"Bondaries of History" 05/10: Andrey Golovnev - "The Anthropology of Movement and the Phenomenon of Colonization"

Professor Golovnev started his lecture by pointing out the existing difficulties in elaborating comprehensive approach towards the phenomenon of motion by science as the pretext for development of the anthropology of motion. By taking the example of arctic nomads, he tried to show that for them movement is a normal state in contradiction to the statics. This could be traced even in the structure of their language, as motion can be regarded as a center for their ontology. However, as Professor Golovnev stated, motion is not something that features only nomads or ancient people of paleolith era (“Judging from the foot bones of the Homo habilis, found in the Olduvai Gorge, two million years ago, this distant human ancestor ran more often than walked”), but, due to the multifacetedness of the motion, even physically passive («sedentary») humans can be regarded as mobile in terms of virtual activities (“Motion is acquiring increasingly less physical and increasingly more cognitive and technological forms”). He gave an example of the concept of “Homo mobilis” which describes interactions of modern man with mobile communication technologies.

Then Professor Golovnev moved to the concept of colonization, closely connected with the phenomenon of motion. He stated the natural character of colonization and its strong influence on the formation of the modern human. “Not people created colonization, but rather colonization did create them” – lecturer said. Then he featured the bidirectional character of colonization, which could be titled «reverse colonization» («колонизация вспять»). Though often one culture can be regarded as dominant, some reverted motion always occurs, creating schemes of social interactions which sometimes can be even described in terms such as “symbiotic”. Most evident such hybridity becomes not on the borderlands but on the “crossroads” of communication and especially in the capitals. Professor Golovnev gave examples of the Veliky Novgorod, Moscow and New-York. Touching upon the Benedict Anderson‘s concept of printed capitalism and other constructivist’s works upon the constructed nature of nation of ethnicity, he admitted the mobility of ethnicity, but also stressed his aptitude to ethnicity as something natural and grounded in the need for security and self-actualization. 

Professor Golovnev briefly described his project funded by the Russian Science Foundation. The idea of the project was to synchronize movements of the Arctic Nomadic people of Chukotka, Yamal and Kola peninsulas by means of GPS-tracking. By tracking and mapping seasonal movements and registering them with photo and video equipment (tracking – mapping - acting) they tried to understand better the phenomenon of movement. Acquired data gave researchers an opportunity to look at the state of motion as determining the colonization and control over the space, despite the state of statics. Andrey Vladimirovich made a conclusion by characterizing nomadic way of tundra colonization as more sustainable in comparison to “settled” ways of interactions with this space.

Movement is life is the main thesis of the report. Mr. Golovnev considers that the movement of the Palaeolithic age period movement dealt with the reclaiming of new regions, which might be described as the territory control strategy. The reporter drew line between such terms as ‘colonization’, that is considered as the life distribution mechanism, and ‘colonialism’, which has an ideological coloration. 
The report describes the conceptual issues of the anthropology of movement theories including the study of society and human life and activities in terms and categories of movement as well as in terms of dynamics and statics, and they are:  the nomad is the ancient homo mobilis and territory control culture’s successor; integrity of mainstream and local cultures; 'motive-decision-action' algorithm; ‘close up’ in the revealing of motivation-action pattern; social movements road maps ( migrations, colonization, ethnisity tracks, socio-motility) and individual mobility patterns (individual motivation-action patterns, biological and psycho-motility scenarios). 
Discussing the subject, we came to a conclusion than males and females played different functional roles in nomadic communities, which contributed to the movement and reclaiming new regions.  The processes of colonization might go in both directions leading to hybrid results at cultural clashes.  According to the reporter, any colonization is not a unidirectional action but ‘a road with opposing traffic’ and colonies colonize their metropoles in their own way (by means of captives, slaves, or incorporate elite), due to which back-colonization effect occurs.  Describing the process of colonization, the reporter also gave some examples found in biology as well as mentioned phyto-colonization and symbiosis. 
Summarizing the results, the reporter told all those present at the seminar about a contemporary interdisciplinary approach to the study of ‘movement’ applied at the intersection of anthropology, ethnology and ethnography.