Cleanliness as a Part of Mari Identity
Cleanliness as a Part of Mari Identity

Summary/Abstract: The focus of this study is the concept of cleanliness among the Mari, a people speaking a Finno-Ugrian language living in the Volga region of Russia. I personally had a chance to carry out ethnological expeditions in the Mari Republic and in the Mari villages of the Bashkir, Tatar and Udmurtian Republics, and the Kirov and Perm regions from 1981 until recently. In this article, I discuss the concept of hygiene among Mari women and the changes it went through from the Soviet times until today. I explore cleanliness discourse and practice as a traditional moral concept, and as a concept of hygiene adapted by Soviet mass culture. How has the propaganda of health and hygiene influenced the practices of everyday life? What was the connection between the traditional concept and the propaganda of power?

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