“Snowmobile trips to the tundra are a usual practice for most Syndassko residents. Such trips are required for basic household needs, such as getting coal and water, as well as hunting, fishing, and gathering. Almost every adult male in the village hunts wild reindeer, ptarmigan, ducks, geese and other game; in addition to that, they usually fish in tundra lakes and in the gulf. Such trips can last one day or a longer time when people go ‘to the spot’ (na tochku)–that is, to their own hunting huts in the tundra, where they can spend up to several weeks. Similarly, reindeer herders do not spend their entire time in the tundra but travel constantly between the camp and the village, while the village residents often visit these camps or just stop by on their way.
Furthermore, many people, espcailly youth, often go to the tundra for entertainment. They call it ‘going hiking,’ or ‘having a picnic,’ meaning a one-day barbecue trip, sometimes including drinks…. Walking outside the village on foot when the weather is mild is also a common practice, usually with no economic reason at all. For instance, picking mushrooms and berries is often not a household need but rather a motivation to get ‘outside.'” (Bolotova, Karaseva, & Vasilyeva 2017: 109)
What originally drew me to anthropology were images of distant cultures where people much like myself had a different way of living their lives. Here is a snippet of life from the Russian village of Syndassko, located in the far north of Russia in Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The article this quote is taken from looks at motility (the capacity for mobility) among three different ‘remote’ Russian cities. The authors explore what it means for a place to be remote and how this is affected by transportation infrastructure which in turn affects peoples’ mobility. They also explore sense of place, and note that in Syndassko, although life is hard living on the tundra, people have a strong emotional attachment to the place in which they live.
I love this quote because it brings the everyday lives of these seemingly remote people closer to me, and therefore further challenges the concept of remoteness. Is anything truly ‘remote’ in our global world? Although I haven’t been there, this article allows me to imagine taking a snowmobile for a picnic on the tundra, something I have never imagined before. It makes me ponder what these people’s lives are like, and how they are different from my own. A lovely portrayal of another world, and one of the many reasons I love anthropology.
References:
Bolotova, A., Karaseva, A. & Vasilyeva, V. 2017. Mobility and Sense of Place among Youth in the Russian Arctic. Sibirica 16(3), pp. 77-123.
The Edited Jottings of an Amateur Anthropologist 