The Inter-Generational Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge By Nenets Women: Viewed in the context of the state educational system of Russia

Ravna, Zoia Vylka

dc.contributor.advisor	Grenersen, Geir
dc.contributor.author	Ravna, Zoia Vylka
dc.date.accessioned	2020-05-06T09:52:36Z
dc.date.available	2020-05-06T09:52:36Z
dc.date.embargoEndDate	2025-05-14
dc.date.issued	2020-05-14
dc.description.abstract	Nenets reindeer herders of the Russian arctic are described by researchers as the most successful, in terms of the number of their reindeer and the number of people involved in this unique way of life. However, the continuation of this unique form of nomadic culture is at immediate risk. There is a problem, the recruitment and training of future generations of nomadic Nenets reindeer herders, in order to replace an ageing population, is being undermined by the current educational policies of the Russian state. Due to the state’s compulsory educational system for the nomadic Nenets population, based on boarding schools, Nenets children are removed from their nomadic communities for more than 8 months a year. Until now, the nomadic Nenets people have historically created their own unique family-based system for the inter-generational transmission of traditional knowledge and skills, in order to educate their children to survive and live on the tundra. This system, including specific ways to bring up their children to become Tenevana – “knowledgeable” and “to have a great mind based on experience”, is nowadays disrupted by the requirements of a compulsory state education system. Based on ethnographic and pedagogical research, I found that there are significant differences between the two studied groups of nomadic Nenets communities living in arctic Russia. Firstly, in the west, due to the displacement of nomadic women to settlements, there are almost no mother tongue speakers in their state boarding schools. In contrast, the Siberian Nenets children possess a relatively better knowledge of language and necessary skills needed for a life of nomadic reindeer herding on the tundra. Despite these differences, the majority of adolescents from both areas, particularly females, are choosing a settled way of life after graduating from school. My research has indicated that the increasing loss of ageing nomadic Nenets women, who will not be replaced by younger generations of nomadic Nenets women, will end the traditional inter-generational transfer of knowledge and skills required to prevent this unique indigenous culture from totally disappearing from our world.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Тюку' вадета вадами' ханзер ненэй небя' нюхута ты' илаӈгана” тарана теневабцо' мипи, тикы ня' амна ӈа. Наукахана тарця' процесc' тарем”нюмде пиры” – теневабцо' мипава''. Тюку процесс юльце сававна «Вадамета» падаркана пады''. Ненэй' небя харта' ӈацэкэмда вадамэтаӈэ, теневанаӈэ, вадабата тара'' нив', тикы' теневабцода пуна' ты'' пэртаӈэхэбнанда нарка и” ӈудота''ӈэӈгунив''. Тюку' вадетами' сидя яхад” ты'' пэрти ӈэсыхыд ма'' лавы: ЯНАО и НАО. Тюку' диссертацияхана ненэй ненэця теневабцо' няамна ӈока' пеляда ӈа. Тет' главахад, статьяхад' падвы, хуркари' журнал, сидя книгахана. Хусувэй' статьяхана ненэй не' теневабцо' таня: хурка' тенз мяд', ханзер сертабада', мяры''бада (ханзер' ненэй' мядм' мэць' тара); ханзер' мэта'' ӈамгэри' (пи''ва, мальця), ты' хобахад сэда'', серта'' тара. Хурка' тенз' лахаре'' ты'' илаӈгана таня, нацэкы' табедамбава' ёльцӈгана, едэй соявы ӈакэцы'' ханзер манзаяць' тара. Нопой статьяхана' хуркари теневабцо' тенз' пады. Ханзер' нюхуто' мипа'' пэрьядо' ненэй' ненэця помнандо', тика нопой' нэсы'', нопой паӈг ненэця' теневабцо' тасламби'. Няби' статьяхана ханзер' тэхэт' товы ӈацэкы по'пелям” интернатхана мадаби, ханзер' та' тэхэна' иле”. Тюку иссследованийхад' тарем' манзь' пиры: ненэй небя харто' илаӈгана тохолавы, пыдо' небянато' теневабцо', ӈарка ненэцие'' теневабцо' нюхуто' мипи''. Хусувэй' тэхэна'' илена ненеця' луца подархана етя' тохолавэдо' нацекы'' ня'амна юӈгу. Тарем ӈод нюдо' илебяды, хуркари тенз” илаӈгада пирӈадо'. Тюку вадетами Небя и” няамна Ӈа, пыда манзарабцонда няамна, хусувэй яля' нюхута минрена теневабцонда ня”амна. Тюку исследованиями тарем' манэ”ламдамбида: школа-интернатхана мэна” ӈацэкы хардахана, тэхэна' небяхадато' няамвы таневабцодо' нидо' мэс”. Тикар по' пелян' ӈацекы теневабцо' нулдамбида. Та” тэхэ' танамахадандо' теневабцодо' Ӈани” таралӈга. Теневабцода Ӈармы' ӈацэкы хойнярина мэць' пиртыда.	en_US
dc.description.doctoraltype	ph.d.	en_US
dc.description.popularabstract	This is a story about the ways in which a Nenets mother transmits her traditional knowledge and skills to children in a nomadic culture in the arctic Tundra. In ethno-pedagogical science it can be viewed as methods of transmission of knowledge. In this thesis I show this through different perspectives on the process of “Vadameta” (upbringing, education). Tundra Nenets mothers should raise their children as “Tenevana”, one who is “knowledgeable” and has “a great mind based on experience”. The text is based on an analysis of materials, collected during four fieldwork periods in various communities in two of the Arctic’s largest reindeer herding regions: the Nenets autonomous area and the Yamal-Nenets autonomous area of the Russian Federation. This study shows how nomadic Nenets mothers use their own approaches, based on life-experience and the experience of elders and traditional values, and their cultural knowledge and skills to educate their children in an extreme Arctic environment. In addition, despite the assumption that nomads do not have any systematic methods of educating their children, this research does demonstrate that nomadic Nenets do in fact have effective educational means by which they teach their children complex and sophisticated knowledge and skills for managing and surviving in an extreme and dangerous environment. This study also reveals that the present state educational system, which provides boarding school teaching in settled villages for pupils from nomadic Nenets families for much of the year, does not support, encourage or compliment nomadic Nenets children’s educational needs. It does not provide them with the essential traditional knowledge and skills they need when they return to a nomadic life on the Arctic Tundra. The system undermines the ability of nomadic Nenets communities to maintain their traditional and unique Arctic nomadic culture, a culture based on reindeer herding. This story is about the maternal love, the struggles and the transmission of skills between the providers and recipients of care and knowledge.	en_US
dc.description.sponsorship	This thesis is a result of a four years project, under the umbrella of the international co-operation project: “Social-Ecological Transformations: Human-Animal Relations Under Climate Change in Northern Eurasia (HUMANOR)” (n:70766). Fieldwork was supported by The Fram Centre research program: the project LUMANOR (Land Use Change Among Indigenous Pastoralists. Mapping historic land use in Northern landscapes (n:1020845). The infrastructure of the entire PhD-project: NIKU (Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research) (n:1020327). The Norwegian Research Council financed the entire project.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18231
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher	UiT Norges arktiske universitet	en_US
dc.publisher	UiT The Arctic University of Norway	en_US
dc.relation.haspart	<p>Paper I: Ravna, Z.V. (2018). The Nomadic Nenets dwelling “Mya”: the symbolism of a woman’s role and space in changing Tundra. <i>AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 14</i>(1), 2-12. Also available at <a href=https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1177180117741221>https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1177180117741221</a>. <p>Paper II: Ravna, Z.V. (2018). Nomadic Nenets Women’s Sewing Skills. The ethnopedagogical process of transfer of traditional skills and knowledge by Nenets women through the generations. <i>Arctic Anthropology, 55</i>(2), 97–116. Not yet available in Munin due to publisher’s restrictions. Available at <a href=https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.55.2.97> https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.55.2.97</a>. Also available in the file “thesis_entire.pdf”. <p>Paper III: Ravna, Z.V. (2019). “Catching a Child”: giving birth under nomadic conditions. The methods of pre- and postnatal care of the Nenets mothers and babies. <i>International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 78</i>(1). Also available at <a href=https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2019.1586275>https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2019.1586275</a>. <p>Paper IV: Ravna, Z. V. (2019). “Skills come with experience”: A pedagogical study of different forms of communication in Nenets nomadic communities in Northern Russia. (Submitted manuscript). <p>Paper V: Ravna, Z.V. (2018). Сравнительный системно-антропологический анализ традиционных знаний на примере западных (европейских) и восточных (сибирских) ненцев [A comparative anthropological analysis of traditional knowledge based on the example of Western (European) and Eastern (Siberian) Nenets]. Chapter in book: Реальность этноса. Роль образования в сохранении и развитии языков и культур коренных малочисленных народов Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока Российской Федерации. [The reality of the ethnos. The role of education in the preservation and development of languages and cultures of indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation], Sankt-Petersburg: Izdatelʹstvo RGPU im. A. I. Gercena. (in Russian), pp. 485-490. <p>Paper VI: Ravna, Z.V. (2019). Ved verdens ende: om urfolkskunnskap i et internatbasert utdanningssystem [At the end of the world: about indigenous knowledge in a boarding-school educational system]. Chapter in book: Kulturen som pasient (uvanlige møter for vanlige folk). [The culture as a patient (unusual meetings for ordinary people)]. J.-I. Nergård, P. Vitebsky (Eds.), Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. (in Norwegian), pp. 138-165. Information about this book available at <a href= https://www.universitetsforlaget.no/kulturen-som-pasient-1> https://www.universitetsforlaget.no/kulturen-som-pasient-1</a>.	en_US
dc.rights.accessRights	embargoedAccess	en_US
dc.rights.holder	Copyright 2020 The Author(s)
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0	en_US
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)	en_US
dc.subject	VDP::Social science: 200::Education: 280::Other disciplines within education: 289	en_US
dc.subject	VDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Pedagogiske fag: 280::Andre pedagogiske fag: 289	en_US
dc.title.alternative	Техэна" илена' ненэй не" нюхуто' мипава теневабцо': государственной образовательной система школа-интернат' РФ	en_US
dc.title	The Inter-Generational Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge By Nenets Women: Viewed in the context of the state educational system of Russia	en_US
dc.type	Doctoral thesis	en_US
dc.type	Doktorgradsavhandling	en_US