Community Studies Research Group

The task of the Department is:

1. To study the cultural and especially spiritual and religious life of the communities of the Republic of Armenia (the Armenian Apostolic Church, other confessions, folk Christianity) using the methodology of religious studies. The research is also aimed at raising the educational level of community members through the disclosure of academic knowledge.
2. To develop community research in Armenia, as well as through the creation of educational infrastructure.
3. Ensure the training of appropriate personnel and natural generational succession.
4. The Department carries out its work in the following forms of activity: field, archival/library, informational (educational, public, creative).
5. The results of the Department's work are measured by high-quality scientific publications (monographs, collections, articles), which must be relevant and innovative, using modern methods, participation and organized events (conferences, seminars, etc.), field and laboratory research, international relations, productive (attraction of foreign resources, participation of international scientific organizations), influx of personnel, defense of theses, provision of professional opinions.

 

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The past and present of the Department:

Introduction

The Community Studies Research Group was established in 2023. Although it is a newly established Department, its members are experienced specialists (headed by Lilit Simonyan, PhD), who deal especially with issues of folk Christianity, combining ethnographic and philological sources. Currently, work is being carried out in Tavush province, and in the future it is planned to spread the acquired experience to other provinces of the Republic of Armenia.

 

Areas and directions of research group

The main goal of the Community Studies Research Group is to study and reveal the general features and characteristics of the cultural, especially spiritual and religious life of communities in the widest possible scope, considering them from the point of view of the entire Republic of Armenia. Another goal is to create an appropriate educational environment by training personnel and creating infrastructure.

The main areas of research are:

- Research, registration, preservation and popularization of material and non-material cultures of spiritual and religious life.

- Development and application of the methodology for creating electronic databases of cultural values ​​in communities.

- Identification of spiritual and religious needs of community life and their support through the work of summer schools, seminars, lectures and interviews.

- Research of the activities of the Armenian Apostolic Church in communities.

- Observation of similarities and differences of the doctrines of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the people's spiritual culture and, if possible, synthesising them.

- At the request of the public, restoration and popularization of folk-Christian and local fetivals.

Each of these areas of research is important for the development of the community's culture and tourism, and therefore the economic development of the community, strengthening of identity and patriotism.

 

Research conducted by the group

Before the group was created, its members began to study, digitize and publish (with the support of the Caloust Gyulbenkian Foundation) handwritten and printed sacred books (gospels, spells, astrologies, etc.), which are considered the property of individuals and families in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and are preserved, and are also objects of family and public cult, which continues even during the formation and activity of the group. The sanctuaries of folk Christianity of many settlements (with the involvement of all regions of the Republic of Armenia), pilgrimages, including complex ones, have been and are being studied.

 

International cooperation

Currently, the group cooperates with the Sofia University (“St. Kliment Ohridski” Center for Slavo-Byzantine Studies), the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences og Dagestan, the Moscow Higher School of Economics, and the Russian Ethnographic Museum of St. Petersburg.

As part of the field research programs with foreign scientists, scientific expeditions are organized, articles are published, and manuscripts and scientific papers are prepared for publication.

 

Scientific events organized by the group

The group has been organizing a summer school in the community of Noemberyan in the Tavush region for two years. Members of the group regularly give lectures and seminars at schools and cultural centers. Seminars and scientific conferences are also planned.

 

Scientific publications

As a result of the research work of the group, dozens of articles and several monographs were published in Armenia and abroad, including in high-ranking journals. According to the results of the project on the study of books that are the subject of worship, the site "Home Saint Manuscripts" was created, where all digitized materials are placed in open access, and a digital exhibition of these materials, which was placed on the Internet platform Google Art and Culture. As part of this project, an electronic bilingual book with pictures entitled "Home Saint Manuscripts" was published based on the digitization of manuscript holy books. The publication of the rest of the results of the program is currently being prepared.

The members of the group also published a number of monographs and articles devoted to national holidays and rites, national shrines, forms and objects of worship, saints who have a special meaning for the Armenian people and Armenians (Saint Hakob Mtsbnetsi, Saint Stepanos Ter Huskan Vordi, Saint Grigor Narekatsi, Saint Gevorg, etc.), biblical characters (Noah the Patriarch, king Nemrut, etc.), new martyrs and discovery of their burials in Armenia and abroad, including in "Ethnographic review" («Этнографическое обозрение»), "Iran and the Caucasus", "Scrinium: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography", "History and Ethnography of the Caucasus" and others.

 

Current directions of research

Currently, the group members are conducting a large-scale study dedicated to Armenian folk Christianity, within the framework of which they examine the rites, holidays and ceremonies of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, which have undergone changes over the centuries of its existence. Being preserved in folk Christianity and subjected to various cultural influences, those have been transformed and reinterpreted at different stages.

In the center of attention of the scientific research group are the relations between the community and the sanctuary, including from the point of view of ethnic shifts, the influence of the Soviet period, the exchange of atheism and folk Christianity. A separate study is conducted on the popular perception of saints, biblical characters, books, crosses, and ware, which are objects of worship, as well as old and new ways of their use. The scope of the group's research also includes dreams, visions, miracles, forms of miraculous healing and the entire system of symbolic representations associated with them.