Issues

Was there a community? (Interview)

Leonid Alayev

Religiia i obshchestvo na Vostoke, Issue III (2019), p. 70-84.

 
Interview with Leonid B. Alayev for the periodical “Religion and Society in the East”, July-August 2018. Interviewed by Aleksei V. Sarabiev

The arguments of the honored orientalist, Dr. of History, professor Leonid B. Alayev, are published on the concept “traditional community” and related concepts. They firstly appeared as an interested reaction to the discussion at the round table by the scientists of the Institute of Ori¬ental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An interview with a historian made it possible to present the ideas expressed in their more detailed and refined form. In the interview, in particular, the relationship between the concepts of “community” and “confession” is touched upon, an attempt is made to isolate the levels of social groups, communities often called communities, and also question the usefulness of the wide use of the term “community” itself. Tradition as a cultural and religious foundation of human communities appears, in the author's view, to be a very mobile category. It characterizes, as the author believes, the current state of soci¬ety and is conditioned by the real needs of its members, whereas popular nowadays traditionism often acts as an instrument of power and economic and political ambitions of the leaders of this wing. The same goes for the religious tradition, calls for a return to which are, according to the author, all in the same instrumental vein.

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Keywords: community, tradition, confessions, social groups, East-West.

Volume: 70-84

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