Ethnogenesis of the Seto People and Their Cultural Relations with Eastern Finno-Ugrians in the Light of Ethnomusicological Data

Archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists generally agree that the ancestors of the Baltic Finns, including the Seto, migrated to the present territories from the Volga-Oka-Kama river area. However, ethnomusicological research on this topic is scarce. Since ritual song genres are very conservative and may carry traces of ancient styles, musical data are of great value for the study of ethnogenesis. The project aims to complement the study of cultural contacts between the Seto and the eastern Finno-Ugric peoples with data on traditional songs and their cultural context, focusing, besides the Seto, on the vocal practices of Erzya and Moksha Mordvins, Udmurts and Besermyans. The study focuses on three ethnic-specific phenomena: polyphonic singing, ancient improvisational genres, and peculiarities of pitch systems and intonation. The methodological approach is complex and mainly consists of a search for basic structures in tunes, texts and rituals and their typological comparison.