Meeting of the Northern Anthropological Seminar

On December 18, a meeting of the Northern Anthropological Seminar was held, within the framework of which there was a presentation of the book Landscape and Culture of the Peoples of Yakutia: Sacralization, Symbolic Strategies, Geocultural Images under the general editorship of E. N. Romanova, N. K. Danilova. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2023. The monograph is the result of intensive field and conceptual work of Yakut researchers from the Institute for Humanitarian Research and North Indigenous Peoples Problems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University. It was prepared with funds from the grant from the Government of the Russian Federation within the framework of the scientific project “Preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity and sustainable development of the Arctic and Subarctic of the Russian Federation” (agreement No. 075-15-2021-616).

The book represents the first experience in an interdisciplinary study of geocultural images of the North within the framework of symbolic anthropology and is devoted to the problems of multi-level development of the natural landscape: historical-cultural, linguistic, social, mental, geocultural, artistic. The monograph examines not so much physical space as the constructed spatial environment - a kind of physical and mental expression of the organization of space by humans. This geocultural approach allows us to reveal original models of imagining space at the level of ethnocultural landscapes and author’s reflection.

The opening speech at the meeting was made by the director of the MAE RAS, Prof. Dr. Andrei Golovnev. It was followed by presentations by authors and reviewers. Speakers were present both offline and online. Among the speakers were Dr. Ekaterina Romanova; Dr. Lyudmila Zamorshchikova; Dr. Dmitry Zamyatin; Dr. Lyudmila Missonova; Dr. Olga Lavrenova; Dr. Uldanai Bakhtikireeva; Dr. L. N. Zhukova; Dr. Tatyana Sem.

The authors introduced the audience to their own contribution to writing the book. A number of seminar participants expressed the opinion that the monograph enriches domestic ethnography and Siberian studies, in particular, by introducing new field materials into scientific circulation and, first of all, presenting new conceptual conclusions and generalizations concerning people’s lives in a unique natural, cultural and symbolic spaces of Yakutia. In addition, the opinion was expressed that the cross-regional format of the seminar, in which representatives of different scientific institutions introduce each other to their scientific achievements, is extremely interesting and productive.