Mental practices of the development of the North: strategies for the adaptation of indigenous peoples of the North to the cold world

Based on the interdisciplinary methodology of the new cultural and intellectual history within the framework of the collective project, the analysis of the formation and change of the mental world of the inhabitants of the «cold world» in different ethnocontact zones of the North-East of the Russian Federation was carried out. The cultural code of mental «northernness» is distinguished by a special vision and understanding of the world, a reverent attitude to Nature, to the environment, which is due to the regional peculiarities of the traditional worldview of the indigenous peoples of the North. Man’s attitude to Nature and his place in it form the ways of representation and the complex of worldview, the northern mentality as a whole as a collective experience of human interaction with the environment. The mentally mastered space forms the corresponding ideas about a person, his place and role, behavior, values, transmitted from generation to generation. In this light, it is logical to study human adaptive resources not only from a physical, but also from a mental perspective, which formed a special model of adaptation. Further, the psychomental features of the ethnolocal communities of nomadic reindeer herders of Yakutia are highlighted, such as the basic principle of balance (Equilibrium), based on a careful attitude to nature, as well as adaptation (Adaptation), «flexible thinking» due to mobility (spatial and mental), exceptional geographical mobility and bright adaptive abilities, which left an imprint on the qualities of character Еven and Evenk.

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