ON THE DEGREE OF SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE NATURAL CONDITIONS IN THE NEW PLACES OF ETHNIC GROUPS’ SETTLEMENT AND THE TERRITORIES OF ORIGIN (A CASE STUDY OF THE PERM PRIKAMYE REGION)

Abstract

The authors study ethnic experience in choosing new territories of settlement; the southern part of thePerm Prikamye region is taken as an example. An attempt is made to establish the similarity degree of the natural conditions of modern compact residence of ethnic groups (Mari, Udmurts, Tatars, Bashkirs) and the natural conditions of theirterritories of origin. The paper provides an assessment of the relief characteristics that made it possible to preserve thetraditional livelihood system and not to ‘dissolve’ among other ethnic groups and the indigenous population. Quantitativecharacteristics of the relief that are directly or indirectly responsible for the lifestyle and behavioral stereotype of thepeople were considered as evaluation indicators. Natural resources and landscape features that provide the possibility ofcarrying out economic activities and ensure a certain comfort and relative safety of residence were considered as factorsof the nature management systems preservation. First of all, this is the relief and water bodies, these being the majorfactors in ensuring farming conditions. The zonal type of landscape is directly or indirectly responsible for the conditionsof cattle breeding, gathering, beekeeping, hunting, and some other types of traditional nature use and management. It isconcluded that for ethnic groups for which farming played the leading role among traditional occupations, geomorphological features of new territories and their belonging to certain types of landscape in the presence of ‘feeding’ geosystems– subhorizontal elements of the relief (potential agricultural lands) – were not limiting factors. The existence of certaindifferences in the relief of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ landscapes indicates the flexibility of ethnic reflection with regard tochanging natural conditions and the sufficient resistance of ethnic groups to factors influencing the stereotype of theirbehavior and methods of economic management.