Folk Crafts of South Siberia: Modern Practices of Cultural Heritage Preservation

The aim of the article is a review of the modern state of the folk crafts of South Siberia and also the princilples and strategies of codification, preservation and popularization of the cultural heritage. The regional practices of the preservation and popularization of the cultural heritage are considered in the context of the federal Russian and international law. The article concludes about the global character of the processes in the preservation of the cultural heritage; the aim of the Russian Siberian regions at the transformation of the cultural heritage, including the folk crafts, to the resource and creativity of a steady development is emphasized. Analyzing the state of the modern crafts of Sayan-Altai, the authors conclude about the systematic transformations in the culture, social life and economy of the regions: the crafts in modern Siberia are created and evaluated as a form and method of modernization of the local rural programmes. The symbolic function of the traditional crafts and trades that serve as markers of ethnical and national identity is actualized.