Modern Conceptions of the Cultural Comprehension of the Caucasus

The article considers an actual problem of modern Caucasian studies - conceptual comprehension of the Caucasian civilization. It gives an analysis of the basis theories of highland social and cultural space identity. Due to the difficult geopolitical and geocultural position of the Caucasus, the problems of its civilizational identity cause controversy among scientists. There are different variants of the region’s name: the Unified Caucasian Civilization, the Ethnic Corridor, the Buffer Zone, the Periphery of Russian Civilization, the Boundary Civilization, the Subcivilization. All the theories of Caucasian identity were formed within the frameworks of civilizational approach to the region. The author’s position on the question is defined. There are many characteristics inherent to the concept of civilization in the Caucasus: the polyethnicity, religious syncretism (the synthesis of local paganism, Christianity, Islam), similarities in sociopolitical organization, economy, culture, way of living, psychology, and mentality of people. At the same time, the region is not characterized by any clear civilizational manifestation which would allocate it as a separate civilization system along with the Western, Eastern, and Eurasian ones. Besides, in the modern conditions, in the North Caucasus in particular, a process of disunity of the peoples can be noticed. Hence, the fundamental principles of alternative conceptions in philosophical and theoretical aspect are baseless and need more detailed argumentation.

«единая кавказская цивилизация», «этнический коридор», «буферная зона», «периферия русской цивилизации», «пограничная цивилизация», «субцивилизация», civilization, civilizational conception, Caucasian identity, conceptual comprehension, the Unified Caucasian Civilization, the Ethnic Corridor, the Buffer Zone, the Periphery of Russian Civilization, the Boundary Civilization, the Subcivilization

1. Flier A.Ya. Globalizatsiya kak kul’turnaya tendentsiya [Globalisation as a Cultural Trend], Observatoriya kul’tury [Observatory of Culture], 2005, no. 1, pp. 38—42.

2. Abdulatipov R.G. Kavkazskaya tsivilizatsiya: samobytnost’ i tselostnost’, Nauchnaya mysl’ Kavkaza [Scientific Thought of the Caucasus], 1995, no. 1, p. 56.

3. Chernous V.V. K voprosu o gorskoi tsivilizatsii, Rossiya v XIX — nachale XX v. [Russia in the 19th — the beginning of the 20th century]. Rostov-on-Don, 1992, pp. 36—37.

4. Akhriev R.I. Kul’tura narodov Severnogo Kavkaza kak odna iz tsennostei gorskoi kavkazskoi tsivilizatsii, Istoriya Severnogo Kavkaza. Severokavkazskaya tsivilizatsiya: vchera, segodnya, zavtra [The history of the North Caucasus. North Caucasian civilization: yesterday, today and tomorrow:] (Proc. II Int. Congress “World of the North Caucasus through languages, education, culture”). Pyatigorsk, 1998, p. 7.

5. Sampiev I.M. Rol’ traditsii tolerantnosti v garmonizatsii mezhetnicheskikh vzaimodeistvii na Severnom Kavkaze,“Etnosotsial’nye protsessy i riski Yuga Rossii”: Materialy Vseross. nauch.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 75-letiyu AGU [Proc. of All-Russ. Sci.-pract. Conf., “Ethno-social processes and risks of the South of Russia”: to the 75th ann. of the ASU]. Maikop, 2015, p. 5.

6. Akaev V.Kh. Kavkazskaya voina: starye kontseptsii i novye podkhody, Kavkazskaya voina: spornye voprosy i novye podkhody [Caucasian War: issues and new approaches]. Makhachkala, 1998, p. 22.

7. Yakh’yaev M.Ya. Etnokul’turnye protsessy i sotsial’nye riski na Severnom Kavkaze, “Etnosotsial’nye protsessy i riski Yuga Rossii”: Materialy Vseross. nauch.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 75-letiyu AGU [Proc. of All-Russ. Sci.-pract. Conf., “Ethno-social processes and risks of the South of Russia”: to the 75th ann. of the ASU]. Maikop, 2015, pp. 42—44.

8. Kashirina O.V. Etnokul’turnyi mir Severnogo Kavkaza v usloviyakh sovremennogo krizisa pozdnego kapitalizma, Sbornik materialov I Mezhdunar. kongressa “Prostranstvo etnosa v sovremennom mire” [Proc. I Int. Congress “Ethnic space in the modern world”]. Groznyi, 2014, p. 287.

9. Tsivatyi V.G. Ukraina i Yug Rossii v usloviyakh novykh vyzovov i ugroz pervykh desyatiletii XXI veka: politiko-diplomaticheskoe i institutsional’noe izmerenie, “Etnosotsial’nye protsessy i riski Yuga Rossii”: Materialy Vseross. nauch.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 75-letiyu AGU [Proc. of All-Russ. Sci.-pract. Conf. “Ethno-social processes and risks of the South of Russia”: to the 75th ann. of the ASU]. Maikop, 2015, p. 290.

10. Kas’yanov V.V. Etnokonfessional’naya konfliktnost’ sotsiuma Severo-Kavkazskogo regiona, “Etnosotsial’nye protsessy i riski Yuga Rossii”: Materialy Vseross. nauch.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 75-letiyu AGU [Proc. of All-Russ. Sci.-pract. Conf. “Ethno-social processes and risks of the South of Russia”: to the 75th ann. of the ASU]. Maikop, 2015, p. 49.

11. Maiboroda E.T. O sushchestvovanii tsivilizatsii razlichnogo tipa [The existence of different types of civilization], Kavkazskii uzel [Caucasian knot]. Available at: http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/17566/ (accessed 29.06.2016).

12. Kobishchanov Yu.M. Mesto islamskoi tsivilizatsii v etnokonfessional’noi strukture Rossii, Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’ [Social Sciences and Modernity], 1996, no. 2, p. 92.

13. Bizhev A.Kh. Adygi Severo-Zapadnogo Kavkaza i krizis vostochnogo voprosa v 20 — nachale 30 gg. XIX v. [Circassians of the Northwest Caucasus and the crisis of the Eastern question in the late 1820’s and early 1830’s.] Maikop, 1994, p. 140.

14. Zisserman A.L. Dvadtsat’ pyat’ let na Kavkaze (1842—1867) [Twenty-five years in the Caucasus (1842—1867)], part 2. St. Petersburg, 1879, p. 382.

15. Korytina M.A. Modernizatsiya kak kul’turnaya integratsiya Kavkazskogo regiona, Gumanitarnye i sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie nauki [Humane, Social and Economic Sciences], 2014, no. 4, p. 45.

16. Bersirova A.K., Bersirov T.B. Kharakteristika sotsioetnicheskoi dinamiki Yuga Rossii, “Etnosotsial’nye protsessy i riski Yuga Rossii”: Materialy Vseross. nauch.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 75-letiyu AGU [Proc. of All-Russ. Sci.-pract. Conf. “Ethno-social processes and risks of the South of Russia”: to the 75th ann. of the ASU]. Maikop, 2015, pp. 84—85.

17. Tskhovrebova A.Z. Rossiiskaya Federatsiya i sovremennye protsessy v geopoliticheskom prostranstve Kavkaza, Gumanitarnye i sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie nauki [Humane, Social and Economic Sciences], 2014, no. 3, p. 116.

18. Katsitadze K. O tsivilizatsionnoi prinadlezhnosti Gruzii i Kavkaza, Postkommunisticheskie demokraticheskie preobrazovaniya i geopolitika na Yuzhnom Kavkaze: Materialy konf. (17—18 oktyabrya 1997 g.) [Proc. Conf. “The post-communist democratic change and geopolitics in the South Caucasus”, 17—18 oct. 1997]. Tbilisi, 1998, pp. 87—88.

19. Koval’ B.I., Semenov S.I. Energiinaya priroda sovremennykh pogranichnykh tsivilizatsii: (novyi podkhod k chelovecheskomu izmereniyu vsemirnoi istorii), Latinskaya Amerika [Latin America], 2000, no. 11, pp. 4—14.