Social Health of the Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North | ||
| Health Education and Health Promotion | ||
| Article 17, Volume 9, Issue 4, 2021, Pages 445-453 PDF (441.82 K) | ||
| Document Type: Descriptive & Survey | ||
| Authors | ||
| M.L. Belonozhko* ; L.N Belonozhko | ||
| Department of Marketing and Public Administration, Industrial University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russian Federation | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Aims: National sociological studies of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North have become especially relevant at the current stage of society's development. The purpose of the study is to consider and analyze the issue of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. Information & Methods: The theoretical and methodological basis of the research was the works of Russian and foreign scientists devoted to the problems of socio-economic development of the territories of the North. As a methodological basis of the research, system analysis, synthesis, abstraction, analogy, generalization, and classification were used. Findings: The study systematizes approaches to identifying the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, gives its definition and identifies its analysis areas. It is argued that the material substrate of the influence mechanism of the social aspect of health on the representatives of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North is a social connection, and relationships that provide various support have a positive socio-regulating and mobilizing effect. Conclusion: Several indicators adapted to the needs and peculiarities of the territories of the indigenous small-numbered peoples' residence were proposed, which allow assessing their social health and quality of life. The proposed materials of the paper can serve as a basis for the development of an indicative model of social health, which can be used as a diagnostic tool in pedagogical and social work. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Social support; Indigenous Peoples; Social Determinants of Health | ||
| Full Text | ||
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Introduction
Social health is a state of the body that characterizes a person's ability to contact the society. All this is formed under the external environment, family, friends, school, university, type of work activity, and many other factors. Gaps in education and unfavorable environmental conditions can cause personal degradation; in such cases, personal attitude, attitude to other people, activities, and communication will change. Social health is a skill that comes with experience. A person tries to find contact with every person who meets him and develops skills required during the communication with him. It often happens that the person who communicates suffers because of family problems. As a result, a person closes and isolates himself from everyone. In such cases, many people prefer the Internet, which, in their opinion, can replace their real life. Thus, the social health of a particular person is not amenable to full-fledged development [1-5]. Social health is reflected in the moral and spiritual qualities of a person, the most important of which are such abilities as awareness of freedom of choice; experiencing feelings; confidence and certainty in actions; the difference between good and bad; personal identity; the need for faith; a sense of time [6-10]. Social adaptation is the ability of the body to adapt to various situations that happen around. Adapting to a new environment passes faster if a person is previously acquainted with the upcoming business, with new people, etc. For successful adaptation, one needs to learn how to manage his behavior in new living conditions. An essential manifestation of social adaptation is contact with other people. The development of the social health of the individual is combined with the process of socialization. Socialization is the process and result of personal development, the comprehension of values, norms, attitudes, examples of behavior peculiar to this environment [11]. The consequence of socialization is the development of self-awareness and an initiative life position of a person and the development of contacts with other people and common activities. Successful socialization implies effective adaptation of a person to the environment and, at the same time – the ability to resist it in those situations when it interferes with self-development and self-fulfillment. The violation of this balance leads to the appearance of victims of socialization – conformists who completely identify themselves with the environment, or, conversely, a solitary person who is not adapted to the environment [12-14]. High or low, as well as unstable self-esteem, deforms a person’s inner world and interferes with social health [15-19]. Social health itself consists of human morality and is a component of social adaptation. In other words, a person can adapt to the circumstances of a diverse environment. The ability to tolerate all kinds of stressful circumstances is also formed. To get rid of social health problems, every person, without exception, must start with himself. Only in this scenario, it is possible to form social health from the very beginning. Every person must choose what ideals to strive for and exclude such a concept as indifference. The purpose of the study is to consider and analyze the issue of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. According to the results of a comprehensive study of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, it is necessary to analyze and develop lines for improving assistance in all spheres of life to the indigenous peoples who live in the North of the Russian Federation. Information and Methods The methodological basis for this study was the work of Russian and foreign historians and sociologists [20-33] on the problem of studying social health and the situation of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. For the effective study of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, the following research methods of cognition were defined: theoretical methods of collecting information (analysis and synthesis of scientific and psychological-pedagogical, sociological material on the issues of the topic under study). Analysis in this study was used as a logical technique. The essence is to study an object mentally or practically; it was divided into constituent elements (signs, properties, structural parts). Each of them was then studied separately as part of a divided whole. Due to the specifics of this research, a system analysis was applied, which consists of an approach to the studied object as a structurally organized system in which all elements were organically and inextricably interconnected and thus affect each other. For example, "social health" as a single system in the system analysis was divided into historical, political, legal, moral aspects of being and social consciousness, and these aspects were studied separately. A special type of analysis used in the study of this issue was logical analysis, which is a methodological approach to the results of the cognitive activity of peoples' activity –cognition in its various forms and types. Logical analysis denotes the discovery of structural elements (form, type, level) of cognition, formed in a conditioned text and their correlation, clarification of the logical meaning of the truth or falseness of statements in the text, logical explication of the conceptual framework by which this knowledge is realized, identification of the reasonableness, proof of this knowledge. And the synthesis method was used as a mental unification of the parts of the object divided in the process of analysis, identification of the interaction of the parts, and the comprehension of the present object as a whole. In the establishment and development of cognition, synthesis is expressed as one of the main ways existing knowledge becomes unified.
The stages of the study included the analysis of scientific literature on the topic of this study (analysis of historical, psychological, sociological, methodological, and educational literature). Using the analysis of scientific sources, the study’s object, purpose, and subject were determined. The tasks were set, and the necessary research methods were selected: the selection of material on the issue of studying the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, analysis, generalization, quantitative and qualitative analysis, synthesis, abstraction, and analogy, generalization, and classification. The potential of solving the problems of this study was identified, the relevance and purpose of the study were reasoned, the state of the issue under study was determined, the prospect of further study of the social health of the small indigenous peoples of the North was outlined, the main results of the study were analyzed and summarised, the results of the study were systematized, the materials of the study were formed into a single whole.
The reasonableness and evidentiality of the research results on the topic "Social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North" were provided by the methodological and theoretical rationality of the initial positions; the integrity of general scientific and specific research methods, adequate relevance, and purpose, tasks, and logic of the research; the combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Findings The change in the system of social relations the transition of the state economy to the market made serious modifications in the socio-economic development of the areas of residence of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, radically transforming the socio-political and economic sphere in which the Northern peoples found balanced conditions for economic activity, the development of culture, education, health, and environmental protection. The presence of industrial organizations created conditions in which the issues of supplying the vital functions of food delivery the development of social infrastructure were solved within the framework of programs for industrial comprehension of the northern territories, taking into account the interests of indigenous peoples. The current period of development of the North w:as char:acterized by the fact that the territories have lost their economic basis, many industrial enterprises have gone bankrupt, there has been a considerable outflow of population, the past system of state support for conventional industries, transport, communications, utilities, and other life-supporting areas has been dismissed. Currently, the leading positions of the development and functioning of organizations were the extraction of profit, the backbone of the well-being of any organization has become the competitiveness of their products, the proximity of a spacious sales market. The conventional branches of the economy of the North found themselves outside the circle of economic relations, without the future strengthening of their production base. The sales market for such products has become limited to the boundaries of the individual administrative district and has lost a solvent consumer. Settlements inhabited by indigenous small-numbered peoples have lost reliable transport links with regional centers, conventionally supplied with aviation and passable types of ground transport. There were considerable problems in the supply of radio and television broadcasting emergency communications. Regional programs of state support for conventional types of business and social spheres have been developed in some regions of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, at the level of the Federation, there was no fully developed state economic policy about the northern territories and a system of state aid mechanisms. In this regard, the development of a Federal target Programme for the integrated development of areas inhabited by indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North was considered a true and effective mechanism for solving accumulated problems. The indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North were the official name; they were more briefly called the peoples of the North. The establishment of this group was attributed to the very beginning of the USSR, to the 1920s, when a special resolution was adopted, "On assistance to the peoples of the northern lands". About 50 different groups living geographically in the North were counted at that time. They were engaged in reindeer husbandry; their way of life differed from other regions. Gradually, the list of the peoples of the northern suburbs became more distinct, and more correct names of some ethnic groups appeared. In the post-war period, there were 26 indigenous peoples of the North – at one time, they were called "small peoples of the North". They were from different language groups and spoke different languages, including those whose close relatives still could not be found. This was the Ket language, whose relationships with other languages were quite complex, the Nivkh language, and several other languages. In the current social life of Russia, the ethnic factor was gaining more meaning. The systemic crisis that has covered almost all spheres of society, economic and political instability, social insecurity of citizens all has made the ethnic problems of many small peoples of modern Russia more acute. The indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North were in a difficult situation; because of territorial factors, they found themselves in the epicenter of economic market processes that had a devastating impact on the lifestyle and activities of these peoples. The indigenous peoples of the North lived in the vast expanses of the North of the Russian Federation before the appearance of other ethnic groups. They have inhabited these territories for centuries. They formed their economic activity, culture, and lifestyle in extremely natural and climatic conditions and developed effective environmental protection measures. Currently, the intensive industrial development of the North has come into sharp contradiction with the interests of indigenous small-numbered peoples. This situation requires the intervention of state authorities and a purposeful social policy. The spontaneity of the development of the current socio-economic processes can lead these people to irreparable losses. The fact was that the most considerable reserves of raw materials and deposits of non-renewable resources were mainly of organic origin and were confined to the richest biocenoses in terms of productivity. Therefore, the industrial centers mostly converge with the areas of ethnic residence of the indigenous peoples of the North. Understanding and recognizing the problems of social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North has philosophical and existential value. Today, this phenomenon was the most important and relevant scientific problem of complex cognition of the individual in the extreme conditions of the North. At this stage, the situation was as follows: catastrophic deterioration of the ecology of the North, climate change, melting of the Arctic Ocean ice; violation of the ecological balance; the uneven ecological and anthropogenic load on the territory of the North; decrease in the population of northern animals; reduction of biodiversity – climate change puts the peoples of the North facing the problem of survival in extreme natural conditions. As a result of all these negative phenomena and processes, the North’s systemic stagnation in the economic and social spheres. Studies of the ethnic culture of the peoples of the North were very promising, especially in psycholinguistics in the context of cultural interaction. It follows from this that the interdisciplinary aspect of the study of language, consciousness, worldview, traditions, and culture of the peoples of the North was becoming the most relevant. In this regard, using a comparative approach was of obvious interest. The development of the modern practice of interdisciplinary humanitarian research makes it possible to link theoretical analysis with psycholinguistic research. The problem of human social health was one of the dominant ones in sociology. Thus, attention to this problem has been maintained throughout the history of the sociological sciences. Conventionally, social health has been considered as the antithesis of psychological distress. At the same time, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, under the influence of an initiative-forming existential-phenomenological approach to personality, an opinion was formed about the insufficiency of the medical model of social health. During this period, the need to go beyond the concept of "health-illness" and the appeal of scientists to the positive aspects of the individual's functioning determined the relevance of the study of this phenomenon in its relationship with various aspects of human life existence. Currently, the connection of social health with various human characteristics and its social characteristics was being developed proactively; a stable set of tools for measuring social health was being developed, the statement itself was being refined; the impact of all kinds of unbiased and individual factors on human social health was also being studied. For personal sociology and psychology in general, it was particularly important that the experience of well-being was an essential component of the prevailing mood of the individual. Through the mood, individual well-being as an integrative one expresses a continuous impact on all possible parameters of a person's social health and, as a result, on the success of behavior, the efficiency of activity, the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction, and other aspects of a person's external and spiritual activity. This continuous influence contains the regulatory role of the individual well-being of a person. The experience of well-being was influenced by all sorts of a person's life aspects; it combines many features of the individual's attitude to himself and the environment. Human well-being was formed with several components:
Physical well-being – excellent physical state, physical comfort, a sense of health. More specifically, it was possible to establish the physical well-being of a person as a natural state of the body, which characterizes his complete balance with the biosphere and the absence of any pronounced unhealthy transformations. Psychological well-being – the consistency of mental processes and functions, a sense of unity, spiritual balance. Psychological well-being was more stable with the harmony of the individual. Psychological health depends on the ability to think, attitude to the environment, and orientation in this world. It also depends on the ability to establish one's position in the environment, one's relation to people, things, knowledge, and was achieved by the ability to live in harmony with oneself, with family, friends, and strangers, the ability to predict various situations and develop models of one's behavior taking into account needs, potential, and desire. Psychological well-being was a set of personal resources that ensured subjective and objective success in the "subject-environment" system.
Discussion In foreign sociology, the multidimensional model of social health is most famous among scientists, the basis for which is the most important theoretical concept focused on the study of the positive functioning of the individual. This model includes several main components of social health: positive relationships with society, autonomy, environmental governance, having goals in life, and personal growth [11]. In Russian sociology, an integrative approach to social health is shown, in particular, in a multi-level model of psychological well-being. In this model, psychosomatic, mental, and psychological health are considered as levels of social health. For each level, subjective and objective measurement parameters are proposed, which are evaluated by external specialists. Many researchers [20, 34, 35] pay considerable attention to the interrelationships of individual components of social health and their dependence on various individual and unbiased factors. Thus, at present, the connection of value orientations, consciousness of life, independence of psychological space, tolerance, strategies of being, and strategies of human behavior with the psychological well-being of the individual is actively being investigated. The following components of psychological well-being and their components are distinguished [35]:
The main criteria for the social health of an individual are unbiased success and personal experience of well-being, which is manifested in the sense of happiness and satisfaction with life in general. The level of social health is determined by various personal and unbiased factors, including environmental characteristics the degree of influence determined by their importance. All these components of social health are closely interrelated and affect each other. The attribution of many phenomena to one or another component of well-being is largely conditional. For example, a sense of community, understanding, and experiencing the meaning of life can be attributed to factors that create mental comfort and not just social or mental well-being [32]. Especially in demand at the current stage of social development is the study of human social health in extreme living conditions, which is determined by a considerable increase in the number of anthropogenic and natural extreme influences on humans, as well as the impossibility of leveling the negative impact of the climate, in contrast to the effects of the social, educational, informational environment. In the Russian Federation, two-thirds of the area is classified as territories with extreme climatic conditions; these studies are most relevant. For indigenous small-numbered peoples who live in such climatic conditions, where the environment is unfavorable extreme, life takes place at the absolute limit of what is permissible. There is a statement that an unusual "mentality" of indigenous small-numbered peoples is not only identified but also developed in situations of uncomfortable coexistence of ethnic groups from a socio-cultural point of view since, in the conditions of interethnic harmony, any of its manifestations are not observed in any of the contiguous ethnic groups [31]. In a number of studies devoted to representatives of the Khanty, Nenets, and Selkup ethnic groups, it was determined that the conditions of the North have a negative impact on a person. This is manifested in the fact that people are moving to the regions of the North happen to have the smoothing of strong personality traits and qualities that are rooted in the inhibited and weak properties of the nervous system. It was identified that prolonged residence in the northern regions reduces the mobility of nerve cells in people, characterized by either their inert state or exhaustion. This is expressed in rapidly approaching fatigue and the transformation of the index of mental tempo with mental stress. The mental tempo is sedentary and rigid among the indigenous population, thereby providing a real probability of preserving and recreating the best level of performance in an unstable northern environment. The human body, in extreme conditions, begins to search for the optimal mode for survival. The "polar tension" is developed, as well as the "northern" unsociability of the individual, in which the conversational gradient and the need for society decreases. All this, from the sociological point of view, leads to the focus of excessive emotional stress on the body and leads to diseases of various kinds, as well as cognitive and behavioral disorders. A polar stress syndrome is a characteristic form of chronic psychoemotional stress, accompanied by an unstable sleep regime, shortness of breath, high fatigue. This term does not mean a trivial set of external signs but a certain spiritual adaptation of developing an unusual state of the individual's body. The polar stress syndrome reflects the development mechanism of resistant reactions to addiction to various factors that will later lead to the development of all kinds of diseases. It considers the relationship of all the processes of addiction disorders of the human body in space with the peculiarities of the climatic environment, working conditions, education, human relationships, nutrition, and other factors. This syndrome’s components manifest in specific anomalies and deviations of human body systems. The deviations are expressed in diseases of some organs and affect the entire human body inseparably. Some components of the polar stress syndrome contribute to and manifest themselves in developing diseases of the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and other systems. It is difficult to detect a part of the human body that has not been influenced by all the complexes of environmental factors in the North of Russia. It is also worth noting that the decrease in the effectiveness of recovery processes in the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North is associated with the presence of northern stress with the constant influence of negative climatic and geographical circumstances on the human body. Important for the establishment and development of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North is the considerableness of opinions about the historical past of their peoples, the constancy of understanding their identity with an ethnic community, the dominance of the value of family identity, a positive attitude to personal ethnicity, as well as the importance of traditional values in the regulation of personal behavior, commitment to the preservation of the language, culture, traditions, customs of their people [36-40]. The basis of ethnic identity is characterized by several features expressed in violation of the conventionally distinguished stage of the process of ethnic self-determination. The early stages are characterized by low saturation, insufficient completeness, incomplete results. The intensification of ethnic identification occurs only in adulthood due to the need for a value-based relationship to one's existence and awareness of one's unique place in society. Consequently, the process of ethnic identification of indigenous small-numbered peoples, in comparison with representatives of the country's central regions, is "shifted" in the period of adulthood. A special place in developing the world picture of indigenous peoples' personalities is given to the comprehension of irrational ways of perceiving the world, non-reflexive forms of cognition. This refers to the mythological consciousness. Studies have shown that the mythological presence in the structure of the mind of the indigenous peoples of the North is found in the ways of interaction with the natural and social environment. According to A. Korolyuk [41], who conducted a study in the territories of the Far North, two opposing trends were recorded in the development of the mythological consciousness of representatives of the northern peoples. The first trend, stabilization, aims to adapt the ethnic group to natural and social conditions. The second is called the process of demythologization, which means the gradual loss of the mythological due to the development of a scientific and philosophical judgment about the world. In the course of the study, a conclusion is brewing that there is a loss of national psychological qualities, on the other hand – the adoption and creation of new psychological qualities [27, 42-44]. In recent years, the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North has been complicated by the inadaptability of their characteristic way of life to the current economic agreements [45-48]. The weak competitiveness of conventional industrial activities is determined by inconsiderable production volumes, high transport costs, the lack of new enterprises and technologies for the complex processing of raw materials and biological resources. The crisis state of conventional types of industrial activity has led to increased social problems. The living standard of a considerable part of citizens from among the small-numbered peoples of the North who live in rural areas or lead a nomadic lifestyle is lower than the average Russian. The unemployment rate in the regions of the North where small-numbered peoples live is 1.5–2 times higher than the average in the Russian Federation. The intensified industrial study of the natural resources of the North of the Russian Federation also considerably reduced the opportunity to conduct conventional economic activities of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. Considerable areas of reindeer pastures and hunting areas are excluded from the conventional economic turnover. Some of the rivers and reservoirs used earlier for conventional fisheries have lost their fishing significance due to environmental problems [15]. It is worth noting that there are also several studies on the problems of social health of the peoples of the North, where the understanding of their social problems and social health is implemented positively. The conducted research confirms that "the peoples of the North of Russia for many years of living in high latitudes have formed a well-coordinated type of adaptation to the extreme natural environment, formed an unusual culture that was able, despite a rather long time and intense external influence, to preserve spiritual stability. Having studied the northern territories in ancient times, the ancestral peoples developed characteristic types of economy and culture, devices for preserving health and existence in the natural and climatic conditions of the North". It should be mentioned that in the current circumstances, the preservation and development of the culture of the peoples of the North as a whole and the creation of modern practice of interdisciplinary humanitarian studies of the territories of the North of the Russian Federation, in particular the social health of the indigenous peoples of the North, are a promising and relevant area in various fields of science [1, 49-51]. During the study, it was established that most of the theoretical research on the social health of the indigenous peoples of the North is devoted to the study of specific aspects, which made it very difficult to create a complete judgment about the current situation of the phenomenon provided. Based on the study’s comparative approach, it is possible to identify the probability of an objective resolution of different methodological points of view in the study of the social health of peoples in extremely natural and climatic conditions of the North. Having analyzed the results of studies of consciousness, ideology, education, customs, the culture of the indigenous peoples of the North, the conclusion can be drawn that it is appropriate to use them in the design of programs for the development of social health and social adaptation of the peoples of the North of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the main points in conducting research should be the preservation and development of the original civilization of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North; the protection of the ancestral environment and the traditional way of life of indigenous small-numbered peoples; the preservation of biological diversity in the territories of conventional nature use and other considerations, burning problems. It should be remembered that the development of the North as a whole is important for the country. Among the problems are all branches of human life, and an informed and careful attitude to this issue is extremely important. Conclusion The essence of social health lies in the opportunities that provide a person with his social relations and connections for social self-fulfillment, social creativity, maintaining and strengthening personal health – the implementation of social functions. Adequate involvement in social relations has a positive effect on human health through the devices of social regulation, mobilization, assistance, and help. Considering the study results, it can be concluded that ethnic consciousness and its derivatives, such as ethnic self-consciousness and ethnic identity, largely determine the personal experience of a person's psychological well-being. Sociologists have proved that the perception of positive ethnic identification awakens the activation of mechanisms of socio-psychological protection of a person, which can generate innumerable personal destructions. In this regard, research devoted to studying the specifics of the sphere of consciousness and self-consciousness among the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North is particularly acute. Thus, the existing sociological and psychological studies of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North indicate the accumulation of interesting empirical material that requires analysis, synthesis, and awareness. Currently, it can be firmly stated that there is a need for an objective theoretical description of the social health of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, which is dictated not only by cognitive interest but also by the requirements of broad social practice, both at the personal and public level. The study of the interrelationships between the unique culture of the peoples of the North and sociology is designed to accumulate the historical past and everyday lifestyle, ethnic specifics, and its current refraction in its carriers. Understanding and a comprehensive description of the cultural-specific mechanisms of ethnopsychological manifestations of the personality of an indigenous resident will allow, taking into account the range of instability, contextuality of the cultural norm, showing purposeful psychological and sociological assistance, which will make it possible to establish truly harmonious relations with oneself and the surrounding world. Acknowledgments: None declared by the authors. Ethical Permissions: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were by the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. A study was approved by the National Ethics Commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, October 05, 2021, No 1005-1. Conflicts of Interests: There is nothing to declare. Authors’ Contribution: Belonozhko ML (First Author), Methodologist/Main Researcher (55%); Belonozhko LN (Second Author), Introduction Writer/Discussion Writer/Assistant Researcher (45%) Funding/Support: The study was carried out with the financial support of a grant from the President of the Russian Federation for state support of young Russian scientists – candidates of sciences in the framework of the study MK-2980.2021.2 "Monitoring the social health of the population of the Arctic region". | ||
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