Hill Mari people

Hill Mari people

A group of Hill Mari people, c. 1870
Total population
60,000 (2002, est.)
Languages
Hill Mari language

Hill Mari or Mountain Mari (Hill Mari: кырык марынвлӓ) are a subgroup of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group of Russia. They are concentrated in Gornomariysky District of the Mari El Republic.

History

The tribes of the Pozdnegorodetskaya culture are believed to be the distant ancestors of the modern Hill Mari.

The Hill Mari are first mentioned in the written record in the 16th century, during the Russo-Kazan Wars in the region. The Hill Mari, along with the Chuvash, allied with Russia. In 1546 the Hill Mari were incorporated into the Russian Empire.

Several institutions dedicated to preservation of Hill Mari heritage have been founded. The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum in Kozmodemyansk, opened in 1983, holds a collection of artefacts and architecture relating to traditional Hill Mari farming and craft. The Nikon Ignatyev Museum of Local History, which is mainly dedicated to art and literature, was opened in Salymsola in 1995. The Hill Mari Theater of Drama was founded by then-president of Mari El Vladislav Zotin in 1994, who is of Hill Mari origin.

Religion

In contrast to the Meadow and Eastern Mari, most Hill Mari are Orthodox Christians and do not practice traditional Mari religion.

References

Bibliography

• Anttonen, Veikko (2002). "Transmission of Ritual Tradition among the Rural Meadow-Mari Population in the Post-Soviet Political Context" (PDF). Ethnographica et Folkloristica Carpathica. 12: 27–36.
• Krasnova, Nadezhda; Riese, Timothy; Yefremova, Tatiana; Bradley, Jeremy (2017). Reading Hill Mari Through Meadow Mari. University of Vienna.