T. N. Boyak [10], N. J. Dagbaeva, L. E. Khaludorova, T. S. Bazarova, etc. [11]; the design of a regional socio-cultural space is studied in the works of G. V. Tartygasheva, T. G. Tsybikov [12], O. N. Genenko, I. V. Semchenkova [13] and others; socio-cultural design in the digital environment is considered by A. Y. Gusev [14], A. B. Kuzmina [15]; the works of A. A. Seliverstova are devoted to grant activities and art management technologies in socio-cultural design [16].

Researchers E. V. Kruglova, O. N. Astafieva, among the principles of socio-cultural design, single out the principle of the "critical threshold of modification", which assumes a greater degree of independence of the subject of socio-cultural design and a lesser degree of administrative intervention. In modern conditions, this principle "will allow to reproduce the energy of self-development of culture to the greatest extent, to put within the scope of the possibility of administrative and incompetent intrusion into cultural life" [17, p. 232]. Let's try to consider the effect of this principle using examples of projects implemented in the Aginsky Buryat district.

Results and discussion. The problem of scientific definition of the structure and semantic content of the value core of the traditional culture of the Buryats is interrelated with the problem of determining the essence of Russian national identity in its local manifestations and suffers from ideologized idioms and mythological connotations, but is actively discussed by the research community of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory.

In the current Russian conditions of ideological confrontation, information becomes the main weapon, changing the role of culture as a sphere capable of ensuring national security. "The sphere of culture is becoming a field of policy activity" [18, p. 269], scientists note, and this factor actualizes the value foundations of socio-cultural design of the revitalization of elements of traditional cultural heritage. Values are one of the key elements that determine the peculiarities of the culture and mentality of the people. Any cultural phenomenon, according to the theory of B. Malinovsky, has its own functional significance [19], and therefore everything related to the natural and cultural needs of man and society is valuable for the present and the future. Let's consider which components make up the value core of the Buryat culture at the present stage.

Values are one of the key elements that determine the cultural characteristics and character of any nation. Researchers of Buryat culture D. D. Amogolonova, I. E. Yelaeva, T. D. Skrynnikova identify the following values that are important in the structure of Buryat identity: the meaning of human existence, attitude to the Motherland, nature, man, elders, woman, family, fire, children, kinship, beauty, work, the ideal person and his characteristic features [20]. These values are passed down from generation to generation and are the basis of the mentality of the people.

Based on the analysis of the transformation of the value component in the linguistic consciousness of the Buryats, V. S. Dyrheeva identified the components that make up the value core of the Buryat culture today: "... a person and attitude towards him, attitude to the Motherland, to nature, family, kinship, ideas about work, about an ideal person, his character traits" [21, p. 28]. In the work devoted to the reflection of the value core of culture in the chronicles of the Khorin Buryats, the values that make up the core of culture are called: native land and ties with the people, community as the basis of patriotism, religion as a source of knowledge and virtue [22, p. 171]. D. D. Tsyngueva calls the ideas of integrity, stability and mediocrity the semantic constants of cultural values of the Buryats which are expressed in the values of the deposit (toonto), the cult of knowledge, education, the cult of ancestors, veneration of elders, collectivism, community, ecological consciousness [23, p. 146]. Thanks to this value-semantic structure of their culture, the Buryat people throughout history, from ancient centuries to the present, have managed to preserve the integrity of culture, which was the source of their stability in a changing world.

There are new institutional changes in the assessment of the impact of traditional values on the quality of life by native speakers. Innovations in the value component system gradually and harmoniously fit into the traditional system and become an integral part of it. Despite the low level of ensuring daily existence, an insufficiently high standard of living, by the second decade of the 21st century, a fairly stable and consensually organized system of understanding and acceptance of the vitalist idea of ensuring the value of the quality of private life had developed in the Aginsky Buryat district. This idea has a novelty for traditional rural communities. New social and cultural institutions are involved in the creation of initiative projects in the fields of culture, sports, additional education, creative economy, and family business. They overcome the institutional limitations characteristic of traditional communities of the individual's individual achievements in ensuring the quality of his life.

Thus, in the Aginsky Buryat district in recent years, an objective process of spontaneous appeal of the masses to the process of reviving traditional cultural values has been observed; a unique situation has developed when not only institutions of the social sphere, culture, education, but also individual social groups of the population of the Aginsky Buryat district become subjects of socio-cultural design. 

We will consider this process using the example of two vectors of development of the activities we study: the phenomenon of Buryat community and the activation of tribal identity.

The phenomenon of Buryat community is represented by public organizations that have been developing since the 1990s. They institutionalize legal relations in many regions of Russia and abroad, are created to preserve and develop the culture of the Buryat people, to educate children according to the customs and traditions of their small homeland. According to the head of the Uryal society (Moscow Buryat community) Batora Dugarova, one of the main tasks of the society is "... to adequately represent Buryatia, Asu and Ust–Orda, to show the diversity of traditions and cultural heritage of the Buryat people in front of other peoples, the public in their places of residence."1

The activities of fellow countrymen have activated other forms of social institutions: family and tribal communities and communities of classmates. On a voluntary basis, they introduce new, more modern social activities that change the socio-cultural appearance of the district, enriching the structure of the value core of ethnocultural identity. Basically, these practices are updated traditions, although there is a low proportion of absolute creativity – artistic, social collaborations based on interests.

A social group of peers (classmates) does not always have an ethnic connotation, but it has the same meaning for a person as a family – an empathically close circle of people in terms of values. The origins of the value of such communities lie in the absolute value of the image of a friend in the mental consciousness of the Buryats [24, p. 5], as shown by the analysis of proverbs about friendship. In many proverbs of this group, the value of old friendship, childhood friends is emphasized: Huushan nuher hoer shenehe deere/ An old friend is better than two new ones; Ed baraan shenede dare, inag nuher huushandaa dare/ Things are better when they are new, and friends are better when they are old; Ugloonei naran sanguuhen, ueyn nuhad ildamhan / The morning sun is cheerful, friends of the same age are affectionate [25, p. 223]. And today, the image of a friend for Buryats is associated precisely with peers, as evidenced by the results of the study: "the reference group is peers whose views, opinions, values influenced the formation of an idea of the ideal" [20]. In the Buryat language, the word peer – uuri – has a special connotation associated with the traditions of inter-age relations. The traditions of strict reverence for elders and caring for the younger ones build a structure where free mutual address to "you" is possible only between peers. The provisions of Buddhist astrology also affect the stability of communities by year of birth: "According to astrologers, people born in the same year have the same set of mange in number and color, since they occupied the same location (coordinates) in world space in their intrauterine development and therefore were equally influenced by the Universe and its Solar system" [26, p. 50]. This explains the special value of friendship between peers, which determined the emergence of a stable social group of classmates in modern Buryat culture. These social groups have become organizers of traditional anniversary meetings, clean-up days in their small homeland, as well as a special format for meeting the New Year according to the lunar calendar in the year of "zhele oruulkha" in almost all settlements of the Aginsky Buryat district. Sagaalgan in the year of their birth according to the eastern 12-year cycle has a sacred meaning, since it is believed that they "enter their year" – "zhele orulna". S. Y. Rinchinova explains that this year "is considered the most dangerous and risky year of his life, since it is during this period that retribution can overtake him for the sinful deeds committed by him throughout his life. Therefore, a person entering the year of his birth must strictly observe the moral precepts of Buddhism, creating virtues and not committing sinful acts throughout his life" [27, p. 4].

Fellow countrymen of the same age, performing good deeds for the inhabitants of their small homeland on the eve of Sagaalgan in the year of "zhele oruulkha" (in the form of a concert 2, video 3, a clean-up at holy places, cleaning up the territory, etc.), gain confidence in the well-being of the year, strengthen ties with the motherland and friendly ties, pay tribute to their native village, to the elders of the village and their teachers. Social groups of classmates of the same age in the Aginsky Buryat district have become the authors of an innovative practice, which consists of two programs: a program of charity events in their native village, which is recorded and reflected in video recordings, and a program for preparing and conducting a concert performance in their native village, organized on the first day of the new year according to the lunar calendar, during which groups do a kind of report on the path traveled during a certain period of life. These innovative practices are aimed at preserving and developing relevant values for modern Buryats (Table 1).  

Table 1. Innovative practices of peer social groups

Values

Innovative practices

The value of the deposit (toonto)

Meeting at Sagaalgan in his native land. The most significant element of this practice is a meeting with a small homeland, the connection with which has a sacred meaning for each member of the social group, which no one dares to neglect

The cult of education, the mystery of knowledge

Anniversary meetings at the native school. Establishment of personalized awards for graduates of the school. Assistance in organizing educational events.

The native school as an institution of socialization is an important consolidating factor for social groups

The cult of ancestors, the veneration of elders

A concert for fellow countrymen, congratulations on Sagaalgan, offering symbolic gifts – khadaks – to fellow countrymen of the older generation.

Collectivism, community

A mass gathering in the small homeland of members of social groups (peers–classmates) celebrating their year according to the 12-year cycle of the Eastern calendar for the preparation and holding of a concert performance on the first day of Sagaalgan.

Mutual assistance during family events, when sending children to school, etc.

Environmental imperatives, the value of religion

Clean-up work, planting of seedlings, construction and restoration of fences, whitewashing and painting of socio-cultural objects in the small homeland, organized by social groups of classmates of the same age, including those living in other settlements, in the month of "Buyanta Hara" – the month of benefits (approximately in May-June)

 

The movement of classmates of the same age, which is a continuation of the tradition of fraternity, has become a new institution, a new cultural organization with a pronounced positive facilitation character. This innovation changes the vector of development of the tradition in the opposite direction: not from their native land to their place of residence, as it was before, but from places of residence to their small homeland, to the shrines of their ancestors, in order to strengthen their vitality, feed off the energy of their native land and thereby illuminate their path in a new living space. Thus, this socio-cultural initiative has acquired a massive character, brought new meanings and values to the traditions of the community and has become an innovative practice relevant to a large number of people. Although there is a possibility of explication of the cultural code of the new nomadic lifestyle.

Communities of classmates of the same age, in principle, were characteristic at all times of Buryat history, associated with education in a foreign cultural environment, but acquired stable organization in the 90s of the twentieth century as a factor in the age mobilization of youth in educational institutions of the country. As the community matured, the following issues were resolved: marital relations; problems of socio-economic efficiency and competitiveness; additional institutional resources of psychological security were acquired; new types of collective consolidation were formed in conditions of crisis and uncertainty to overcome the deprivation of opportunities in status environments.

Over the decades of activity, the community of classmates of the Aginsky Buryat district has acquired stability, had a structuring, mobilizing, consolidating influence on socio-cultural practices.  They have created new social projects that have received quite obvious changes in the cultural practice of the district, which cannot be ignored today:

1. From year to year, there is a positive trend in ensuring the viability of this institution, whose activities are becoming diffuse, aimed at tacit competition, motivates members of the social group to creatively surpass the resources and activities of their peers from other villages and settlements.

2. A reliable system of internal self–organization, the fortress of friendly ties based on the value of friendship, mutual assistance and mutual support, which have remained since school: everyone has their own status, occupies their own niche, does not want to lose face in front of friends, provide a high level of demands and trust in each other.

3. The charity of these social groups, operating from year to year in all rural settlements of the Aginsky Buryat district, makes an invaluable contribution to changing the appearance of the village, improving the social situation of citizens, educating new generations in the spirit of citizenship and patriotism and therefore receives support from government structures and public institutions.

4. The massive nature of cultural innovation: every second native of the village of Aginsky Buryat district at least once every twelve years becomes an active participant in a festive concert, the hero of a video clip, a clean-up at the holy places of the small homeland. There are 41 settlements in the Agin district, in which there are enough residents to operate a school. Social practices of peer groups are actively developing in 30 localities.

A new form of social organization (a community of classmates of the same age) provides not only the renewal of cultural traditions of intergenerational transmission of the value core of culture, but also creates a new type of joint activity to achieve the goals of the quality of private life through joint efforts initiated by members of the civil union who have their own projections, not ethnic content.

The next social practice aimed at reviving traditional cultural values, coming from the depths of the national consciousness as evidence of the rise of the enthusiasm of the people themselves, is the actualization of family and tribal communities as a factor of ethnocultural identity. As an institutionalized phenomenon, it is younger than the community, and has become especially noticeable in the last 5-10 years. Throughout the depth of the history of the Buryats, tribal identification has been an important factor in ethnocultural identity. It has become an independent and organizational form of social relations in the last few years and for good reasons.

Unlike the previous project, this practice of socio-cultural activity, with general recognition of the positive role and importance of this movement for the preservation and development of language and culture, receives a mixed assessment from scientists, independent experts, and some officials who act as leaders of public opinion. According to some researchers, the initiators of the revival of communal communities are the leaders of the national elite [28, 162]. It is difficult to agree with this. In Buryat communities, political representations were not clan-based, they did not have tribal expression, but at the same time fluctuations (changes) of regional signs of consolidation of managers in power were expressed in certain periods of the twentieth century (Irkutsk, Khorinsky, Barguzin, etc.), that is, territorial and regional differences and convergence were more pronounced. In the context of the interest in the revival of the Buryat language as the basis of the cultural identity of the Buryats, the activity of tribal identifications has cultural potential. We agree with D. D. Tregubova that "... the existing tribal level of identification among the Buryats has not become an atavism: This is not a relic of the past and not a blind, meaningless adherence to tradition. Having been revived in the conditions of globalization and social modernization, generic identification performs a number of specific functions in the modern world, and therefore remains in demand" [29, 111].

In modern conditions, tribal identification and ethnocultural activity on this basis are determined by historical, socio-cultural, socio-economic, and research factors (sometimes a research project created a trigger point for tribal identification). Firstly, over the past centuries, the life of families and tribal communities in the Aginsky Buryat district has changed dramatically. Since the beginning of the XVIII century, the Buryats have been geographically divided between three countries (Russia, China, Mongolia). At the beginning of the 20th century, many Buryat families were separated due to the relocation of part of the Trans-Baikal Buryats to Mongolia and China, due to the forced relocation of families of the repressed, for the most part, to the Krasnoyarsk Territory with a further ban on returning to the territory of the district. By the end of the twentieth century, Buryats lived in five regions of the Russian Federation. Secondly, the type of management and the way of life of the Buryats have changed [30-32]. Thirdly, with the increased mobility of citizens at the beginning of the XXI century, the settlement of Buryats around the world is observed. In recent years, there has been an increase in the level of labor migration of the population. Thus, many people find themselves cut off from their family and small homeland, which explains the initiation of social practices to unite the family.

An example of practices for the actualization of family and tribal communities are the holidays of veneration of the family (otoga naadan), in which up to a quarter of the district's population participates annually. The holiday is held in family and tribal communities, in which there are authoritative elders who take responsibility for the well-being of the entire family.  Otogoi naadan is ideologically close to the annual oboo tahilgan ritual holiday – worship of the spirit of the area, which is attended by all residents of the settlement and fellow countrymen living in cities. Also, the practice of publishing pedigree books, albums, and creating family trees on specialized resources and in online communities is becoming widespread. For example, today the community in VKontakte "Buryat pedigrees" helps in compiling pedigrees. Ug garbal"4.

When considering social practices implemented by family (tribal) communities (Table. 2), their focus on establishing a karmic connection with their ancestors through the rite of veneration of the ancestral land and ancestral places of worship, preserving ancestral memory to ensure their own safe and prosperous existence and a successful future for their descendants is revealed.

Table 2. Social practices implemented by tribal communities

Values

Innovative practices

The value of the deposit (toonto)

The search and determination of the traditional location of the ancestral lands of their ancestors and objects of worship, their sacralization and fixation: the erection of a symbolic hitching post (serge), the annual ceremony of honoring toonto

The cult of education, the mystery of knowledge

Establishment of awards by relatives of outstanding people to teachers and school graduates who have distinguished themselves in studies, sports, and public life 5.

Conducting scientific forums and conferences with the awarding of prizes named after outstanding scientists from relatives 6

The cult of ancestors, the veneration of elders

The study of their pedigree, the history of outstanding representatives of their kind, the publication of pedigree books. Creation of communities in messengers that unite representatives of the genus up to the 7th generation, actualization of the role and significance of the elders of the genus, rituals of veneration of elders

Collectivism, community

Mass gathering of members of the tribal community in the summer and the organization of joint rituals of veneration of ancestral shrines in order to restore and maintain ancestral ties in conditions of settlement of members of the tribal group around the country and the world

Environmental imperatives

Actions of tribal groups to clean up and improve the territories adjacent to the ancestral lands, if necessary

The value of religion

Family and tribal groups practice helping datsans during prayer services, families help in repairing buildings and cleaning the territory

 

In this case, the subjects of social design are small tribal groups (communities) of Buryats, numbering from 100 to 300 people, united by the idea of honoring ancestral lands and ancestral shrines, thereby involved on a voluntary basis in the process of actualizing tribal identity and reviving traditional cultural values.

This socio-cultural project consists of two interrelated programs. The first program is related to the study of ancestry by individual families and tribal groups, since the thread of generations has been interrupted, the connection with ancestors and their history has been lost, which makes the process of tribal identification of modern people difficult. The product of the activity of the family members is a family tree, which is designed in various forms: texts, albums, presentations, videos and, finally, books, which are serious publications with illustrations, with a detailed description not only of the history of the ancestors, but also of today's descendants. 7

The second program is related to the practice of identifying and honoring ancestral lands and shrines, objects of worship of their ancestors, during which the area is marked (for example, a serge hitching post is established) and through the rites of offering, incense burning and other actions, a connection with the spirits of the ancestors is established. This event ends with a universal celebration, which symbolizes the consolidation of a successfully completed action based on the belief that the ancestors accepted the gifts and are also happy, ready to continue to patronize and protect descendants. 

However, not all social projects contribute to the effective solution of the problems of the revival of traditional spiritual and moral values, primarily the development of a value attitude to the native language. In the process of reproducing traditions that actualize tribal identity, the following problems can be noticed:

- most activities do without the active participation of children, especially preschool and primary school age;

- referring to the traditions of the past, tribal groups sometimes bypass their native language, addressing young people and children mainly in Russian;

- there are cases of errors that lead to distortion of traditional meanings and values of culture.

For example, to perform the rite of veneration of ancestral lands and shrines, a group of maternal or paternal relatives (about 100 or more people) with a single ancestor in the fourth or fifth generation gathers. When performing the rite of veneration of shrines, there are cases of discrepancies between tribal groups and members of the same tribal group regarding the methods of action, which is evidence of an attempt to spontaneously restore lost traditions without sufficient study of the issue. After the completion of the ceremonial part, games and competitions are usually arranged. It is significant that in this part adults offer children sports games that are not related to tradition: tug of war, jumping, running, etc. Traditionally, such issues were resolved within the framework of the tribal community, where the authoritative word of the elder was influential. In the current model of continuity of cultural values "Family – Clan – People", one link called "Clan" with its self–government structure – the Council of Elders is clearly missing. This phenomenon of traditional culture is now showing the beginnings of its revival, but has not yet received an institutional basis for more productive activities.

The Center for the Preservation of Buryat Culture of the Aginsky Buryat District realizes the need and the need to enrich the programmatic content of civil and socio-cultural activities of the movement, and corrects the semantic content of their activities. Thus, the Trans-Baikal regional public organization "Aginsky Center for the Development of Museum Business" initiated the social project "Otogoi Naadan Festival". He won a grant from the Governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory. The Otogoi Naadan project is aimed at supporting the people's initiative to actualize the tribal identity of the Buryats. The idea is to institutionalize the spontaneously emerging process of preserving and developing the native language and ensuring the continuity of traditional cultural values in the family and the family–tribal group based on the involvement of children in the value system of tribal identity, as well as the prevention of errors and distortions in their interpretation.

A number of events were held within the framework of the grant project. 86 representatives of the tribal groups of the Agin Buryats took part in the first video contest "Traditions of my family in the days of Sagaalgan". The statistics of the contest results showed that in a few days the video has gained more than a thousand views. 8 Taking into account the fact that the population of the district is approximately 80,000 people, 9 it can be concluded that the project activities are in high demand.

At the moment, historically established events and projects aimed at preserving the traditional values of Buryat culture are being supported and developed in the Aginsky Buryat District, as well as a new relevant and successful experience of socio-cultural renewal of values working for the sustainability of ethno-cultural identity is being created.

Results. The description of new types of social initiatives has shown the relevance for the majority of citizens of the Aginsky Buryat district of the following conditions: interest in the development of traditional values in order to ensure the safe and prosperous existence of their families and relatives; the presence in the Aginsky Buryat district of interested socio-cultural institutions and channels of socio-cultural communication capable of regulating this process to ensure the authenticity of revived rituals and traditions; the interest of the Administration Aginsky Buryat district in the development and rooting of such practices in the living space of the district, readiness to provide financial and economic support in the development of this movement. There is a steady trend towards geographical expansion and improvement of practices on the part of initiative communities and groups.

Tribal communities and social groups of peers in the Aginsky Buryat district are subjects initiating innovative socio-cultural practices aimed at updating and reviving the value core of the culture of the Buryat people and residents of the Aginsky Buryat District, the functional purpose of which is to preserve the value of ethnocultural identification.

The analysis showed that important components of the value system and its core are:

? the expressed mass need to preserve the values of the native language, the small homeland (toonto – deposits of man), the cult of ancestors, the veneration of elders;

? preserving the historical depth of ideas about collectivism, community, and environmental imperatives in providing an eco-environment;

? Actualization of the value of high-quality, competitive knowledge as an absolute imperative for young people as a significant guarantor of social lift.

On the basis of cultural practices emerging in the national environment, projects of socio-cultural institutions are being created and implemented aimed at preserving and developing the native language and ethnocultural identity of the Buryats. The collective image of the future is governed by a systemic impact on the value markers of ethnocultural identity. Innovative changes in the preservation and reproduction of the value core of culture in the conditions of the Aginsky Buryat district are quite stable. Indicators of sustainability are: the spread of the experience of institutionalization in territories with dispersed Buryat population; the involvement of the number of participants exponentially; an increase in the social and cultural resources of the above-described groups (the number of people with high-quality education living in capitals or large cities prevails, the number of young participants, on average more affluent and economically independent; finally, it manifests itself the energy of the civil initiative without the participation of the public sector). In all behavioral modes, the natural need of an ethnic group for self-identification is clearly expressed. This is how the principle of the "critical threshold of modification" is observed, thanks to which the value core of the traditional culture of the Buryats becomes the basis for the sustainability of innovative changes in society.

1 From Kamchatka to Moscow: why are Buryat communities needed in the regions of Russia? https://burunen.ru/news/society/99288-ot-kamchatki-do-moskvy-pochemu-v-regionakh-rossii-nuzhny-buryatskie-zemlyachestva/

2 To understand the breadth of coverage: on the channel https://www.youtube.com/@ayur1303/videos concerts of different years by groups of peers from the same village with a population of 1,500 people are presented.

3 Examples of videos: Sagaalgan 2024, Kunkur 1976 Luu zheltenei amarshalga. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ2xk3ZQixQ&t=5s ; Sagaalgan-2024 Dogoy 1988 Luu zhelten https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=awPx0UAcvr4 

4https://vk.com/club183014046?from=search 

5 For example, read about the award, established in 2016 by the relatives of S.R.Rygzinov, in the article "Good luck, graduates!" / http://www.aginsk-pravda.ru/news/v_dobryj_put_vypuskniki/2018-05-29-6380

About the award of the Hero of Russia Aldar Tsydenzhapov Award to the best graduate by the Hero's parents and relatives: https://school1.aginskhost.ru/?p=12352

6 Relatives of B. B. Zhalsabon established a prize fund of 150,000 rubles for the best physics teachers / "The First Forum of Physics Teachers" http://www.aginsk-pravda.ru/news/pervyj_forum_uchitelej_fiziki/2023-10-10-12656

7 Dahalaitan. Our strength lies in our ancestors / https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=60pLm3y3dK4

8"Otogoi naadanai" video contest alduunuud tuhai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA33pPKUOUs

9 According to Rosstat, as of January 1, 2007, the population was 75,100 people: https://rosstat.gov.ru/bgd/regl/b07_14s/IssWWW.exe/Stg/s/16.htm

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The author presented his article "The value core of the traditional culture of the Buryats as an object of socio-cultural design" in the journal "Philosophy and Culture", in which the role of the value core of culture in the formation of ethno-cultural identity is studied. The author proceeds in the study of this issue from the fact that the problem of scientific determination of the structure and semantic content of the value core of the traditional culture of the Buryats is interrelated with the problem of determining the essence of Russian national identity in its local manifestations. The relevance of the research is due to the fact that in the light of the state policy on the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, one of the main issues of socio-economic development of the regions is the actualization of the value core of the culture of the peoples of Russia. The scientific novelty lies in the author's development of a methodological research vector that will be able to identify the spiritual culture of the Trans-Baikal Territory as an original value-normative system. To study this issue, the author used methods of external and included observation, content analysis of ongoing socio-cultural projects; the method of socio-cultural design, analyzed the scientific literature on the topic of socio-cultural design and values of Buryat culture. The theoretical basis of the study was the works of such domestic and foreign scientists as V. Windelband, G. Rickert, M. Weber, O.N. Astafieva, T.D. Skudnov, G.V. Tartygashev, etc. The purpose of the study is to analyze the value core of the Buryat culture, which becomes the object of socio-cultural design at the present stage. Based on a detailed analysis of the scientific discourse on the studied issues, the author concludes that the topics of the value core of culture, socio-cultural design are quite widely covered in the works of Russian and foreign cultural scientists. In the Aginsky Buryat district, the author observes an objective process of spontaneous appeal of the masses to the process of reviving traditional cultural values; a unique situation has developed when not only institutions of the social sphere, culture, education, but also equally separate social groups of the population of the Aginsky Buryat district become subjects of socio-cultural design. The author notes new institutional changes in the assessment of the impact of traditional values on the quality of life by native speakers. Innovations in the value component system gradually and harmoniously fit into the traditional system and become an integral part of it. Despite the low level of ensuring daily existence, an insufficiently high standard of living, by the second decade of the 21st century, a fairly stable and consensually organized system of understanding and acceptance of the vitalist idea of ensuring the value of the quality of private life had developed in the Aginsky Buryat district. This process is considered by the author on the example of two vectors of development of the activities we study: the phenomenon of Buryat community and the activation of tribal identity. The author pays special attention to the consideration of the principle of the "critical threshold of modification", highlighted by E.V. Kruglova and O.N. Astafieva among the principles of socio-cultural design. This principle assumes a greater degree of independence of the subject of socio-cultural design and a lesser degree of administrative intervention, which will allow to reproduce the energy of self-development of culture to the greatest extent, to put within the scope of the possibility of administrative and incompetent intrusion into cultural life. The author examines the effect of this principle using examples of projects implemented in the Aginsky Buryat district. The description of new types of social initiatives led the author to the following conclusions: for the majority of citizens of the Aginsky Buryat district, the following conditions are relevant: interest in the development of traditional values in order to ensure the safe and prosperous existence of their families and relatives; the presence in the Aginsky Buryat district of interested socio-cultural institutions and channels of socio-cultural communication capable of regulating this process to ensure the authenticity of revived rituals and traditions; the interest of the Administration of the Aginsky Buryat district in the development and rooting of such practices in the living space of the district, readiness to provide financial and economic support in the development of this movement. There is a steady trend towards geographical expansion and improvement of practices on the part of initiative communities and groups. On the basis of cultural practices emerging in the national environment, projects of socio-cultural institutions are being created and implemented aimed at preserving and developing the native language and ethnocultural identity of the Buryats. In conclusion, the author presents a conclusion on the conducted research, which contains all the key provisions of the presented material. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of the mechanisms of formation of the moral and value system of a certain people is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. The bibliographic list of the study consists of 32 sources, including foreign ones, which seems sufficient for generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the studied problem. The author fulfilled his goal, received certain scientific results that allowed him to summarize the material. It should be noted that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication.