Axiological Foundations of Eco-Spiritual Values of Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic

Vinokurova Ulyana Alekseevna ORCID: 0000-0001-9404-3260 Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Head of the Research Center for Circumpolar Civilisation, Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Ordzhonikidze str., 4 uottaah1707@gmail.com

Zakharova Akulina E. ORCID: 0000-0003-4973-8375 PhD in Sociology Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Senior Researcher, Institute of Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 678670, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1 linamestnikova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction. The explosive interest in the Arctic occurs at a time when the world is becoming one and the world history of the Anthropocene is being created. The era of the Arctic is coming as the frontier of the ecumene of humanity, which has entered the era of the Anthropocene ^[5]. The somewhat belated involvement of the Arctic land under the influence of the Anthropocene under the influence of global climate change creates favorable opportunities for the creation of common knowledge of academic science with living ecospiritual values of indigenous peoples. The length of the Arctic coast, experiencing global climate change and equal to one third of the world's coasts, is a place of reproduction of the lifestyle of indigenous peoples, their eco-spiritual values, unique species of flora and fauna.

Ecospirituality is a worldview that recognizes the spiritual relationship between man and nature. Eco-spirituality is an intuitive and embodied understanding of universal life and includes the attitude of a person to the planet, the internal landscape to the external and the soul to the earth ^[2]. Consequently, the axiological approach to the study of the relationship between human life and nature focuses on identifying and identifying those aspects that contribute to the sustainability of the ecosystem in all its diversity of natural and humanitarian spheres. If geoculture is understood in the axiological dimension "as a system of regulatory foundations of human activity and its symbolic content" ^{[14, p.51]}, then in the concept of "ecospiritual" the focus is on the value attitude of a peace-loving person to the living nature of the Earth on the basis of a worldwide partnership. This partnership presupposes the fundamental basis for the world order of all mankind and represents, on the one hand, the totality of the positive spiritual heritage of peoples in relation to Mother Earth, and, on the other hand, this planetary approach implies a living logic of the relations of the organic whole from the standpoint of the Earth itself. Common concern and universal universal responsibility for the life of the Earth is based on the conscious moral responsibility of every person who professes eco-spiritual values, recognizes the right of the Earth to further existence and self-development. The new world agenda for humanity was formulated by the Russian thinker V. Solovyov in the form of a God–Man ^[13] and the Israeli historian Y.N. Harari in the image of Homo Dues ^[16]. They are united by the spiritual and moral desire to justify the Good and the common Good as the only prospect for a better future for humanity.

This practice of co–creation of life has been preserved in the harsh natural landscapes on the edge of the Ecumene - in the Arctic. The Arctic, as a dynamic geophysical environment, enters this integral world, rushing from the biotechnosphere to the necrosphere, preserving living fragments of indigenous cultures that preserve the secret of the worldview of the past mythological stages of humanity during periods of global natural disasters. Previously, indigenous peoples had translocal contacts and a circumpolar level of interaction organization. They have an understanding of common eco-spiritual values, interests, incentives for expanding and intensifying cooperative interactions for the common good, but they are separated by the borders of the Arctic states. Previously, the Arctic region was a territory of trust and common values with a kind of spiritual optics – the ecosophical worldview of indigenous peoples. The Arctic has been inhabited since ancient times by indigenous peoples who survived the natural disasters of the ice ages, accumulated intellectual and eco-spiritual capital in the format of civil science. Existential dialogue between Arctic actors can unfold both as direct contact and as a timeless encounter with cultures that have already completed their historical existence. But their meanings can participate in the thought processes of new cultures, offering them counterarguments against the impending necrosphere and heuristic impulses of development.

The ecospiritual consciousness of the Arctic peoples, conditioned by the geographical and climatic conditions of the Arctic, operates with mobile activity in space, and not with discrete time. The geocultural images of the peoples of the Arctic are formed from a variety of resources ^[8] and become the basis for opposing the general civilization ecocide. A mobile person who is in constant motion through space, correlating with the rhythms and seasons of nature and the animal world, has developed eco-spiritual co-spatial values of sustainable coexistence with a living feeding landscape.

Despite the fact that the Arctic has been inhabited for thousands of years by hundreds of indigenous ethnic groups, their spiritual world was not visible in the so-called "land of death". This is how the discoverer of the polar theme in Russian fine art, the artist A.A. Borisov, expressed himself: "We stole the secrets of the polar world, reproduced its mysterious beauties, and this sweet consciousness rewarded us a hundredfold for everything that was endured during all those long days when there seemed to be no hope of escaping from the icy clutches in a dead country" ^{[5, pp.50-51]}. And this saying is established in the form of a conceptual image of the Museum of the Artistic development of the Arctic named after A.A. Borisov in Arkhangelsk. The quote indicates that there is no question of establishing ecospiritual relations of polar explorers with the Arctic and its spiritual development.

With the melting of old ice, icebergs and the opening of the possibility of year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route, the metaphor of the "Arctic Mediterranean" becomes a reality. The turn to the Arctic as a new reality of the environment of interaction and frontiers of civilizations of the global community is visible on numerous platforms of the international agenda. A scientific approach is being developed for joint research of socio-humanitarian problems of the Arctic by academic scientists with representatives of indigenous peoples. Indigenous scientists aimed at creating conditions for the common good in the development of Arctic territories, the greening of human rights, and the development of the rights of Mother Earth become a kind of living bridge of this approach.

Materials and methods of research. The purpose of our research is to identify and identify the ecospiritual values of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, which are important for intercultural and intercountry communications in the northern circumpolar zone of the planet. The methodological basis of this work is Indigenous Methodology ^{[1; 3]}. The methodology of indigenous scientists - Indigenous Metodology - "aims to enrich science with thinking, experience, interpretation of a deep vision of the perspectives and interests of indigenous peoples by their own scientists (indigenous scholars) in order to ensure a better understanding and acceptance of indigenous peoples as subjects of history" ^[6]. Indigenous Methodology expresses in general the general direction of development of this type of scientific rationality, which recognizes the subjectivity of the scientist, his social experience, value consciousness, personal responsibility for the fate of the studied native people.

This methodology leads to the indigenization of scientific knowledge, the understanding of educational processes through the values of indigenous peoples that make up the organic integrity of man and nature. The theoretical basis for the study of ecospiritual values was the works of the Russian thinker P.A. Kropotkin, who, based on his own studies of the lifestyle of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the world, developed a theory of universal mutual assistance in nature, argued that "mutual assistance is a natural law inherent in all living things on earth. Mutual assistance of people is a quality that ensures the evolution of human society" ^[11]. He argued that human society is based not on love and respect, but on the principles of solidarity and interdependence.

One of the nine commandments approved in the "Declaration of Spiritual Values of the Peoples of Yakutia" reads as follows: "Nature is a living creation of the universe. Our worldview is based on the wisdom of living Nature. Man lives by the blessing of earth and heaven. The Earth raises everyone and everything, man is a child of Nature. It is our duty to protect her as the apple of our eye."^[9] People living on permafrost are inherently connected with nature, are co-dependent on nature and honor her life.

In the study and in presenting the results of the study, the authors relied on general scientific methods: the method of system analysis and synthesis. An empirical sociological study was conducted in 2020-2022 in the Anabar National (Dolgan-Evenki) ulus (district) In the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and in the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets municipal district using quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaire, informal interview, psycholinguistic experiment).

Results and discussion. The Arctic has a global climatic impact on the entire planet and poses a challenge to the sustainability of the life of all mankind. The threat of melting of old ice, icebergs, permafrost soils is becoming an urgent agenda of the international community. It is reflected in the initiatives and climate doctrines of maritime States.

More than 10% of the population of the Arctic are indigenous peoples who have created the values of circumpolar civilization, original culture, ecophilic economic activities and co-evolution with nature, ecospiritual knowledge about the features of the ancestral habitats. The moral credo of the eco-spirituality of indigenous peoples is the value of austerity in relation to natural resources. This ratio is expressed in the formula: minimum – consumption, maximum – adaptation. The indigenous person establishes an inexhaustible consumption in the primordial habitat, trying to promote the reproduction of its food resources, the preservation of sustainability and the spiritual beauty of the feeding landscape. These ecospiritual values are formed on the basis of an ethno-cultural model of attitude to Mother Earth, attunement with natural and climatic features and the co-spaciousness of ecospiritual connections in the habitat, geopsychic and spiritual connections with sacred places, where cosmic, terrestrial and natural phenomena are interconnected with human value consciousness.

As the results of sociological research conducted in 2020-2022 within the framework of RFBR grant No. 20-09-00257A "Khatango-Anabar region in the XX – early XXI centuries: anthropology of the cultural landscape"^[15] have shown, the ancient cults of Mother Earth, which formed the spiritual and material culture of the indigenous peoples of the North in harmonious interaction with nature, are preserved in the present tense as the main ritual practices. The rituals of meeting the sun, blessing (algys), purification (buruolaty), feeding the spirits of fire, river, tundra, sacred places are based on spiritual and moral ideals and values transmitted from generation to generation, norms and rules of behavior - respect for nature, for the native land, customs not to break the silence are prescribed in the answers of respondents after sunset, do not speak loudly in the forest, on the river, ask for blessings before hunting, fishing, a long road, etc. Indigenous peoples of the North in Yakutia (80.1%) and Taimyr (84%) observe traditional rituals and customs in their daily lives, carefully preserving the memory and cultural code of life in conditions of extreme cold and permafrost.

The fundamental goal of the indigenous peoples of the Great Arctic in the conditions of the coming transregionalization of the gap and breakthrough in the Arctic world is the desire for self-preservation and the turn of humanity to attunement to the co-evolution of man and nature. To achieve this goal, the first task is to involve indigenous peoples in the crucial issues of finding answers to the challenges and risks of life in the circumpolar Arctic.

The axiological foundations of ecospiritual values, in our opinion, are the following 5 fundamental ideological postulates of the peoples of the Arctic:

- unconditional recognition of the right to life of any living organism on the planet Earth;

- recognition of the main condition of co–spaciousness - mutual assistance of each to each;

- compliance with measures in all actions and relationships, especially in the consumption of natural resources;

- conservation of pairs of living organisms to preserve the possibility of their reproduction;

- veneration of the habitat.

In modern society, "consumerism" is a "dangerous spiritual disease associated, among other things, with the depletion of natural resources, the unlimited, destructive impact of humanity on the environment" ^{[4, p.2]}. This disease is accompanied by the delusions of an economic person who recognizes the economy as the fundamental "basis" of human development and an ecophobic attitude to nature which created the threat of general suicide ^{[17, p.13]}. The boundless growth of consumerism of material values is being increased by methods of global violence against natural resources that are not typical of the essence of man. According to A.A. Artemenko, "the planetary catastrophes that humanity has faced inevitably predetermine the filling of the concept of asceticism with a new biospheric—noospheric content" ^{[4, p.4]}. A. Pechchei revealed a combination of three qualities "in the core of the life world of an integral human personality: "a sense of globality", "love of justice" and "intolerance to violence" ^{[12, p. 214]}. These qualities are based on the foundation of self-restraint, which is most pronounced among indigenous ethnic groups that have not been transformed under the influence of the demands of inequality, injustice and violence of the mechanisms of statehood.

The peoples of the Arctic have created a circumpolar territory of trust for thousands of years on the basis of self-limitation of their needs and can build the foundations of a sustainable life in the future on this territory. Previously, indigenous peoples had translocal contacts and a circumpolar level of interaction organization. This strategy involves anchoring on primordial landscapes and reterritorialization on lost lands due to various circumstances, including natural ones. They have an understanding of common values, interests and incentives for expanding and intensifying cooperative interactions, but they are separated by the Arctic states. The restoration of this interaction is possible provided that ascetic eco-spiritual values are accepted by the alien population.  As noted by Russian researchers N.Y. Zamyatina and A.N. Pilyasov, the cultural diversity of local communities plays an important role in the institutional design of the new Arctic ^{[10, p. 304]}, which have developed alternative to consumerism eco-spiritual values of an ascetic attitude to natural resources.

Conclusions. The turn to the ecosophy of the Earth - understanding the state of the Earth itself from the standpoint of its interests presupposes the earth-centricity, and not the anthropocentricity of the worldview of a technocratic person. The earth-centricity is inherent in all the indigenous peoples of the planet living in non-Arctic countries. The legal personality of the Arctic as a part of the planet Earth presupposes the consolidation of the status of an international maritime area and land for the Greater Arctic, open to all States of the world community on the basis of the principle of justice and recognition of the eco-philosophical and eco-spiritual values of indigenous peoples. One of the manifestations of these conditions may be the conclusion of an international agreement on the Arctic, as well as the extension of the status of the Common Future of mankind to the entire region.

The application of the methodology of the Indigenous Methodology worldview and the scientific program of ogranicism allows changing the focus of understanding the socio-anthropological problems of the Arctic from the standpoint of the interests and ecospiritual values of its indigenous peoples. The growing interest in the circumpolar Arctic in the 21st century is fundamentally different from the history of colonization, the development of terra incognita of other territories of the planet. Ecologization, humanization, globalization of international human rights, indigenous peoples and interstate relations presupposes recognition of the legal personality of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and the priority of their eco-spiritual values.

The appeal to the spiritual worldview of the local community, the indigenous peoples of the Arctic with the proposal of joint design of Arctic research with academic scientists seems to be a completely new and expected scientific paradigm of Arctic science. This focus is not on describing past events, but on developing ways to influence the future and forecast the development of the global Arctic as a territory of common good. This is a search for answers to the questions: what current values are becoming a priority and what are the existential and current threats in the present and future development of the international Arctic? Eco-spiritual values of indigenous peoples reveal new opportunities in partnership for joint creativity of the fate of the Arctic. A turn towards understanding the natural right of the planet itself and its part of the Arctic to preserve the pristine natural environment can create a global interaction on the values of love for justice and nonviolence towards man and Mother Earth.

The article was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, in accordance with research project No. 20-09-00257A.