THE ROLE OF NATURAL CRYOGENIC RESOURCES IN TRADITIONAL SUBSISTENCE SYSTEMS OF THE PEOPLES OF SIBERIA AND THE FAR EAST

The authors of the article have made an attempt to consider the role of natural cryogenic resources (snow, ice, permafrost, etc.) in traditional subsistence systems of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East. The integrating role in the methodology of the research belongs to ethnoecology which studies regularities of interactions of people and nature within various traditional cultures. More than 65% of the territory of the Russian Federation is situated in the cryolithozone, the top layer of the Earth's crust with frozen formations. Its top part (permafrost and reservoir ices) is an environment formation component of a territorial resource which provides stability of landscapes suitable for people's life. The authors give examples of how changes of cryogenic conditions (snow covers, freezing or thawing of permafrost and reservoirs) directly influence the functioning of traditional subsistence systems in different peoples. The authors, using ethnographic descriptions of the second half of the 19th - the beginning of the 21st centuries and their own field research data, have considered the traditional ecological knowledge of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East related to the use of natural cryogenic resources as a construction material, for food storage, for receiving moisture for drinking and irrigation of crops in agriculture and in some other spheres of economic activity. In the conclusion of the article the authors allocate the perspective directions of research of the role of natural cryogenic resources in traditional subsistence systems. The first of them is related to the study of the anthropogenous aspects of cryodiversity inherent to some traditional cultures. According to the authors, ethnolinguistic studies of specific words and concepts which have developed in languages of the peoples inhabiting the territory of the Arctic and the Subarctic region and reflect various transformations or specific practical meanings people give to cryogenic objects have a big importance. The second direction has to give answers about how critical the natural cryogenic resource is for functioning of a traditional subsistence system of a certain local community. The third important direction of research is the search for a possible adaptation of the traditional ecological knowledge which has developed in some ethnic cultures to modern developments in the sphere of innovative economic activity. The authors make a conclusion that the experience which has developed for centuries is extremely important both for the survival of some local communities conducting traditional kinds of subsistence and for the solution of some innovative tasks connected with the rational use of natural and energy resources.