Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 2020 13(5): 772–782 DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0606 УДК 394 Routes of Sustenance: Infrastructure and Food Security Strategies in Chukotka Vladimir N. Davydov* and Elena A. Davydova Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS St. Petersburg, Russian Federation Received 10.03.2020, received in revised form 30.04.2020, accepted 12.05.2020 Abstract. The problem of food supply is especially poignant in the remote and hard to reach Arctic settlements. Therefore, local people have to develop their own food distribution strategies. They actively employ the alternative ways of food acquisition and accumulation to maintain a sense of their food security via the use of local infrastructure, networks of relatives and friends and technologies for self-production, processing and storage of products. The article describes the recent trends in food circulation in the Iul’tinskii district of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The authors consider the existing model of food redistribution between the tundra camps, reindeer herding and coastal villages, as well as the district center. They analyze the impact that one of the largest Soviet projects in Chukotka – the Iul’tinskaia road had on food security practices of the local people. The emergence of new infrastructure has affected both their mobility and perception of food. The article demonstrates how a whole set of various state projects and commercial initiatives frame local nutritional needs, but at the same time can either hinder or contribute to their satisfaction. The relations between the infrastructural projects and the basic needs have both intersection points and “gaps” which require active regulation both by the members of the local community and the state. In this context, local people can be seen as the active agents who creatively use the existing in the region infrastructure in order to maintain their food security. Keywords: Arctic, Chukotka, infrastructure, food security, autonomy, resources, supply, anthropology of food, mobility, reindeer herding. The present research has been supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (No. 19-78-10002), project “Food in the Russian Arctic: resources, technologies and innovations”. Research area: ethnography, ethnology and anthropology. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0003-2738-4609 (Davydov); 0000-0002-9299-7551 (Davydova) – 772 – Vladimir N. Davydov and Elena A. Davydova. Routes of Sustenance: Infrastructure and Food Security Strategies… Citation: Davydov, V.N., Davydova, E.A. (2020). Routes of sustenance: infrastructure and food security strategies in Chukotka. J. Sib. Fed. Univ. Humanit. Soc. Sci., 13(5), 772-782. DOI: 10.17516/1997- 1370-0606. Introduction but also changes the perception of food by The socio-economic problems of the Rus- local inhabitants. sian northern regions are in the focus of the attention of both scientists and politicians. Re- Anthropology of food: cently the issues related to infrastructure, work- supply in the Far North places, and climate change have increasingly Anthropology of food has a long history; become the objects of study for sociologists, a huge amount of literature has been written historians, ethnographers, anthropologists and on food and nutrition in different parts of the other specialists. However, food supply – one world (Mintz, Bois, 2002: 99-119). However, of the basic domains of human life in the Arc- food practices rarely became the main focus of tic and the important criterion of local people’s research until the 1970s (De Garine, 2004: 16). wellbeing in the remote regions, still remains Modern investigations cover a wide range of the unresearched area. issues connected with the relationship between During a six-month field research, which people and food in global context: identity, took place in the Iul’tinskii district of the Chu- memory, power, colonialism, ritual, exchange, kotka Autonomous Okrug from 2017 to 2019, feelings, etc. (Holtzman, 2006: 361-378, Sutton, we found out that the most pressing problem 2010: 209-223, Yamin-Pasternak et al., 2014: for local people was food supply of the native 619-646, 2017: 117-136). It should be noted that settlements and reindeer herders’ camps in the scientists have been interested in this field since tundra. The existing range of products defi- the formation of the anthropology/ethnography nitely does not satisfy all the nutritional needs as a discipline. The classical works, based on of local people. Therefore, they use the alter- the field data gathered in Chukotka, had the native and often invisible, from the point of character of detailed ethnographic descriptions view of an external observer, ways of acquir- and researched food patterns of particular lo- ing and accumulating food resources. This ar- cal groups (Bogoraz, 1991: 126-142, Vdovin, ticle aims to analyze the contemporary trends 1965). in circulation of products in the Iul’tinskii dis- It should be emphasized that in the 19th trict in Chukotka. and the first half of the 20th century anthro- We will be focused on one of the largest pologists studied local food systems and in- Soviet projects in the region – the Iul’tinskaia vestigated how autonomous economic systems road. This is a 207 km long highway con- functioned. Gradually the interest of anthropol- necting the seaport of Egvekinot on the coast ogists shifted to the research of food practices of the Bering Sea with the continental part in larger and more complex societies (Chatwin, of the Iul’tinskii district of the Chukotka Au- 1997, Goody, 1998, Lentz, 1999, Lockwood, tonomous Okrug. The prisoners of Chukot- Lockwood, 2000, Mayer, 1996, Matossian, stroilag had being built the road from 1946 to 1989). Since the second half of the 20th cen- 1951. It was the easternmost road of the So- tury the researchers incorporated the topic of viet Union and people used it year-round to food to build various theories (Levi-Strauss, reach local tin-tungsten deposits and main- 1969, Douglas 1966, 1972, Mintz, 1985, 1996). tain the work of the Iul’tin mining and pro- The turning point was the work of J. Goody cessing plant. Nowadays local people employ (1982), revealing the connection between food this road to conduct everyday tasks and sus- systems and socio-economic structures. Since tain a regular food supply. The road serves that time the anthropological study of food has both as a “transport artery” and a resource been developed sufficiently to become a tool for acquiring material objects and building for studying various theoretical and method- materials. It does not only facilitate mobility ological issues. However, despite the important – 773 – Vladimir N. Davydov and Elena A. Davydova. Routes of Sustenance: Infrastructure and Food Security Strategies… contribution to anthropological theories, the storage and accumulation do they employ? To researchers did not pay significant attention to find the answers we will analyze various as- food supply in the northern regions. pects of food supply practices in the native vil- The problem of sustainable food supply lage of Amguema. First, we will identify local is especially poignant in many Arctic settle- food distribution networks that exist both with- ments. Products are frequently overdue, have in a particular community and beyond. In this low quality and cost too much. Associated with context it is important to pay attention to the the Arctic regions, “remoteness” is a relative materiality of food and track “cultural biogra- and external category and it often serves as an phy” (Kopytoff, 1986) of products within their object of manipulations. The Iul’tinskaia road movements and to the knowledge of the local in Chukotka provides the access to Amguema community about its specific characteristics. native village and functions as a main direction Second, we will describe the impact of larger of food transportation. It makes the village ac- structures on food practices in the local com- cessible, but at the same time it does not mean munities: state, private trading companies, the that Amguema benefits from distance reduc- global market economy. In particular, we will tion to district center in the context of food identify the role of the infrastructure in trans- supply. This closeness creates the possibility to portation and distribution of products. Third, deliver overdue products to the rural stores. we will observe how it affects the technologies The processes and institutions of the glob- of food preservation and cooking. Finally, we al economic system, including the offshore will pay attention to the process of how the in- economy have a serious impact on the life of frastructure changes food aesthetics and local local communities (Urry, 2014). Mechanisms people’s sensory perception of products (Yam- of informal economy regulate food supply in in-Pasternak et al., 2014). Chukotka. Thus, the idiom of “remoteness” creates a scarcity in supply that gives the possi- Food routes: two-way traffic bility to sell the low quality and overdue prod- Local people are the active agents of food ucts. At the same time the products produced transportation. Their movements often imply locally are often absent in the local shops. For the mobility of food between different loca- instance, local fish and venison can be rarely tions. This mobility, as a rule, has a systematic bought in the stores