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NOMADIC WAY OF LIFE IN THE ETHNO-CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF YAKUTIA IN THE XX - EARLY XXI CENTURIES

Y. Sannikova, L. Vinokurova, V. Filippova, A. Suleymanov, S. Grigorev

Abstract

This report presents the continuation of our studies on the topic of nomadism in Northern Yakutia, which were conducted with the support of RFBR, project 17-11-14003. The previous work considered the influence of the Soviet state policy on the economy of reindeer herding. Our new work is focused on nomadism as a way of life which has its own intrinsic value. The ethno-cultural phenomenon of nomadic way of life in Yakutia has long been considered as one of the limiting factors of the development of the indigenous peoples. Another position proceeded to prevail only with the beginning of liberalization of social and political life. The scientific discourse was saturated by the idea of the value of nomadic lifestyle and its optimality in the conditions of the North. Traditional "world of reindeer" had a decisive influence on cultures of indigenous peoples. In soviet times traditional reindeer herding turned into one of the branches of the state economy: first in the framework of collective farms, and later in the framework of state farms. The Soviet government carried out the policy of transfer to sedentary life. The process of sedentarization has been delayed until the late 1980s. Yakutia remained a region in which the transfer of nomadic population to a sedentary lifestyle was not carried out at the appropriate level. Post-Soviet period has shown that nomadism is an important part of the self-consciousness of the indigenous peoples. Nomads of Yakutia still consider their priority to preserve the economy of deer as the basis of their existence. The "rehabilitation" of nomadic lifestyle has become the main requirement of Arctic aboriginal movement in Yakutia. Active intrusion of industrial corporations into traditional aboriginal territories actualizes this matter in a very extreme way. And that is why the nomadic way of life in the 21st century requires constant anthropological monitoring.

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