A house in a Russian subsistent culture of Khakass-Minusinsk hollow: the new materials

Field studies of the old resident settlements in Khakass-Minusinsk hollow provided the new material in 2015, which permitted to educe the peculiarities of Russian houses. The exploration was conducted by questionnaire, prepared in accordance with the authors research programs of Siberian Russian houses. Russians founded studied Siberian villages during the early occupation of the Siberian territories. Authors revealed the preserved houses of the second half of the XIX century. The most common building is the blockhouse with five walls. Sometimes people built the separate huts for the older family members along with the house for familiar living. They constructed the sun-dried brick houses along with blockhouses. Russians built the temporary and seasonal houses - the forester blockhouse. Traditional construction technology dominated, accompanied by signs and rituals, characterized of Russian building culture: in logging, setting the oven, during the housewarming. Russians built houses mainly in pine trees with an ax. They lumbered in a winter, after the hard frosts, when the sap flow had stopped, and hewed down trees in the dark of the moon or on the old moon. The folks and neighbors helped to build the house. Parents constructed the houses for their sons in order of precedency, but the youngest stayed in the familiar house. The ovens had the wattle-and-doub casing. When people had stoked a fire at first, they did the honors of the table. It was believed that if the owners have not pleased stove-setter, in retaliation, he can do harm. Housewarming (“vlaziny”) settlers were given the gifts that they could use in the household. It was found that the multidimensional role of the house in the culture of the subsistence culture of Russians in the explored region includes both material and worldview component, which occurs mainly in the tradition of construction and settling in house.