Cultural Interaction

Abstract

The geographical location of Ukrainian lands has been one of the main factors determining their historical development over the centuries as a vibrant interethnic contact zone, a territory characterized by a highly diversifi ed spectrum of socio-cultural phenomena. The repeated division of the territory that comprises present-day Ukraine and the repeated displacements of the borders between the states, religions, political and cultural systems, languages, and ethnic groups created conditions for great variety in the forms of interaction between different nationalities.1 As a specifi c form of historical synthesis characterized by the longterm co-habitation of different ethnic groups on a given territory that led to intense interaction between their cultural, religious, and other systems, contact zones have become an important object for modern research.2 Such territories not only constitute geographic areas where