“Between the Old and the New Lands”: An Experience of Social Self-Preservation among the Dwellers of Insular Arctic Areas

Abstract

The article presents the results of a theoretical and empirical study of the issue of collective selfpreservation of local societies situated in remote and inaccessible areas of the European North of Russia. The case of the inhabitants of settlements created in the Soviet era in the islands of the Arctic shows the form of reproduction of the lost – and the formation of new – modes of social existence. The example of dwellers of the village in the island of Vaigach illustrates the cultural resistance and the ability to simultaneously adopt the useful innovation that are characteristic of the Nenets society.