New Technologies in the Tundra: High-Tech Equipment, Perception of Space and Spatial Orientation of Nomadic and Settled Populations of the Russian Arctic

This project is part of the Collaborative Research Centre “Difference and Integration”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project description is also available at the website of "Difference and Integration”.

This project builds on the project "Orientation in, perception and utilisation of space on the egde of the Arctic: nomads and sedentary people in northwest Siberia”. The main conclusion of that project was that human spatial perception and orientation can be best understood as products of a cognitive system, which includes, apart from one or several human brains, also other objects and phenomena. These can be the means of transport, orientation equipment, reindeer, etc. The different forms of spatial perception shown by the groups of tundra population can be best explained by the fact, that their members experience space and solve spatial cognitive tasks in different cognitive systems. This also leads to differences in their patterns of spatial behavior.

In the current project, the research will be focused on the dynamics of the described cognitive systems and the changes they produce in the social sphere. The main object of this research are the changes in spatial cognition, spatial orientation and land use of different groups of tundra population following the introduction of satellite and mobile telephones as well as GPS. These groups include nomadic and semi-nomadic reindeer herders, fishermen, traders, industrial workers, members of the local administration and settled villagers living in two tundra regions on the both sides of the Urals (picture 1) and having specific ethnic backgrounds (e.g. Nenets, Komi, Khanty, Russians, etc.). These groups differ considerably in their way of life, strategies of land use and the equipment they rely on in their every-day life. As a consequence, we may also expect differences in their spatial cognition and methods of spatial orientation and creates relatively well defined spatial spheres of action for each of the groups.

Mobile and satellite telephones as well as GPS have rapidly spread among all groups of tundra population during the last five years. This has greatly improved the communication between persons and made distant places in the tundra more accessible because traveling does not require so much knowledge of the territory and orientation skills as it used to do. Therefore, we may assume that the technical innovations influence the orientation abilities as well as the conceptualization of space by changing such basic categorical dichotomies as distant/close and centre/periphery. More importantly, these innovations change the spatial spheres of action of different groups and their potential of social, political and economic control over the tundra and its resources. Therefore, social change is likely to follow the technological one.

In the framework of this project, an attempt will be made to document these changes using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We hope that such a study will contribute to the understanding of human spatial cognition in general, e.g. through a contribution to the further development of the Theory of Distributed Cognition. On a more general level, this study will contribute to the long-lasting debate on the link between technological and cultural development.