Стратегии адаптации культуры земледелия у белорусских крестьян-переселенцев Сибири и их рефлексия в нарративных источниках

Abstract

The study examines features of reflection in narrative sources (documentary prose, ethnographic descriptions, archival documents, oral histories) of strategies for adapting agriculture among Belarusian peasants who moved to the territory of Siberia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. In terms of the micro-historic approach and anthropology of knowledge, it explored mechanisms of cultural communications and representation of practical skills that influenced the adaptation of migrants. It highlights three main strategies. The first was an attempt to reproduce the original features of agriculture introduced from their homeland by intergenerational transfer of ethnic traditions. The second strategy was to borrow environmental experience from the local old-settlers of Siberia. The third one implied the active involvement of innovations and regulations of economic activity emanating from the state, which arose in the process of modernization of the Russian economy which began in the capitalism era. The author concluded that all three adaptation strategies, due to the limited possibilities for each of them to be applied separately, to one extent or another influenced the general processes of adapting the agriculture among Belarusian migrants in Siberia, often supplementing each other.