The Ontological Discourse in Islamic Theology and Religious Traditions of Halal And Haram in the Food Culture of the Tatars and the Tajiks (Based on Ethnosociological Research in Tatarstan)
The article is devoted to the analysis of the variations in the canonical Islamic food cul-ture through the example of representatives of two Muslim communities of Kazan city - the Tatars and the Tajiks. The work was carried out at the confluence of ethnology, sociology and religion using such theoretical and methodological approaches as normative-value and com-parative ones; the empirical material was collected by means of an ethnosociological survey with the completion of a standardized questionnaire with a representative sample (the Tatars) and using the «snowballmethod» (the Tajiks). In the focus of attention was the main criterion determining all spheres of life of Muslims - the principle of permissibility / nonpermissibility (halal/haram) and its reflection in the gastronomic behavior of the reference groups put to comparison. The statistical material confirms that there is a real variability in one Islamic canon and the basis for distinguishing Muslim subcultures within a single Islamic food culture. For the first time in the Russian historiography, the dependence of the nutrition culture of various Muslim communities on the canonical Islamic rules is considered. The authors carry out acomparative analysis based on the original sources, some of which (relating to the Tatars), are mentioned for the first time. Within the framework of a research project, the authors are among the first to turn to detailing the diverse aspects of food culture, examining its de-pendence on religious factors.