Dialogues with the Cold: Natural Low Temperatures in the Everyday Life of Rural Residents of Yakutia (Sakha Republic) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is famous as a region of extremely low natural temperatures, a territory of cold and the phenomena of snow, ice, and permafrost that owe their existence to it. The anthropology of cold, which the authors term cryoanthropology, including analysis of its role and place in the economic and sociocultural practices of the region’s Indigenous population, is relevant but little studied. The authors present experiences applying traditional knowledge of the Sakha (Yakuts) about cold, allowing for its resources to be used in everyday functioning for life sustenance, in various kinds of economic activity. They analyze systemic ethnocultural adaptations to phenomena connected with natural low temperatures. Drawing on data predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the authors integrate examples of the “dialogue” of rural inhabitants with the cold, especially its benefits.