Paper short abstract:

Climate and ecological change hit subarctic Yakutia in particular, and have altered the relationship between humans and lakes/meadows. Localizing climate change besides economic adaptation transformed the way Sakhas relate to landscapes traditionally perceived as live entities.

Paper long abstract:

Climate change and the humidification of permafrost soil in subarctic Yakutia have altered the complex and intimate relationship between humans and thermokarst depressions in the last decades. Sakhas who perceived lakes and meadows as live and sentient beings - and to some extent as members of the local community, with whom humans regularly communicate and exchange gifts, are now increasingly losing contact with them.

Theorising the Sakha perspective on current and drastic ecological changes seems difficult in the frames of the Anthropocene idea recognising (in a Cartesian manner) human activity as a dominant influence on the environment, as Sakhas are now facing exactly the opposite problem. They can no longer influence (or predict, alter the behaviour of) neighbouring landscapes. Villagers feel that lakes/meadows now refuse to communicate with them. Anthropologists have argued that to survive the Anthropocene "we" have to engage with alternative ontologies and ways of thinking. Currently, fishermen and trappers in Yakutia are facing with the same problem but from the opposite angle. In order to cope with environmental and agricultural challenges, they have to acquire unfamiliar (and often Cartesian) moralities and ecologies while engaging with lakes/meadows.

Fieldwork carried out on changing fishing and trapping practices between 2002 and 2015 in Central-Yakutia suggest that as a response to environmental change Sakhas are increasingly relating to lakes/meadows according to polyphonic and often incongruent ontologies and moralities in a reflective manner. I argue that localizing climatic change besides economic adaptation involve fundamental transformations in local ontologies also.