«True people» (Nenei nenecha) – self-name of Nenets, the indigenous people of the Yamal peninsula, and the name of the complex 2015–2016 ethnographic expedition. Project participants and the visitors of the resource will be the part of the reindeer herders's family during the whole year just to «dive» in the casual life of the modern XXI century nomads.
Territory: Russian Arctic, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Yamal region, Yamal tundra, approx. 1000 km distance nomadic route.
Dates: March 2015 – April 2016.
Nenei nenecha'' (Nenets “true people”)– self-name of Nenets, the largest of the Indigenous people of the Russian North, Siberia and the Far East. On the Yamal Peninsula Nenets have preserved the large herd reindeer herding – the key to the existence of traditional culture in the modern world. It is important to point that the project participants are agreed with the opinion that “traditional culture” is not static and conserved structure but on contrary – is a living and changing system including all the modern innovations.
In last decades Yamal have become the center of oil and gas producing and the Russian “gateway” to Arctic. Although the indigenous culture of the strategic Russian region remains unknown both in European Russia and in even in Salekhard, the capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The image of a reindeer herder often associates with negative stereotypes, it connects with “backwardness” – the approaches that don't correspond to reality.
Unlike the scholars of 19th – beginning of 20th c., modern ethnologists (anthropologists) of Russia comparatively rarely organize expeditions connected with the long-term accommodation within the indigenous communities. Complex research project “The True People”includes the annual staying of the anthropologists in the family of reindeer herders throughout all stages of the whole one year economic cycle of the a nomadic life in Arctic. An important part of the project is the participation in the expedition both sexes researchers, which will allow a more complete fixation of data in Nenets society where male and female “worlds” are strongly divided: each gender has its own role and sets of duties, taboos and cultural practices.