A geographical perspective on ethnogenesis: the case of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)
Abstract
Ethnogenesis is the event and process by which new cultural and ethnic
groups originate and evolve through time. Previous research on ethnogenesis,
whether by geographers or anthropologists, has been mainly focused on
discovering universal principles of this process.
My dissertation is devoted to the proposition that much can be learned
about ethnogenesis by approaching it in a particularistic way, employing such
traditional cultural geographic principles and concepts as homeland, diffusion,
incremental change, cultural landscape, preadaptation, and, very importantly,
field research. These I applied to one particular group, the Turkic-speaking Sakha
(Yakut) people of northeast Siberia, who live far from other Turkic peoples. The
beginning of this people has been shrouded in myth and mystery, and though
some scholarly research on the origin of the Sakha has been conducted by Russian
and Soviet scholars, it has been fragmented and inconclusive at best.
By using a particularistic approach; by using the tools, techniques, and
concepts of cultural geography; and by focusing on a single ethnic group, I was
able to resolve the question of how the Sakha (Yakut) nation came to be and
survived through time. The discovery of the ancient hearth of the Sakha (Yakuts);
their pre-historic migration route to a new homeland; adjustment to a new
environment of the boreal taiga, while preserving their ancient Neolithic way of
life of cattle and horse herders; their adaptation to Russian and Soviet
colonization without losing a distinct ethnic identity; and ethnic revival in the
post-Soviet times – all these major stages of the Sakha (Yakut) ethnogenesis -- are
presented in my dissertation through the idiographic methodology of cultural
geography. These are the major achievements of my work.
My overriding conclusion is that accident, chance, and individual
decisions – in a word, unpredictability – plays a dominant role in ethnogenesis.
Universal principles, while helpful, do not possess complete explanatory power.
Each ethnic group is formed under the influence of a unique combination of
factors and must be studied separately.
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