I just found this story today, which I think is cute.
Yes, "cute".
Perhaps I should have something more profound to say about it... like... somehow it gets at the heart of what I'm researching here. .... The heart's inexplicable attractions.
Why is it that religious traditions that are mocked or deemed inferior still struggle on in the hearts of man? I don't have a good answer, and maybe this is all spin, but religious fervor that lives on in secret -- when there is no apparent social or economic motive to sustain it -- is something that does puzzle me and I think even delights me. (Although I am not much of a believer in anything, and I definitely see the downside of zealotry.)
Ok here it is -- there are Crypto-Mormons in Russia!!
Western Folklore link
"'Whole tribes of Native Siberians call themselves Mormons. Many people in villages around Orenburg and Samara are Mormons but will deny it if you ask them. My grandfather was a Mormon, but he died long ago,'" are paraphrases of the more common story types."
I have to pay more to read more... $16. Maybe later.
Anyway, I just find this fascinating given prior discussions about Native Americans and Siberians having an ancient link. Also a segment of one of my dad's chromosomes was believed to be Native American but then turned out to be Siberian with a more recent Finnish expression....
Read more here
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