Някои промени в постсъветския живот на селото в областта Кульомдин, Република Коми
Some Changes in Post-Soviet Rural Life in Kulomdin District of Komi Republic

Summary/Abstract: In the first part of the article I discuss the problems concerning contemporary economic changes, traditional social networks and adaptation to the new situation by the Komi hunters. According to my interpretation, their strategic priority is to follow of old hunting traditions. This can be revealed through their hunting narratives that concentrate on the topics of losing the proper hunting rules and adaptation to macro-level social changes. One can presume that a sphere of economic activities is quite open to changes. But in the case of the Komi hunters it is possible to detect very strong conservative attitudes, also. But hunting has marginal role in the local Komi community’s economic life and pressure for essential changes may be not so strong as in the other parts of local subsistence pattern. At the same time, hunting constitutes a whole way of life for some of my informants. Collective and individual perspectives may differ quite radically in the respect of economic changes. The second part of the paper is dedicated to contemporary religious developments among the Kulömdin Komis. Religion has been considered to be one of the most conservative phenomena in a society. In post-Soviet Russia it may be not always the case. Pressure for changes in religious sphere is strong. Different kinds of developments (restoration of its former positions by the Russian Orthodox Church, increasing social pressure from the side of Protestant missions, and appearance of new religious movements) are going on simultaneously. Among the Kulömdin Komi community these larger religious developments are not indicated very intensively. But changes in this area are in accordance with a general picture in Russia. In a given stage of study of post-Soviet developments in Kulömdin Komi community it is possible to conclude that these developments can be interpreted through somehow contradictory tendencies. Culture change models do not function inevitably in the way one can presume.

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