BURYAT ETHNIC IDENTITY AT VARIOUS STAGES OF ETHNIC HISTORY

This article sets out to study the process of uniting the Buryat community and the relevance of different levels of ethnic identity as reflected in genealogical myths. Among important markers of the ethnic self-presentation of Buryats were mythical ancestors of the Buryat people (Bulagat, Ekhirit, Zonkhi, etc.). The emergence of these characters is closely connected with the history of the development of the Buryat people and reflects certain stages in the consolidation of ethnic groups into a united community that calls itself “the Buryats.” The earliest of these stages (in the early Middle Ages) is reflected in the genealogical myth of Bulagat, Ekhirit and Khoridoi and their heavenly wives – swan maidens. In the 14th–17th centuries, the Baikal region saw a new wave of ethnogenesis, marked by consolidation of large tribes of Bulagats, Ekhirits, Khori-Tumats and other ethnic groups into a single community opposed to the Mongols. During this period, the storylines of the main Buryat ethnogenetic myths were revitalized and new characters were added to the genealogy that represented different ethnic groups of the Buryats.