Transformation Processes and Nutrition Factor in the Far North Residents' Resilience System

Annotation

One of the global challenges of our time is the conflict of man and human communities with the rapidly changing world order, which has an aspect lying at the intersection of culture and human physiology — the conformity of food behavior to lifestyle and the environment. The vitality and resilience of modern humans is subjected to special challenges. Comfortable conditions of existence in the modern world have a reverse side, expressed in diseases associated with sedentary lifestyle, psychotraumatization, violation of the usual nutrition pattern. These changes are especially noticeable on the example of indigenous peoples of the North, who have lived in relative isolation for a long time, as well as on the example of migrants forced to work in unusual natural and climatic conditions and, in general, abruptly and for a relatively short period of time (which does not allow "launching" the adaptation mechanisms) to change the whole habitual way of life. These categories of population are of special interest for researchers, including in connection with the reactions of body to changes in the food model. The idea of optimal food for the human body, formed in the course of nutriological studies, often contradicts the food traditions of peoples living in conditions far from being favourable. Since the end of the 19th century, balanced consumption of fats, proteins and carbohydrates was perceived as a civilization sign of mature modern society, and any deviations were treated as primitive practices. Over time, the approach to studying the lifestyle of traditional societies evolved from the perspective of the mechanism of human adaptation to different habitats. Traditions, including eating habits, are regarded as an optimum point of survival with the highest level of food, fuel and other material resources available in a given habitat. In addition to the problems of traditional and modernized food supply, the article focuses on the painful conditions associated with the disruption of the habitual way of life, work and nutrition of various groups of northern residents — in historical retrospect and at the present stage. Archive and literary sources, results of modern medical and social research and own field material (ethnosociological and biomedical) were used for the analysis. As a result of the generalization of the data set, which includes the authors' own research, it has been concluded that, in addition to ensuring the supply of basic foodstuffs, preventive medicines and high-quality preventive medicine for permanent residents and temporary workers in the Arctic, it is advisable to take into account the survival practices of indigenous peoples that have been developed over the centuries, creating the conditions for new settlers for assimilation. The credibility of these traditions is given by their high viability and their focus on the ethnic survival of indigenous people in the North.

About authors

Tatyana I. TROSHINA, D.Sc. of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Professor
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Arkhangelsk, Russia; Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk, Russia

Olga M. MOROZOVA, D.Sc. of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Professor
Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Nadezhda A. VOROBYEVA, Doctor of Medicine, Professor
Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk, Russia; Northern Branch of the National Research Center for Hematology, Arkhangelsk, Russia

Keywords

Arctic, indigenous peoples of the North, transformation process, adaptation, resilience, food behavior, nutrient

DOI

10.37482/issn2221-2698.2021.43.190

UDC

613(=1-81)(98)(045)