Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Sledge, Reindeer Dogs and Tractors: the Energy of Innovation and Cultural Shift

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2019 12 (8)
Authors
Sirina, Anna A.
Contact information
Sirina, Anna A.: Department of Northern and Siberian Studies Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS 32a Leninskii, Moscow, 119991, Russia; ORCID: 0000–0002–9268–9807;
Keywords
The Evens; North-East of Russia; innovations; state input; cultural shift
Abstract

The article discusses three significant innovations that have occurred in the culture of the nomad Evens of the Magadan region over the past 80 years: sledge (1930s), reindeer dogs (1940–50s) and tractors (1960s — 1970s). The causes and sources of these borrowings are traced, as well as the resulting systemic cumulative effect. Active innovations were associated with the adaptation of Even reindeer herders to the natural and ethnic environment, which began with their entry into the territory of the Northeast. The forced innovations were caused by the influence of the state, which set a goal to transfer part of the nomads to sedentary life, and invested significant resources and energy in the modification of reindeer husbandry as an agricultural sector. As a result of adaptation to the realities of the post-Soviet economy, a wide variety of local cultural options appeared again, complicated by borrowings and tied to the matrix of the state, but with retention of backup options in case of technical breakdowns. Innovations are regarded in the article, on the one hand, as a consequence of changing social conditions, and on the other, as a mechanism of cultural shift

Pages
1461-1483
DOI
10.17516/1997–1370–0460
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/112622

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