Peasant house as a factor of formation of cultural landscape of the Russian North and the Arctic (on the example of Purnema settlement)

Abstract

The subject of this research is the traditional dwelling in the natural and cultural space of the Russian North and the Arctic. The goal of this work is to examine the peculiarities of a peasant house in Purnema settlement as a factor of formation of the cultural landscape of Onezhskoye Pomorye. The dwelling is examines not as an isolated structure, but an integral part of the North Russian cultural landscape, one of the key elements of the traditional culture of Pomorye— the Russian variant of marine culture in the Arctic. The research is based on empirical data acquired in the course of expedition in 2020 on the territory of Onezhskoye Pomorye, settlement of Purnema, Arkhangelsk Region. The article emplopys archival sources of the State Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev (Moscow), wooden architecture sites in the open-air museum “Malye Korely” (Arkhangelsk Region). Empirical data was obtained via photographic evidence of architectural sites, schematic measurements, and ethnographic questionnaire of local residents, using the method of interview. The research also leans on methodology developed by the Doctor of Culturology A. B. Permilovskaya on the architectural and ethnographic survey of the wooden architecture sites. The conclusion is made that the architectural-construct peculiarities of the dwelling and type settlement demonstrate the specific lifestyle of the Russian people in the harsh forest zone and their adjustment to the local climate. In the conditions of the North and the Arctic, a peasant house manifests as a stabilizing factor of adaptation, which ensures sustainable coexistence of population and cultural landscape formed therein; and thus, the effectiveness of ethnosocial and environmental development of the Northern and Arctic territories of the Russian Federation.