Cryoanthropology: Influence of Natural Low Temperatures on the Yakut Traditional Life Sustenance System, 19th Century to the 1930s

Goals. The study aims to determine the influence of a complex of cryogenic factors (snow, ice, permafrost, cold in general) on traditional household and sociocultural practices of the Yakuts including benefits that some representatives of this ethnic group have learned to derive from winter climatological conditions. Materials and Methods. The work analyzes archival materials, scientific literature and the author’s field data. The most important elements of the methodological toolkit are sociocultural analysis and basic principles of cryosophy that suggest analysis of the phenomena of the ‘cold world’ in terms of their resource potential. Results. The paper shows positions (impacts) of low temperatures and accompanying phenomena when it comes to choose a place of location for a winter settlement and layout a farmstead (availability of a reservoir that does not freeze over the winter to its bottom, relative remoteness of permafrost soils from the surface, creation of open spaces for a better view, etc.), and the former’s influence on the architecture and functionality of residential and household buildings. The work introduces certain characteristics of deep freeze practices used for storing and cooking food, employment of cryogenic phenomena and processes for sanitary and hygienic purposes. Special insight is made into the significance of ‘cold’ practices in household activities. Specifically, the study shows that in farming and cattle breeding cryogenic phenomena were used for irrigation of agriculturally used areas, livestock feeding and threshing arrangements. Moreover, the specific climatic regime made it possible to apply quite a range of unique approaches to fishing and hunting. However, one of the most important results obtained during this study is the conclusion — confirmed by definite examples — that the Yakuts practiced conscious control over cryogenic processes in household activities. Conclusions. Based on the above, the paper  concludes it is largely due to cold that a big complex of elements of the traditional life sustenance system of the Yakuts had emerged — to further essentially shape the latter’s most representative ethnocultural features.

1. Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch.

2. Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Archive.

3. State Archive of Irkutsk Oblast.

4. Yakutsk Oblast. In: The Russian Imperial Census of 1897. Present-Day Population of the Russian Empire by Governorates, Uyezds, and Towns (without Finland). Available at: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_gub_97.php?reg=80 (accessed: March 13, 2020). (In Russ.)

5. Author’s Field Data

6. Field data of 2017 from the villages of Isit, Nokhoroy and Kytyl-Dyura (Khangalassky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

7. Field data of 2018 from Oymyakon village (Oymyakonsky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

8. Field data of 2018 from the villages of Amga, Chapchylgan and Pokrovka (Amginsky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

9. Field data of 2018 from the villages of Maiya and Petrovka (Megino-Kangalassky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

10. Field data of 2019 from Yunkyur village (Olekminsky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

11. Field data of 2020 from Nikolsky village (Namsky District, Sakha Republic, Russia).

12. Fedorov R. Cryogenic resources: ice, snow, and permafrost in traditional subsistence systems in Russia. Resources. 2019. No. 1. Pp. 8–17. (In Eng.)

13. Fedorova E. N. Population of Yakutia: Past and Present (A Geodemographic Study). Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1998. 207 p. (In Russ.)

14. Gadalova N. International conference ‘Frost, Ice and Snow: Cold Climate and Russian History’. The New Literary Review. 2013. No. 1. Pp. 418–426. (In Russ.)

15. Gogoleva P. A., Struchkova S. G., Fedorova E. D. Physico-geographical conditions of the alas landscape development and regularities of the vegetation distribution. Advances in Current Natural Sciences. 2016. No. 12(2). Pp. 368–374. (In Russ.)

16. Klyuchevsky V. O. Writings. In 9 vols. Moscow: Mysl, 1987. Vol. 1. 430 p. (In Russ.)

17. Kuklina V. V., Osipova M. E. Securing transport accessibility in arctic and subarctic districts of Sakha Republic (Yakutia): the role of ice roads. Society. Environment. Development (TERRA HUMANA). 2018. No. 2. Pp. 107–112. (In Russ.)

18. Kuzmina A. A. Representations of cold in the folklore picture of world of Yakuts. Nauchnyi Dialog (Scientific Dialogue). 2020. No. 4. Pp. 189–202. (In Russ.)

19. Lopez C. M. L., Hatano R., Guggenberger G., Ohta T., Gerasimov E., Fedorov A. N. Forest fires effects on carbon stocks and soil chemistry in Central Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. Eurasian Journal of Forest Research. 2012. No. 1. Pp. 9–17. (In Eng.)

20. Melnikov V. P., Fedorov R. Yu. The role of natural cryogenic resources in traditional subsistence systems of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East. Tomsk State University Journal. 2018. No. 426. Pp. 133–141. (In Russ.)

21. Melnikov V. P., Gennadinik V. B., Fedorov R. Yu. Humanitarian aspects of cryosophy. Kriosfera Zemli (Earth’s Cryosphere). 2016. No. 2. Pp. 112–117. (In Russ.)

22. Nikiforova V. S., Romanova E. N. Winter sacral practices: overnight Olonkho recitations. In: Laboratory for the Comprehensive Geocultural Study of the Arctic. Road Project. Yakutsk: Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, 2015. Pp. 16–18. (In Russ.)

23. Nikolaev S. I. The Sakha People. Yakutsk: Yakutskiy Kray, 2009. 300 p. (In Russ.)

24. Nikolaev S. I. Yakut Meals and Dishes: A Perspective from Neighboring Cultures. Yakutsk: Yakutskiy Kray, 2009. 168 p. (In Russ.)

25. Nogovitsyn R. R., Romanov A. R. Cold as a natural resource and an economic category: new approaches revisited. In: Resource-Based Economics in the Context of Contemporary Globalization Trends. Conference Proceedings. Yakutsk: North-Eastern Federal University, 2019. Pp. 6–19. (In Russ.)

26. Nogovitsyn V. P., Solomonov N. G., Savvinov A. S., Stepanov A. V. Scientific view on the Yakut balagan. Vestnik of North-Eastern Federal University. 2015. No. 2. Pp. 130–139. (In Russ.)

27. Romanova E., Zamorshchikova L. Geocultural branding as an innovative strategy of touristic development of the «cold world». In: Public Recreation and Landscape Protection – With Sense Hand in Hand? Conference Proceedings. Křtiny: Mendel University in Brno, 2020. Pp. 190–193. (In Eng.)

28. Seroshevsky V. L. The Yakuts: An Ethnographic Study. Vol. I. St. Petersburg: Imperial Russian Geographical Society, 1896. 720 p. (In Russ.)

29. Shepelev V. V. (ed.) The Yakut Cold: A Popular Encyclopedia. Yakutsk: Bichik, 2019. 197 p. (In Russ.)

30. Sokolnikov P. N., Popov A. I., Govorov I. S. The Yakuts: Dwellings, Clothes, and Food. Yakutsk: Executive Office of Yakutsk Oblast, 1913. 21 p. (In Russ.)

31. St. Nicholas’ Church of Olyokminsky District, Kyllakh Island: an essay on the parish. Yakutskie eparkhial’nye vedomosti. 1890. No. 15. Pp. 236–237. (In Russ.)

32. Suleymanov A. A. ‘Cold resources’ in food system of Yakuts: traditions and present day. Nauchnyi Dialog (Scientific Dialogue). 2018. No. 2. Pp. 263–274. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.24224/2227-1295-2018-2-263-274

33. Suleymanov A. A. ‘Cold resources’ in the life support system of rural communities of Yakutia. The end of the XIXth – the beginning of the ­XXIst century. North-Eastern Journal of Humanities. 2018. No. 3. Pp. 28–34. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.25693/IGI2218-1644.2018.03.24.003

34. Suleymanov A. A. ‘The resources of cold’ in economic and socio-cultural practices of rural communities of Yakutia. The second half of XIX – early XX centuries. Bylye Gody. 2018. No. 4. Pp. 1601–1611. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.13187/bg.2018.4.1601

35. Sumgin M. I. Permafrost Soils of the USSR. Vladivostok: Far Eastern Geological Society, 1927. 390 p. (In Russ.)

36. Zykov F. M. The Yakuts: Settlements, Dwellings, and Household Outbuildings. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1986. 99 p. (In Russ.)