MENTORING IN THE CULTURES OF THE RUSSIAN NORTH: SCIENTIFIC REFLECTIONS AND SOCIAL PRACTICES

This article presents an analytical review of the reports presented at the section «Institute of Mentoring in the Cultures of the Russian North: Scientific Reflections and Social Practices» within the XV Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (St. Petersburg, 26–30 June 2023). The reports illustrate the diverse manifestations of mentoring and its importance in contemporary context. The «bearers of normative information» acting as mentors are called upon not only to preserve folk knowledge and skills as a historical value, but also to introduce them to them into practice. The article begins with a section on general definitions and approaches to the phenomenon of mentoring. It is shown that mentoring is a «cultural universal», a mechanism of social continuity in all eras and among different peoples. Despite the evident interest on the part of researchers, the institution of mentoring has been studied unevenly. This is a consequence of the multifunctionality of this phenomenon and the diversity of its specific historical forms.