UDC

140.8+167.7:[304.2+304.444]

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.6.121

Authors

Svyatoslav V. Shachin
prosp. Kirova 49, Murmansk, 183032, Russian Federation; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3959-5585 e-mail: s_shachin@mail.ru

Abstract

The article dwells on the development of the methodology that will allow us to formulate the concept of Arctic identity. For this purpose, it is necessary to reveal the contradictions inherent in the content of this notion. These contradictions follow from the contradictory nature of Arctic identity as an object of research. They can supplement each other as the deeper content of the Arctic civilization comes to light. This methodology is implemented in two stages. First, it is shown that human nature in the Arctic is capable of serious transformations and explained what kind of useful self-discoveries can be made by people in the Arctic. Further, it is demonstrated how the Arctic civilization interacts with and can influence the rest of humankind. The paper turns to the materials collected by V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko during his travel to the Kola Peninsula in 1873. These data justify the need to transform contemporary scientific worldview in order to understand northern identity. In addition, traits of this identity are studied; in particular, it is stressed that a person in the Arctic is able to perceive the space in a different way and to extract the information from it in an intuitive form. This idea suggests that with the help of the dialogue between people with northern identity and visitors seeking consciousness expansion in the Arctic, the humankind will be able to find in itself the resources for a new development scenario. In that case, northern identity will influence the formation of the new identity of humankind in general: the humankind will acquire northern traits while the North will become more universal.

Keywords

Arctic, Arctic identity, northern identity, Arctic civilization, dialectical methodology, anthropology

References

1. Slezkin Yu. Arkticheskie zerkala: Rossiya i malye narody Severa [Arctic Mirrors: Russia and Ethnic Minorities of the North]. Moscow, 2008. 512 p. Available at: https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=226661&p=1#section_1 (accessed: 22 December 2018).
2. Nemirovich-Danchenko V.I. Strana kholoda: vidennoe i slyshannoe [The Land of Cold: Seen and Heard]. St. Petersburg, 1877. 528 p.
3. Tatarkin A.I. (ed.). Rossiyskaya Arktika: sovremennaya paradigma razvitiya [The Russian Arctic: Contemporary Development Paradigm]. St. Petersburg, 2014. 844 p.
4. Tatarkin A.I., Zakharchuk E.A., Loginov V.G. Sovremennaya paradigma osvoeniya i razvitiya Arkticheskoy zony Rossiyskoy Federatsii [The Modern Paradigm of Development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation]. Arktika: ekologiya i ekonomika, 2015, no. 2, pp. 4–13. Available at: http://arctica-ac.ru/docs/2(18)/004_013_Arktica_2(18)_06_2015.pdf (accessed: 22 December 2018).
5. Popkov Yu.V., Tyugashev E.A. Filosofiya Severa: korennye malochislennye narody Severa v stsenariyakh miroustroystva [Philosophy of the North: Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North in World Order Scenarios]. Salekhard, 2006. 376 p.
6. Vinokurova U.A., Yakovets Yu.V. Arkticheskaya tsirkumpolyarnaya tsivilizatsiya [The Circumpolar Civilization of the Arctic]. Novosibirsk, 2016. 320 p.
7. Golovnev A.V. Fenomen kolonizatsii [The Colonization Phenomenon]. Yekaterinburg, 2015. 592 p.
8. Scheler M. Polozhenie cheloveka v Kosmose [The Human Place in the Cosmos]. Problema cheloveka v zapadnoy filosofii [The Problem of Man in Western Philosophy]. Moscow, 1988, pp. 31–95.
9. Ognennyy mir Agni-Yogi [The Fiery World of Agni Yoga]. Available at: http://nowimir.ru/DATA/070600.htm (accessed: 22 December 2018).
10. Wiener N. Kibernetika, ili Upravlenie i svyaz’ v zhivotnom i mashine [Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine]. Moscow, 1983. 340 p.
11. Eliade M. Shamanizm: Arkhaicheskie tekhniki ekstaza [Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy]. Kiev, 2000. 480 p. Available at: http://volkstay.com/biblioteka/1/shamanism.pdf (accessed: 22 December 2018).
12. Satprem. Shri Aurobindo, ili Puteshestvie soznaniya [Sri Aurobindo, or The Adventure of Consciousness]. St. Petersburg, 1992. Available at: https://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=109068 (accessed: 22 December 2018).
13. Gumilev L.N. Etnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Ch. 6. Passionarnost’ v etnogeneze [Ethnogenesis and Biosphere of the Earth. Pt. 6. Passionarity in Ethnogenesis]. Available at: http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/EBE/ebe06.htm (accessed: 22 December 2018).
14. Pfeifer R., Iida F. Embodied Artificial Intelligence: Trends and Challenges. Available at: http://people.csail.mit.edu/iida/papers/PfeiferIidaEAIDags.pdf (accessed: 22 December 2018).
15. Bodrova O.A. V poiskakh otrazheniya: saamy Kol’skogo Severa v russkoy etnograficheskoy literature vtoroy poloviny XIX – nachala XX vv. [In Search of Reflection: The Sámi of the Kola North in Russian Ethnographic Literature of the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries]. Apatity, 2014. 168 p.
16. Bodrova O.A., Razumova I.A. Lokalizatsiya ustnykh narrativov saamskogo fol’klora na territorii Kol’skogo poluostrova (k voprosu o geograficheskom printsipe sostavleniya ukazatelya saamskikh fol’klornykh syuzhetov) [Localization of the Oral Narratives of the Sámi Folklore on the Kola Peninsula. The Geographic Criterion of Classification of the Kola Sámi Folklore]. Trudy Kol’skogo nauchnogo tsentra RAN. Gumanitarnye issledovaniya, 2015, no. 8, no. 7, pp. 126–142.
17. Dergachev N. Etnografiya Lopskoy zemli. Ocherk III [Ethnography of Lapland. Essay 3]. Dergachev N. russkaya Laplandiya [Russian Lapland]. Arkhangelsk, 1877, pp. 1–61.
18. Bodrova O.A. “Dialog” etnografov: k probleme intertekstual’nosti nauchnogo etnograficheskogo teksta o saamakh vtoroy poloviny XIX – nachala XX vv. [Ethnographers’ “Dialogue”: The Problem of Intertextuality in Scientific Ethnographic Work in the Latter Part of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries]. Antropologicheskiy forum, 2013, no. 19, pp. 276–294.
19. Zhirov V.K. Dukhovnye sostavlyayushchie ekologicheskogo soznaniya i mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya (na materialakh zhiteley Kol’skogo Severa) [The Spiritual Components of Environmental Consciousness and Interethnic Relations (Exemplified by the Residents of the Kola North]. Sever Rossii – odin iz istochnikov ee razvitiya i edineniya narodov: uroki istorii [The Russian North as One of the Sources of the Country’s Development and Unity of the Peoples: Lessons of History]. Kirovsk, 2018, pp. 17–22.
20. Hegel G.W.F. Fenomenologiya dukha [The Phenomenology of Spirit]. Moscow, 2000. 495 p. Available at: http://med-kirov.narod.ru/fil/gegel/Fenomenologija_dukha.pdf (accessed: 22 December 2018).