Objectives: The term "Catching a Child" is used by the Tundra Nenets people for the process of giving birth. The author is providing a description of the preparations for giving birth on the tundra ...in the Nenets nomadic culture, and practice of pre- and postnatal care of mothers and babies. According to the requirements of the child-care system in Russia, the authorities consider the conditions for giving birth in nomadic dwellings in the tundra as unhealthy and unsuitable because they are not considered to meet the acceptable hygienic and safety standards found in a modern well-equipped hospital. Therefore, the official policy is to get as many indigenous Nenets women as possible to give birth in their nearest hospitals and to transport them there by helicopter.
Methods: Anthropological research (four field work stages), in-depth interviews, participant observation and questionnaires.
Results and conclusions: The Tundra Nenets women are in possession of unique knowledge of pre and postnatal care. This is a system that can be categorised as IKS - indigenous knowledge system. This research area shows the efficiency of the IKS, especially in conditions of climatic changes, which are affecting the infrastructure, transportation and general health-care system in the Arctic.
The official policy of the Soviet state toward nomadic populations was to change their way of life by implementation of enforced collective property (on reindeer), boarding school education, and the ...displacement of nomadic women to settlements. This policy, however, never totally succeeded in all the Nenets areas and among all groups; many Nenets people remain living in a nomadic community. Today, globalization in the form of modern technologies, industrial development, exploration of underground resources and climate changes are affecting the lives of the Nenets. This article draws from several ethnographic fieldwork surveys of nomadic Nenets families conducted between 2015-2017, within the area of the arctic tundra and among the Forest Nenets of Northern Russia. The author's aim is to address one aspect of Nenets's life impacted by modern globalization: their dwelling space. Their traditional dwelling, the "Mya" has been only marginally changed and is still in use in almost all the areas in which Nenets families and communities can be found. Can it be that the displacement of women, originally caused by official Soviet state policy, has also affected the sacred symbolism of the traditional Mya?
This article raises the issue of child rearing techniques used by Nenets mothers in the nomadic conditions of the Arctic Tundra. The focus of the article is a description and analysis of different ...types of inter-generational communication in the process of the training of basic skills and abilities that children of tundra nomads need to possess in order to become Tenevana (knowledgeable). The theoretical framing of this study is the theory of indigenous teachers “labour education within the family”. The analytical approach of this study is structured within an interdisciplinary methodology and is based on methods of in-depth-interviews, questionnaires and fieldwork. Based on an analysis of the rich array of the data produced, the author has concluded that the most important forms of communications are also the most vulnerable: such as folklore and storytelling.
•Ethnic pedagogy has not yet recognized traditional Nenets methods of knowledge transmission.•Different forms of communications are systematic and effective means of raising children in the Tundra.•Independence of thinking, speed in decision making and originality of approaches to solving problems.•Many forms of communications, oral stories and storytelling are rapidly disappearing.
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