В монголоязычном мире в отношении калмыков принят следующий дискурс: калмыки идентифицируются как «оторвавшаяся» часть, осколок большого азиатского культурного континента. Однако более корректным будет использование при анализе этнокультурной идентичности калмыцкого этноса таких динамичных категорий, как «транскультурация», «культурное пограничье». В этом контексте калмыки предстают не как «этнос без культуры», а как «этнос между культурами», создавший и сохранивший свою самобытную, пограничную культуру. Феноменальность культуры калмыков, которые,будучи классическим восточным народом (по антропологическим особенностям, менталитету, языку, религии и т. д.), проживают в Европе на границе между большим христианским миром, с одной стороны, и мусульманским, с другой, может быть рассмотрена в кон- тексте транскультурной теории.Ключевые слова: транскультурация, этнокультурная идентичность калмыков, культурное пограничье.Transculturation as a model of preservation of the cultural originality of the Kalmyk ethnos In the Mongolian-speaking world Kalmyks are often identified as a “detached” part, a splinter of the large Asian cultural continent. The author insists that it is more correct to use such categories as “transculturation” and “cultural borderland” when analyzing the ethnic and cultural identity of Kalmyks. Obviously, Kalmyks cannot be characterized as the “ethnos without a culture” as they represent the “ethnos between the cultures”. This ethnos is known to have created and preserved its own original border culture. The peculiarity of the Kalmyk culture should be studied by means of the transcultural theory as Kalmyks are a people which is, on the one hand, a typically oriental one (considering its anthropological features, mentality, language, religion, etc.) and, on the other hand, they live in Europe between the large Christian and Muslim worlds.Keywords: transculturation, ethnical and cultural identity of Kalmyks, cultural borderland.

In the Mongolian-speaking world Kalmyks are often identified as a “detached” part, a splinter of the large Asian cultural continent. The author insists that it is more correct to use such categories as “transculturation” and “cultural borderland” when analyzing the ethnic and cultural identity of Kalmyks. Obviously, Kalmyks cannot be characterized as the “ethnos without a culture” as they represent the “ethnos between the cultures”. This ethnos is known to have created and preserved its own original border culture. The peculiarity of the Kalmyk culture should be studied by means of the transcultural theory as Kalmyks are a people which is, on the one hand, a typically oriental one (considering its anthropological features, mentality, language, religion, etc.) and, on the other hand, they live in Europe between the large Christian and Muslim worlds.