Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:20:50.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resilience in a changing world: Indigenous sharing networks in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2020

Vera Solovyeva  and
Vera Kuklina Open the ORCID record for Vera Kuklina [Opens in a new window]
Vera Solovyeva
Affiliation:
Environmental Science and Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
Vera Kuklina*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Vera Kuklina, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Global change poses challenges for remote Arctic Russian indigenous communities in the Republic of Sakha. On the basis of interviews from the village of Khara Tumul (Oymyakonskiy ulus) and city of Yakutsk, we illustrate the manners in which sharing networks may be used to enhance resilience in remote conditions as these communities confront climate change, industrial development and limited support from authorities. We identified the main carriers (givers and recipients), location, relationships and mediators, objects, and social and cultural meanings of sharing practices both in daily life and in the case of extreme events. The circulation of goods, money, information and people between cities and remote communities ultimately combines traditional values and modern technologies.

Keywords

Indigenous peopleSocial networksResilienceSharingRepublic of Sakha (Yakutia)
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 56 , 2020 , e39
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adger, W. (2000). Social and ecological resilience: Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24(3), 347–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anisimov, O., Ziltcova, Y., & Zhegusov, Y. (2017). Public perception of climate change in the cold regions of Russia: An example of Yakutia. Led i Sneg (Ice and Snow), 57(4), 565–574. [In Russian].Google Scholar
Baggio, J. A., BurnSilver, S. B., Arenas, A., Magdanz, J. S., Kofinas, G. P., & Domenico, M. D. (2016). Multiplex social ecological network analysis reveals how social changes affect community robustness more than resource depletion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(48), 13708–13713.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begum, S. (2016). Effects of livelihood transformation on older persons in the Nordic Arctic: A gender-based analysis. Polar Record, 52, 159–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkes, F. (2009). Evolution of co-management: Role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(5), 1692–1702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berkes, F., & Jolly, D. (2001). Adapting to climate change: Social-ecological resilience in a Canadian western Arctic community. Conservation Ecology, 5(2), 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkes, F., & Ross, H. (2013). Community resilience: Toward an integrated approach. Society & Natural Resources, 26(1), 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodenhorn, B. (1990). “I’m Not the Great Hunter, My Wife Is”: Iñupiat and anthropological models of gender. Études/Inuit/Studies, 14(1/2), 55–74.Google Scholar
Broderstad, E., & Eythórsson, E. (2014). Resilient communities? Collapse and recovery of a social-ecological system in Arctic Norway. Ecology and Society, 19(3), 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunce, A., Ford, J., Harper, S., & Edge, V. (2016). Vulnerability and adaptive capacity of Inuit women to climate change: A case study from Iqaluit, Nunavut. National Hazards, 83, 1419–1441.Google Scholar
BurnSilver, S., & Magdanz, J. (2019). Heterogeneity in mixed economies: Implications for sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Hunter Gatherer Research, 3, 601–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnsilver, S., Boone, R., Kofinas, G., & Brinkman, T. (2017). Modeling tradeoffs in a rural Alaska mixed economy: Hunting, working, and sharing in the face of economic and ecological change. In Hegmon, M. (Ed.), The Give and Take of Sustainability: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs (pp. 52–83). UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burtseva, E., & Bysyina, A. (2019). Damage compensation for indigenous peoples in the conditions of industrial development of territories on the example of the Arctic Zone of the Sakha Republic. Resources, 8(1), 55.Google Scholar
Carlson, B. (2013). The ‘new frontier’: Emergent Indigenous identities and social media. In Harris, M., Nakata, M., & Carlson, B. (Eds.), The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (pp. 147–168). Sydney, Australia: University of Technology Sydney E-Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmack, E., McLaughlin, F., & Whiteman, G. (2012). Detecting and coping with disruptive shocks in Arctic Marine systems: A resilience approach to place and people. AMBIO, 41: 56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carson, M., & Peterson, G. (eds.). (2016). Arctic Resilience Report. Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm Environment Institute and Stockholm Resilience Centre.Google Scholar
Collings, P., Marten, M., Pearce, T., & Young, A. (2016) Country food sharing networks, household structure, and implications for understanding food insecurity in Arctic Canada. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 55(1), 30–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crate, S. (2003). Vilyuy Sakha post-soviet adaptation: A subarctic test of Netting’s smallholder, householder theory. Human Ecology, 31(4), 499–528, Winter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crate, S. (2013). From living water to the “Water of Death”: Implicating social resilience in Northeastern Siberia. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 17(2), 115–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crate, S., Ulrich, M., Habeck, J., Desyatkin, A., Desyatkin, R., Fedorov, A., … Mészáros, C. (2017). Permafrost livelihoods: A transdisciplinary analysis of thermokarst-based systems of indigenous land use. Anthropocene, 18, 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demoscope. (2020). Vseosyusnaia Perepis 1989 g. Chislennost’ gorodskogo naselenija RSFSR, ee territorial’nyh edinic, gorodskih poselenij i gorodskih rajonov po polu [In Russian]. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus89_reg2.php Google Scholar
Donskoi, R. (2001). Urbanizatsia i malochislennyie naroda Severa Respubliki Sakha (Yakutia) (Urbanization and small-numbered indigenous Peoples of the North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) [In Russian]. Yakutsk: Institut problem malochislennykh narodov Severa.Google Scholar
Filippova, V. (2011). Sotsialniye vyzovy periodicheskikh navodneniy v Yakutii (Social challenges of periodical floods in Yakutia) [In Russian]. Arktika i Sever, 4, Retrieved March 21, 2018, from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsialnye-vyzovy-periodicheskih-navodneniy-v-yakutii Google Scholar
Fondahl, G., Crate, S., & Filippova, V. (2014). The Sakha republic: Yakutia. In Larsen, J., Schweitzer, P., & Petrov, A. (eds.), Arctic Social Indicators/ASI II Implementation (pp. 57–91). Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers Google Scholar
Forbes, B. (2013). Cultural resilience of social-ecological systems in the Nenets and Yamal-Nenets autonomous Okrugs, Russia: A focus on reindeer nomads of the Tundra. Ecology and Society, 18(4), 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, B., Stammler, F., Kumpula, T., Meschtyb, N., Pajunen, A., & Kaarlejärvi, E. (2009). High resilience in the Yamal-Nenets social–ecological system, West Siberian Arctic, Russia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(52), 22041–22048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, J., Mcdowell, G., & Pearce, T. (2015). The adaptation challenge in the arctic. Nature Climate Change, 5(12), 1046–1053, London. https://search-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/1766269192?accountid=14541 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujiwara, J. (2018). Flood risk and migration in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). In Hiyama, T., Takakura, H. (eds.), Global Warming and Human - Nature Dimension in Northern Eurasia, Global Environmental Studies (pp. 125–144), Singapore: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, B. (2008). Skunkworks in the embers of the cedar fire: Enhancing resilience in the aftermath of disaster. Human Ecology, 36(1), 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GosKomStat (2020). Chislennost” postoiannogo naseleniia Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Permanent population of the Russian Federation) [In Russian]. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from http://www.statdata.ru/naselenie/respubliki-saha-yakutiya Google Scholar
Graybill, J. (2013). Imagining resilience: Situating perceptions and emotions about climate change on Kamchatka, Russia. GeoJournal, 78(5), 817–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D., & Raygorodetsky, G. (2010). Indigenous knowledge of a changing climate. Climatic Change, 100, 239–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigoriev, M., & Fedorov, A. (2011). Overview of Climate change’s Impacts in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Yakutsk: Institute of Permafrost.Google Scholar
Hahn, T., Schultz, L., Folke, C., & Olsson, P. (2008). Social networks as sources of resilience in social-ecological systems. In Norberg, J., Cumming, G. (eds.), Complexity Theory for a Sustainable Future (pp. 119–148). US: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, L., & Seyfrit, C. (1994). Female flight? Gender balance and outmigration by Native Alaskan villagers. Arctic Medical Research, 53(2), 189–193.Google Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2014). Arctic populations and migration. In Larsen, J. L. & Fondahl, G. (Eds.), Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages (pp. 53–104). Copenhagen: Norden.Google Scholar
Huntington, H., & Fox, S. (2004). The changing arctic: Indigenous Perspectives. In AMAP (ed.), Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (pp. 61–98). UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ignatieva, V. (2018). Sakha Republic (Yakutia): Local projections of climate changes and adaptation problems of indigenous peoples. In Hiyama, T. & Takakura, H. (eds.), Global Warming and Human - Nature Dimension in Northern Eurasia, Global Environmental Studies (pp. 11–28). Singapore: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). (2013). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. In Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (pp. 3–29). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keskitalo, C., & Kulyasova, A. (2009). The role of governance in community adaptation to climate change, Polar Research, 28(1), 60–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kishigami, N. (2004). Contemporary Inuit Food sharing: A case study from Akulivik, PQ Canada. Effective Local Institutions for Collective Action in Arctic Communities (p. 1–57). ICASS V, Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska, Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Kofinas, G., BurnSilver, S., & Petrov, A. (2020). Methodological challenges and innovations in Arctic community sustainability research. In Petrov, A. & Graybill, J. (Eds.) Arctic Sustainability, Key Methodologies and Knowledge Domains: A Synthesis of Knowledge I (pp. 105–128). New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kofinas, G., BurnSilver, S., Magdanz, J., Stotts, R., & Okada, M. (2016). Subsistence Sharing Networks and Cooperation: Kaktovik, Wainwright, and Venetie, Alaska. BOEM Report 2015-023 DOI; AFES Report MP 2015-02. School of Natural Resources and Extension, University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Kommersant. (February 15, 2020). WhatsApp stal samym populyarnym messengerom v Rossii (WhatsApp became the most popular messenger in Russia) [In Russian]. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4258265 Google Scholar
Ksenofontov, S., Backhaus, N., & Schaepman-Strub, G. (2017). ‘To fish or not to fish?’: Fishing communities of Arctic Yakutia in the face of environmental change and political transformations. Polar Record, 53, 289–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kukarenko, N. (2011). Climate change effects on human health in a gender perspective: Some trends in Arctic research. Global Health Action, 4, 7913.Google Scholar
Kuklina, V., & Filippova, V. (2019). Transport accessibility and the way of life of the population in the north: A case study of the Sakha (Yakutia) republic. Geography and Natural Resources, 40(2), 162–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuklina, V., & Shishigina, N. (2020). Yakutsk: Culture for sustainability. In Orttung, R. (Ed.), Arctic Urban Sustainability: Measuring Progress in Circumpolar Cities (pp. 101–128). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kuklina, V., Vinokurova, U., & Ignatieva, S. (2019). Educational Institutions as a resource for the Urbanization of indigenous people: The case of Yakutsk. Sibirica, 18, 29–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, J., & Fondahl, G. (2014). The Second Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR-II). Regional processes and global linkages. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:788965/FULLTEXT03.pdf Google Scholar
Lavrillier, A. (2013). Climate change among nomadic and settled Tungus of Siberia: continuity and changes in economic and ritual relationships with the natural environment. Polar Record, 49, 260–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J., & Fragnito, S. T. (2005). Aboriginal territories in cyberspace. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 3, 29–31. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/aboriginal-territories-cyberspace Google Scholar
Magdanz, J., Utermohle, C., & Wolfe, R. (2002). The Production and Distribution of Wild Food in Wales and Deering, Alaska. Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Technical Paper 259. Juneau, Alaska.Google Scholar
Mandelstam Balzer, M. (2004). Whose homeland is it? Shifting boundaries and multiple identities in the Russian Federation North. In Kasten, E. (Ed.), Properties of Culture: Culture as Property (pp. 233–256). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. Retrieved July 23, 2020, fromGoogle Scholar
Mandelstam Balzer, M. (2014). Korenniye kosmopolity, ecologicheskaya zashita i aktivizm v Sibiri i na Dalnem Vostoke Rossii (Indigenous cosmopolites, ecological protection and activism in Siberia and Far East of Russia) (in Russian). Sibirskiye Istoricheskiye Issledovaniya, 2, 15–38 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Molyneaux, H., O’Donnell, S., Kakekaspan, C., Walmark, B., Budka, P., & Gibson, K. (2014). Social media in remote first nation communities. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39, 275–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohmagari, K., & Berkes, F. (1997). Transmission of indigenous knowledge and bush skills among the Western James Bay Cree women of subarctic Canada. Human Ecology, 25, 197–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsson, P., Folke, C., & Berkes, F. (2004). Adaptive comanagement for building resilience in social-ecological systems. Environmental Management, 34(1), 75–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owiny, S., Mehta, K., & Maretzki, A. (2014). The use of social media technologies to create, preserve, and disseminate indigenous knowledge and skills to communities in East Africa. International Journal of Communication, 8, 234–247.Google Scholar
Patrick, D., & Tomiak, J. (2008). Language, culture and community among urban Inuit in Ottawa. Études/Inuit/Studies, 32(1), 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, D. (April 17, 2018). Gde vygodno zhit: postroit dom ili kupit kvartiru? (Interview) (Where it’s advantageous to live: to build a house or buy an apartment?) [in Russian]. NewsYkt. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://news.ykt.ru/article/70671 Google Scholar
Povorozniuk, O., Habeck, J., & Vate, V. (2010). Introduction: On the definition, theory, and practice of gender shift in the North of Russia. Anthropology of East Europe Review, 28(2), 1–37.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, R. (2009). Gender and generation: Perspectives on ongoing social and environmental changes in the arctic. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 34(3), 524–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, R. (ed.). (2011). Megatrends. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers.Google Scholar
RBK. (September 18, 2019). WhatsApp stal samym obsuzhdayemym rossiyanami messendzherom (WhatsApp became a messenger the most discussed among Russians) [In Russian]. RBK. Retrieved July 23, 2020 from https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/18/09/2019/5d80b05f9a7947398c4f6ad2 Google Scholar
REGNUM. (2018a) Yakutiya eshe ne poluchila federalniye dengi n ustraneniye posledstviy pavodka, [in Russian]. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from https://regnum.ru/news/2434861.html Google Scholar
REGNUM. (2018b) V Yakutii kompensatcii za zatoplenniye doma poluchat ne vse postradavshiye, [in Russian language]. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from https://regnum.ru/news/2422044.html Google Scholar
Sakakibara, C. (2017). People of the Whales: Climate change and cultural resilience among Inupiat of Arctic Alaska. Geographical Review, 107(1), 159–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SakhaPress. (June 28, 2017). Blagotvoritel’naia aktsiia «Aili» v podderzhku zhitelei sela Berezovka sobrala boleie polumilliona rublei (Fundraising event in support of residents of Berezovka raised over half a million rubles) [in Russian]. Sakha Press. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from http://yakutiakmns.org/archives/7332 Google Scholar
Shlyakhtin, R. (August 17, 2018). Coda – o fenomene populyarnosti WhatsApp v Yakutii: Rossia bassaapa [in Russian]. SakhaDay. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from https://sakhaday.ru/news/coda-o-fenomene-populyarnosti-whatsapp-v-yakutii-rossiya-bassaapa Google Scholar
Shove, E. (2016). Infrastructures and practices: Networks beyond the city. In Coutard, O. & Rutherford, J. (Eds.), Beyond the Networked City: Infrastructure Reconfigurations and Urban Change in the North and South (pp. 242–258). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How it Changes. Los Angeles: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirina, A. (2012). Evenki i Eveny v sovremennom mire: samosoznanie, prirodopol’zovanie, mirovozzrenie. Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura.Google Scholar
Stammler-Gossmann, A. (2012). The big water of a small river: Flood experiences and a community agenda for change. In Tennberg, M. (ed.), Governing the Uncertain, 55–82. Springer, Dordrecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takakura, H. (2016). Limits of pastoral adaptation to permafrost regions caused by climate change among the Sakha people in the middle basin of Lena River. Polar Science, 10(3), 395–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tebtebba. (2008). Indicators Relevant for Indigenous Peoples’ Resource Book. Philippines: Tebtebba Foundation.Google Scholar
The International Labor Organization. (2017). Indigenous peoples and climate change: from victims to change agents through decent work/International Labour Office, Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch. Geneva. Retrieved 2 July, 2020, from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/indigenous-tribal/WCMS_551189/lang--en/index.htm Google Scholar
Tomaska, A. (2017). Migranty Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiia): voprosy integracii detey sel’skih migrantov (Migrants of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): issues of rural migrants’ children integration). Severo-Vostochny Gumanitarny Vestnik, 1(18), 58–64 [in Russian].Google Scholar
Ulturgasheva, O. (2012). Narrating the Future in Siberia: Childhood, Adolescence and Autobiography Among the Eveny. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Ulturgasheva, O., Rasmus, S., Wexler, L., Nystad, K., & Kral, M. (2014). Arctic indigenous youth resilience and vulnerability: Comparative analysis of adolescent experiences across five circumpolar communities. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51, 735–756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vesti Yakutii. (August 18, 2017). Selo Berezovka perenesut na nezatopliaemuiu territoriiu (The village of Berezovka will be moved to a flood-free area). [in Russian]. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from https://www.vesti14.ru/2017/08/18/selo-berezovka-perenesut-na-nezatoplyaemuyu-territoriyu/ Google Scholar
Vinokurova, D. (2013). Migrantskie i mestnye soobshhestva: faktory konsolidatsii (na materialakh Respubliki Saha (Yakutia)) (Migrant and local communities: factors of consolidation (based on materials from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia))). Vestnik Kalmytskogo Instituta Gumanitarnykh Issledovanii RAN, 2, 130–134 [in Russian].Google Scholar
Vinokurova, L. (2010). Yakutia’s men today: Widowing wives and longing for life? Anthropology of East Europe Review, 28(2), 140–163.Google Scholar
Vinokurova, L., Filippova, V., Suleymanov, A., & Grigoryev, S. (2016). V ozhidanii ledokhoda: sotsialniye aspekty razrushitelnykh navodnenii v selskoi Yakutii (kon. XX – nach. XXI v.v.). (In the watch for ice breakup: social issues of disastrous floods in rural Yakutia (end of XX - beginning of XXI centuries)). Gumanitarniye issledovaniya v Vostochnoy Sibiri i na Dalnem Vostoke, 1, 28–40 [in Russian].Google Scholar
Vinokurova, U. (1992). Tsennostnyie orientatsii yakutov v usloviiakh urbanizatsii (Yakut value systems in conditions of urbanization) [in Russian]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.Google Scholar
Waterworth, P., Rosenberg, M., & Braham, R. (2014). The effect of social support on the health of Indigenous Australians in a metropolitan community. Social Science & Medicine, 119, 139–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wexler, L., Joule, L., Garoutte, J., Mazziotti, J., & Hopper, K. (2014). “Being responsible, respectful, trying to keep the tradition alive”: Cultural resilience and growing up in an Alaska Native community. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(5), 693–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widlok, T. (2016). Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A., Carlson, B., & Sciascia, A. (2017). Reterritorialising social media: Indigenous people rise up. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21, 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar