Rural area’s Ethnocontact Zones: a Case Study of the Kurumkan District in the Republic of Buryatia

The paper is devoted to the specifics and factors of rural ethnocontact zone formation and transformation using the example of the Kurumkan District in the Republic of Buryatia. This is one of the republic’s remote districts, situated in the Far North, which has a multicultural population. Local ECZs have formed in this territory. These zones are an integral part of ethnocontact zones at a higher hierarchical level, extending up to the macro-regional ethnocontact zone of the South Siberian Turkic-Mongolian belt. Russians, Buryats, and Evenks play a crucial role in the formation of these ethnocontact zones. Ethnocontact zones are considered spatial objects in geographical science and a type of ethnocultural region. Large-scale methodological approaches for researching the ethnic mosaic index are defined. The ethno-cultural space of the region’s rural areas is discrete and characterised by fragmentation and mosaic patterns. The boundaries of local ethnocontact zones coincide with the boundaries of settlements, which is facilitated by the focal nature of settlement. The authors identify the historical and geographical periods and factors that contribute to the formation of ethnocultural zones. The most significant factors are morphological, positional, historical-geographical, landscape, geodemography, and ethnoeconomic. Attempts have been made to classify the ethnocontact zones of rural areas.

ethnocontact zone of rural areas, Kurumkansky district, ethnocultural space, interethnic interaction, classification