Reconstruction of the Process of Forming a Rural Community Based on Ethnographic Realities (On the Example of Machada Village in Dagestan)

The article, based on the analysis of archaeological materials, written sources and oral tradition, attempted to recreate the history of formation of the rural community of Machada in Highland Dagestan. The Dagestani historiography disseminated a version according to which the village of Machada was founded in the early 16th century. Machada, on a large steep slope of the mountain there is a burial ground with stone boxes, dated VI-VIII centuries AD. Thus, the emergence of the village of Machada should be dated at least VI century AD. At the same time, 1.5 km from Machada is a medieval settlement Choloda, whose inhabitants moved to Machada in the early XVI century. Residents of the settlement located on the northern outskirts of Machadah also moved here. Despite the rural community formed in the first half of the 16th century, a new cemetery was formed there in the 1630s. Thus, for about 100 years, residents of Machadah buried the dead in the Muslim cemetery of Choloda. Thanks to the large area of agricultural land around Machada, they could receive new settlers. The largest resettlement probably took place in the 16th century from Khunzakh, which led to the formation of one of 4 related groups of Machadah. The other three tukhums were formed through the resettlement of residents of neighboring tukhum settlements in Machadi. By the end of the XVI century, a tukhum structure had been formed consisting of 4 tukhums - kinship groups, which later began to receive later immigrants. Thus, the application of the retrospective method makes it possible to answer the main questions raised by the researcher on the history of formation of a rural community in Highland Dagestan

Ancient history · Archaeology · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Historiography · Human settlement · Immigration · Kinship · Oral history · Political science · Rural area · Rural settlement · Sociology · Anthropology · Education, Innovation and Language Studies · History · Law · Regional Socio-Economic Development Trends · Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation