Wild and domestic animals in the survival strategies and adaptation practices of the agricultural population of the south of Western Siberia in 1941-1945: oral history answers to anthropological challenges

The aim of the research is the traditional life sustaining culture of the agrarian population of Siberia in the conditions of cardinal reorganizations and massive cataclysms of the 20th century from the point of view of interaction between people and wild and domestic animals in the context of survival strategies during the war years after the liquidation of individual farms. The main sources of this research are the materials of field research in the Altai in 1990-2016 with the use of the ethnographic and oral history methods and archive documents (the State Archive of Altai Krai). The author suggests a hypothesis that during the war the state (after defarm-ing) made local authorities rely on their own sources and natural resources, which returned rural population to the traditions of peasant household. The situation when particular relations between agrarian population and domestic and wild animals are developed is being analyzed. Relations with wolves are considered as an independent research problem. The articles points out the expansion of the hunting area of predators. They approached villages that, with the reduction of livestock, became places of concentration of "protein food", while the demographic imbalance weakened the settled rural population. The places of struggle between men and predators are brought to light - the manufacturing sector of collective farms with barnyards, pastures and individual farmsteads; the objects of struggle were small size cattle, the implements of struggle were fire, light, loud sounds. It is stated that relations between the human community and wolf packs aggravated in winter when natural resources were limited. It coincided with the ritual activity of the agricultural folk calendar of holidays and made collisions of men and predators more frequent. The second topic was relations of the rural community with dogs, whose number increased in the 1940s. The article describes their use as shepherds of collective farm cattle and watchers at individual farmsteads. The role of dogs as the source of raw materials (skins, wool) with the lack of byproducts of cattle breeding is considered. The article points out the use of dog skin and wool for sewing clothes and headwear. The use of dogs as transport means with homemade carriages, which is not characteristic of settled agrarian population, is also mentioned. Special attention is paid to the role of great cattle (especially cows) in the system of life sustaining of the rear village. It is proved that they were not only the source of protein (milk, but not meat), but the main burden cattle in individual and collective farmsteads, the most important source of fuel ("cow patties" and dung cakes); their skins were used in footwear manufacturing, their wool in game-playing culture for making balls for children. A conclusion is made that the wolf turned into the main competitor of man for the natural rent, but man developed a sort of symbiosis with cows and dogs, their functions in individual and collective households extended; their significance in everyday adaptation practices of the struggle with hunger and cold grew greatly.

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