Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:00:23.334Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Internationalisation with the use of Arctic indigeneity: the case of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2012

Emilie Maj
Emilie Maj*
Affiliation:
Centre for Landscape and Culture, Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, Uus Sadaama 5, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia (emiliemaj@hotmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over a period of 70 years, the lifestyles and belief systems of indigenous Siberian peoples were transformed by Soviet policy, based on the idea of assimilation and homogenisation of the peoples in its territory, in compliance with the idea of a ‘people's friendship’. The fall of the Soviet Union has given people the opportunity to rebuild their identity, as well as to provide a means of cultural revival for each ethnic community. The case study of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in northern Siberia shows a new relationship, already started during perestroika and developing between the Russian Federation and its peoples. This relationship favours the development of each people's culture within the broader context of their integration into Russian society. The issue of the instrumentalisation of indigenous peoples’ cultural and religious heritage is part of a broader picture of a global affirmation of peoples’ indigenousness. The identification of ethnic Sakha (Yakuts) with other northern peoples is a means of entering the international political arena, pushing far away the geopolitical and cultural boundaries imposed by the Russian Federation and highlighting the idea of a circumpolar civilisation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 48 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: CONTESTED BORDERS AND IDENTITIES , July 2012 , pp. 210 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Argunova, T. 2001. Scapegoats of nationalism: ethnic tensions in Sakha (Yakutia), northeastern Russia. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Balzer, M. 1993. Shamanism and the politics of culture: an anthropological view of the 1992 international conference on Shamanism, Yakutsk, the Sakha Republic. Shaman 1 (2): 71–96.Google Scholar
Balzer, M. 1995. A state within a state, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). In: Kotkin, S., and Wolff, D. (editors). Rediscovering Russia in Asia. London: M.E. Sharpe: 139–160.Google Scholar
Hasanat, Md. Waliul. in press. International cooperation in the Northern Forum: emerging new norms in international law? Polar Record doi:10.1017/S0032247411000404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasten, E. (editor). 2004. Culture as property, pathways to reform in post-Soviet Siberia. Berlin: Dietrich Reiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Le Berre-Semenov, M. 2002. Renaissantismes et renaissance des peuples du nord, évolution de la question autochtone en république sakha (Yakoutie) dans le contexte des mutations postsoviétiques. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Paris: Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.Google Scholar
Maj, E. 2007. Le cheval chez les Iakoutes chasseurs et éleveurs: de la monture à l'emblème culturel. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Etudes.Google Scholar
Ministers’ Deputies. 2006. Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Second opinion of the Advisory Committee on the Russian Federation, adopted on 11 May 2006. Strasbourg: Council of Europe (CM Documents, CM(2006)99 5 June 2006). URL: http://www.coe.int/document-library/default.asp?urlwcd=https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1017227 (accessed 13 September 2011)Google Scholar
Nikolaev, M. 1997. The present and future of the Arctic peoples. In: Mousalimas, S.A. (editor). Arctic ecology and identity. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó: 31–41.Google Scholar
Shchipkov, A. 1998. Yakutiya. Obretenie kuta [Yakutia. The acquisition of Kut]. Druzhba narodov 2 (1): 127–128.Google Scholar
Stammler-Gossmann, A. 2009. Who is indigenous? Construction of ‘indigenousness’ in Russian legislation. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations. 2007. Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. New York: United Nations (adopted by General Assembly Resolution 61/295 on 13 September 2007).Google Scholar
Yamada, T. 1994. Symbiosis with nature: a message for the reconstructing of Sakha ethnicity and identity. Ethnological Studies 66: 217–231.Google Scholar
Zakon Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya). 2006. O perechne korennykh narodov severa i mestnostej (territorij) ikh kompaktnogo prozhivaniya v Respublike Sakha (Yakutiya), (novja redaktsja). Law from 22 March 2006 330-3 N 673-III, prinyat postanovleniem Sobraniya (Il Tumen) Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya) 10.07.2003 3 N 122-III [Law of Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of 10 July 2003 N 59-W 121-III (Eds. dated 22 March 2006). [On the list of Indigenous peoples and the terrain (land area) they are concentrated in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) (new version) (in the red. Law SR(Y) dated 22 March 2006 N 330 W 673-III), adopted Resolution, State Assembly (Il Tumen), Sakha Republic (Yakutia), of 10 July 2003 N 122 W-III] URL: http://pravo.levonevsky.org/bazazru/texts10/txt10288.htm (accessed 13 September 2011).Google Scholar