Transformation of the ethnic cultural landscape of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region (late 19th–early 21st centuries): resettlement and population dynamics

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of the settlement of local communities and changes in the cultural landscape of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region in the 19th-early 21st centuries. We discuss the formation and development of ties within local groups and the formation of settlements. The research is based on archival and literary sources as well as field materials of the author. Using the historical-geographical approach, we reveal the features of the formation of the population in the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region confined to the cattle breeding, hunting, and agricultural complexes. We determine the factors for the formation of cultural traditions of local groups, which continue to be a reference point in the habitation of territory. The research methodology takes into account the features of the convergence of time and territorial stages of change in ethnic and territorial identification. We consider the role of migrations, natural conditions and the economic specifics of new settlements, continuity, geographical and social mobility of the local population reflected in archival sources. Qualitative methods of cultural geography allow us to identify the ratio of ethnic composition in settlements in dynamics. The historically formed areas of geocultural complexes of local communities are a prerequisite for the sustainable development of unique landscapes. Most of them arose from a rethinking of the name by a native speaker.