Spatial Organization and Local Mythological Worldview Among the Indigenous Peoples of Western Siberia: An Experience of Visual Schemes Construction

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2025-1/255-270

Abstract

The organization of the living space varies between ethnic communities which is partly due to the different mythological systems operating in these communities. The article proposes to consider the structure of traditional settlements and adjacent developed territories of some ethnic groups of Western Siberia in combination with their mythological picture of the world. As an example, the author took a visualized scheme prepared by the famous theorist of cultural geography V.N. Kalutskov using the example of a Pomor village in the North of Russia. To construct the schemes, information with a specific ethnolocal and cultural reference was selected for the following ethnic communities: Yaskolba (Swamp) Tatars, Agan Khanty and Nenets of the Yamal and Gydan tundra. Testing of the approach showed its good adaptability to work with widely varying ethnographic materials. The resulting schemes proved to be both clear and informative, thus promising to be conveniently used both for analytical work and as illustrative material in scientific and educational activities.