Origins and Backgrounds of Indigenous Resistance in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District

Origins and Backgrounds of Indigenous Resistance in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District


Magomedov A.K.

Dr. Sci. (Polit.), Prof. of the Department of Theory of Regional Studies, Moscow State Linguistic University, Moscow, Russia armagomedov@gmail.com

Tokunaga M.

Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Prof., Faculty of Business and Commerce, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan tokunaga@kansai-u.ac.jp

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For citation:

Magomedov A.K., Tokunaga M. Origins and Backgrounds of Indigenous Resistance in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2020. No 11. P. 76-83




Abstract

Factors of aboriginal protest in Yamal are in the focus of the article. Drawing upon the field studies of 2017–2019 the authors have sought to reconstruct processes among indigenous people over past ten years and identified several acute problems and contradictions not adequately resolved for a long period of time. It has been illustrated that aboriginal reindeer herding peoples of Yamal basically became entangled in the traditional way of life without having an opportunity to leave tundra as a result of uncertainty over employment prospects elsewhere or to have traditional livelihood because of constantly emerging conflicts with resource-based companies and decline in area of tundra pasture alienated in favor of the fuel and energy complex. Despite the numerous legal instruments and special organizations aimed at protecting the interests of small indigenous peoples of the North the later in fact remain powerless in face of gas-producing corporations and are deprived of the opportunity to influence the processes occurring in native region. These reasons have provided the basis for the aboriginal resistance taking the form of network protest in the activities of the open group “The Voice of Tundra” on VK social network.


Keywords
indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North; the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District; reindeer herders communities; indigenous resistance; “The Voice of the Tundra” VK group

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Content No 11, 2020