Flood of 2013 and adaptation of Nanai people to transformations of the natural and social environment

From 03 to 19 July 2023, field research was conducted in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and in the villages of Belgo and Verkhnyaya Ekon of the Komsomolsky District in the Khabarovsk Region. Thirteen informants were interviewed from among the Amur Nanai people who suffered from the global flood of 2013, who do not break ties with their native culture and try to preserve it in samples and techniques of arts and crafts, as well as musical folklore. The main methods of ethnographic material collection included direct observation, interview, conversation. The information was recorded in a field diary, on a digital recorder, on a camera. Historical references, statistical data, festival scenarios were collected in state and cultural institutions. When analysing materials, the emphasis was placed on studying the process of change in the Amur Nanai people's livelihood system, their infrastructure and technologies after the large-scale flood of 2013, based on the concept of disaster anthropology. The process of the people's adaptation to natural and social transformations as consequences of the natural disaster that resulted not only in economic, social, and ethno-cultural damage, but also in positive changes in the system of livelihood and infrastructure, was also studied. The ability of the Nanai ethnic group to overcome negative natural factors, the actions of central and local authorities, ethnic leaders, public organizations, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North to eliminate the consequences of adverse natural impacts, the construction of new homes, the renovation of old ones, and the creation of museum exhibitions were studied. The ethnocultural potential of the indigenous peoples of the Amur was most effectively realized not only at the time of a natural disaster, but also during its liquidation and restoration of the usual way of life, crafts, cultural traditions, everyday life and materiality

Ethnic group · Exhibition · Field research · Flood myth · Indigenous · Livelihood · Natural disaster · Diverse Musicological Studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Vladimir Nabokov Literary Studies