In Salekhard scientists discussed preservation of sacred places of indigenous peoples of Yamal

The seminar dedicated to sacred places of indigenous peoples of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, history, search and preservation took place in Salekhard within the scientific conference on exploration of the Arctic – a new round in development of domestic science and innovations.

The director of the scientific center for study of the Arctic (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), candidate of historical sciences Svyatoslav Alekseev greeted the participants. As he notes, at its time the seminar was initiated as a conference on problems of preservation of objects of cultural legacy. Speech of an employee of the center Andrey Plekhanov was the reason for that. During one of scientific expeditions he faced a phenomenon of elimination of sacred places by Nenets people, who took a new belief. As Svyatoslav Alekseev reminds, after that the public society started asking scientists to elaborate the concept and the program on protection of sacred places.
In the opinion of the director of the scientific center, efforts of scientists are not necessary. It needs to conduct several organizational and technical activities, within which it is enough to discuss issues of protection of sacred places. In particular, on the level of districts it needs to conduct preventive work among tundra-dwellers in order to avoid acts of vandalism in the future.
As Svyatoslav Alekseev says, scientists should be busy with study, search and preservation of monuments of culture.
Employees of the center spoke within the seminar. Alexander Gusev told about commemorative complexes on burial places near the settlement Zelyoniy Yar, Andrey Plekhanov – about sacred places of Beliy Island, Daniil Tupakhin – about sacred places of Pyak-Yakha. An employee of the institute on problems of study of the North at the Siberian branch of the RAS Vladimir Adayev shared experience of work on search for sacred places of Nenets population in the south of Nadym district this summer.