Colors of the cultural landscape as an element of identity (using the example of landscapes of the Eurasian North)

The article examines the hypothesis of color determination of identity, according to which stable chromatic dominants of the natural landscape are primary in relation to the cultural color code and set the basic “color matrix”. The study draws on theoretical and secondary empirical materials: studies of natural landscapes of the Eurasian North, data on the light regime of high latitudes, snow albedo, plant aspects (lichens, mosses, cloudberry, cotton grass) and seasonal color dynamics, as well as results from traditional cultures of the peoples of the North and color-associative data from sociological studies of territorial identity. The work is theoretical in nature and is conducted at the intersection of cultural geography, semiotics, anthropology, ethnopsychology, and cognitive cultural studies of color. An interdisciplinary methodology is employed, including ontological, structural-semiotic, cognitivecultural, and comparative methods. The theoretical framework comprises Yu. Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere, R. Barthes’ ideas on sign systems, and M. Chirimuuta’s new ontology of color, which interprets color as a mode of human interaction with the world and emphasizes its communicative nature. The landscape and its color component are considered as a “text” possessing its own grammar and syntactics, which largely have a cultural genesis and on which its communication with culture is built. Special attention is paid to the high-latitude landscapes of the Eurasian North – tundra and forest-tundra – where the color rhythm is determined by circumpolar achromaticity and short intense bursts (summer green, autumn ochre). A stable natural triad (blue, green, ochre-red) is identified, which, unlike cultural triads, is imposed by the environment. The color metamorphosis of the landscape (the alternation of “white”, “green”, and “ochre-golden” seasons) modulates collective identity, marking shifts in economic seasons, social roles, and psychological states. In the context of the new ontology of cold and the concept of cryosophy of geocryologist V.P. Melnikov, white color in high latitudes acquires an ontological dimension. Based on the results of the study, the hypothesis of color determination of identity is substantiated, the specificity of the coloristics of high latitudes is revealed, and the determining significance of white in the context of the new ontology of cold and cryosophy is shown. The color code is defined as a “compressed semiotic model” of the landscape, performing orienting, social, sacred, and psychological functions. 

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