Moving to a new place of residence: the item semantization in modern culture (on materials of the Kola Polar region)

About the study

The interest to the moved family items has arisen not accidentally and it is connected with the historical and demographic features of the studied ethno-cultural area. Due to the peculiarities of the development of the Kola North, in the 20th century, its population was involved in intensive migration [1, Razumova I.A., pp. 290–298]. E.g., in 1926–1989, the population of the Murmansk region increased in 36.3 times, and since 1990, there has been a sharp outflow of population2. At the same time, due to the regional infrastructure, the residents are actively moving within the region. Consequently, almost every family has the experience of moving. All these processes affect the life of the northerners. In this regard, the study is aimed at analyzing the dynamic aspects of life of things, their semantic and functional changes when moving.

The relevance of the study of items on the move is stipulated by the fact that the postmodern society as a sociocultural phenomenon requires a new understanding of consumption [2, Douglas M., Isherwood B.; 3, Rakitnykh M.B.]. Semiotic analysis contributes to the study of the symbolic aspects of consumption, including in-depth understanding of semiosis (the endowment of items with meanings and reassignment of things). Semiosis is especially clearly traced in crises, when many meanings of things and actions are actualized and the revaluation of values occurs.

Such situations include relocation. It reveals the constants and features of dealing with things and imparting their meanings in the culture of various communities, including family and ethnic.

Families of the region we studied (the Kola North) are mostly urban. Small towns of the Murmansk region were built and mastered by their current residents during the Soviet period. Visitors not only "built" the towns, but also formed the modern urban culture of the region.

We turned to the biographical experience of those who migrated to the Kola Peninsula during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The interviews with the urban residents of the Murmansk region (the towns of Apatity, Kirovsk, and Kandalaksha) were the data we used. These are the texts of family and biographical interviews. The respondents were both arriving to the Kola North from other regions of Russia, and from the countries of the former USSR. Data collection was carried out during 2009–2015, 51 people were interviewed. In addition, the sources of the personal archive of I.A. Razumova were used: written interviews, self-recordings, interview records and documents of family archives. Nineteen informants born between 1945–1988 were selected among 110 sources (each represents a record of one informant) for 2001–2004 and 2006. These people were living in the cities of Polarnye Zori, Snezhnogorsk, Monchegorsk, and Kirovsk. All of them had an experience of moving (within the city, country, etc.).

Theoretical and methodological grounds of the study are represented by the works of leading Russian researchers in the field of the semiotics of things and space: P.G. Bogatyreva, V.V. Ivanova, V.N. Toporova, Т.V. Tsivyan, A.K. Bayburina, O.A. Sedakova [4–11] and other authors, who accentuated the cultural anthropological aspect of things. We suppose that the deep aspects of the functioning of things are manifested only if they are studied in the unity of the "essence" and "sign", and "the history of things can be represented as movement along the scale of semioticism," and "the change in the semiotic character of things is easier to trace at the present stage, than in ancient times, due to the greater flexibility of the informational structure of society" [8, Baiburin A.K., p. 9].

In this study, a family is seen as the collective bearer of the culture and traditions of a particular society in which it exists and to which it belongs. The family adapts, modifies, uses, creates and transmits cultural values. The specificity of the family communication lies in the fact that participants have a common experience and shared memory. Family-historical knowledge helps a person to buid up a self- identification on a number of grounds: personal qualities, anthropological characteristics, ethnic, social and local affiliation, etc. Family memory is transmitted both verbally, and through family photos, relics, etc. The study of the theory of social memory has a great importance now. It contributed to determining the functions and meanings of certain categories of family items and their typologization [12–15].

Functioning and meanings of household things in a dwelling space

The interior of a dwelling is a complex cultural phenomenon which is closely connected with the social environment and is determined by various factors. One way or another, the design of everyday life, the organization of the dwelling space is predetermined by the value system that underlies in the worldview. Individual features of people and families, determined socioculturally and ethnoculturally, manifest themselves there. Whatever homogeneous the urban culture seems, the modern urban dwelling exists in the diversity of ethno-cultural options, just as it is observed in the traditional cultures. In both cases, the variability is a consequence of the different factors.

In the East Slavic dwelling, every thing and the object of the interior had its own specific function and were located strictly in accordance with the tradition. The study of the traditional dwelling of different peoples and elements of interior has always been one of the priorities of ethnography [8, Baiburin A.K., pp. 16–26]. In the traditional culture, the house is symbolically "loaded". It is not just an object. All the major categories of the world perception were correlated with the concept of a "house" in one way or another.

The traditional rural dwelling has been thoroughly studied, as for the urban dwelling – more or less systematic studies have been conducted only after the late 1950s and early 1960s. [27, 28, Krupyanskaya V.Yu.; 29, Anokhina L.A.; 30, Urazmanova R.K.; 31, Feldman M.A.]. The results are devoted to the description of the Soviet period, while the thing behavior of the post-Soviet period, despite a well-known activation of interest to the topic, remains less studied.

In the framework of this study, we are interested in the most common, but still "special" case, when a group, identified as a "family", has a joint dwelling (or residential complex). In this case, we can talk about the presence of a family housing culture or a family living environment. Regardless of its type ("house", "apartment", etc.), such a dwelling, together with the objects inside, their structural and functional interrelations and the dwelling as a whole, is defined by the concepts "house material environment", "house spatial objective world".

You can study the living environment in two main angles. On the one hand, it has the objective properties: the ways of organizing, characteristics of objects, etc. On the other hand, the real use of space and objects is determined not only by the set of cultural contexts, but it is highly subjective.

We consider the entire material and objective world, in which the family is immersed as the family things. It includes furniture, utensils, and even various trinkets, means all the items purchased or manufactured by members of a family-related group and used by it. All the other things can be conditionally designated as "productive" (equipment, machinery in production), "public" (benches in a park, street lights, etc.), "historical and cultural" (cultural monuments, museum exhibits). These symbols are for sure conditional and interchangeable. E.g., cultural monuments are public property, and before they become it, they had been produced by someone and for some reason.

Things can be considered as family items if they: 1) exist in the family and make up its objective environment; 2) characterize this environment in a certain way (e.g., they are indicators of the social and economic status of the family); 3) recreate the peculiarities of the everyday life of families of different ethnic groups; 4) help to recreate the social environment through the reconstruction of the life of the family (the everyday style of the era); 5) symbolize and help to preserve the family history and memory; 6) constitute the family property when all members of the family are involved in using a particular thing (e.g., furniture; utensils used by all members of the family; a family relic recognized by all – are also a family property); 7) are in personal use of individual family members or are "significant" for one member only; 8) belong to family members within the residential environment (house, apartment).

All things included in the objective world of the family (dwelling), on a functional basis, can be divided into three conventional groups: household, decorative and memorial things. In the family dwelling, the objects of the first group serve as the everyday life assistants ( a knife, a chair, a table, etc.), the objects of the second group serve as adornment (a picture, a vase, etc.), while others keep the memory of any events of the history of the family-related community ( an album with photos, souvenirs, family relics, etc.). This classification is rather conditional, since decorative things can simultaneously be memorial, and belong to the category of everyday things. Family things can be typologized for different reasons, but according to the chosen approach, the main criterion is their position on the semiotic scale (utilitarian/symbolic meaning). Household and memorial things can be endowed with different characteristics, starting from their value and external characteristics. The thing can be expensive/cheap, prestigious/not prestigious, beautiful/ugly, etc.

Every family has items used and perceived as "purely home". Pragmatic attitude often refers to the furniture, household appliances, and utensils. It is difficult to imagine family life without them, but they, at first sight, do not play any role in a family history. Such things are actual now, they can symbolize time, its technologies etc., but from the "intra-family point of view" they do not possess any symbolic meanings. Utilitarian things are an objective indicator of social, professional status, economic status, hobbies of the family or individuals, sanitary and hygienic norms and habits, etc. The designation "everyday" indicates the satisfaction with the help of these things above all ordinary needs. The world of everyday things is infinitely diverse.

The group of things called “memorable” (memorial) occupies a special place in the object world of a family. Their main function is to preserve the memory of events, places, people etc.

Individual memory depends on the degree and nature of the involvement in various groups, beginning with the family. A special place is occupied by the objective memory among the other types of memory. It is embodied in things that fulfill the function of "a place of memory" [12, Nora P., pp. 17–50; 14, Assman J., p. 20]. The personal thing of each member of a family, one way or another, is included in the general subject world of the related group, and under certain circumstances, it becomes the part of the general fund of the family memory or passes into the category of the family relics. The memorable things are valuable in a direct, material sense. They can be used for the utilitarian purpose, or can only have a symbolic value, which is determined by a special attitude towards the thing, acting as an intermediary in preserving the memory of something significant in the life of a person or a family. In this case, the physical and functional characteristics of the objects recede into the background.

In addition to family relics, the interviews and acquaintance with the objective world of urban families in the Murmansk region, helped to identify various types of memorabilia, which we designated as "individual memorabilia"; "memorabilia of relatives"; "memorabilia associated with the "social achievements"; "things-memories of ethnic, national and religious affiliation"; "things-memories of territorial or local affiliation".

Things that function in modern families of the northerners can also be distributed according to a number of temporal criteria. There can be several grounds for classification: by belonging to a historical epoch or a specific period ("old", "Soviet", "pre-war", "modern" thing), by the duration of use ("old" / "new" thing); conformity to the style of time ("fashionable"/ "unfashionable"). "The semantic meaning of a thing can not be understood without knowledge of the concrete historical conditions of people's lives, the history of culture (both material and spiritual)" [32, Mirolyubova L.R., p. 59].

Things on the move (in the "road" space)

The reorganization of the family's objective world takes place when moving. Things that are in the space of "road" lose their status of "home" for a certain time. The "road" is a ritually and sacredly significant locus that has multivalued semantics and functions. Road customs and representations have repeatedly appeared in the focus of ethnographic research [33, Agapkina T.A.; 34, Toporov V.N.; 35, Tolstaya S.M.; 36, Klyaus V.L.; 37, Tsivyan T.V.; 38, Schepanskaya T.B.].

All things in transit can be divided into two main groups — luggage and travel items. In the situation of resettlement, when collecting goods for moving, the entire objective world is wrapped up in a certain thing complex called "luggage" with the inevitable loss of its certain part as a result of selection (some of the items are sold, distributed or discarded).

Dictionary of V. Dal defines the term "luggage" as "luggage, belongings, things, property, especially the road one" [39]. In the dictionaries of D.N. Ushakov and S.I. Ozhegov similar definitions are given: the luggage is "things, cargo of passengers packed for shipment, transportation. <...>. Hand luggage (passenger's things that are with him)"[40; 41]. The dictionary of T.F. Efremova: the luggage is understood as "packed things that a passenger takes with him for a trip" [42]. In the framework of this study, the luggage is understood as any thing, household items that a family or individual is transporting from a former place of residence to a new one.

The definition of the concept of "road things" was found only in the dictionary of the Russian language, edited by D.V. Dmitriev: "The object is called the road one if you take it for traveling" [43]. T.B Schepanskaya subdivides road things into two main groups: equipment — means of life support on the trip, and memo-charms – things that have rather symbolic value [38, Schepanskaya T.B., p. 109]. Memorabilia should prevent the complete alienation of the outgoing, preserving the invisible connection with the homeland and home. This relationship was only temporarily blocked, folded into a symbol (the same memorable thing). Currently, traveling things–amulets continue to exist. In her special study Т.B. Schepanskaia shows how such things function among drivers [44]. Some things act as the protection against "unforeseen situations", among them are utilitarian (a tire iron, a bat, etc.) and symbolic (e.g., images of saints); others remind of the house (toys on the windshield) etc. In addition, the things used as a "container" or means of packaging and carrying cargo can also be considered as the road ones. Individual ethnographic studies are devoted to the traditional means of transportation and road equipment [45, 46, 47, 48, Vasiliev M.I.; 49, Lebedeva A.A.]. At the moment, bags, suitcases are used as travel utensils, sometimes boxes are used for transportation convenience.

In every family dealing with the change of residence, there is usually a person responsible for moving. As a rule, this is a member of the family who either had the experience of moving, or, in his opinion or opinion of other relatives, knows how to organize the process properly. Most often, this is the elder woman in the family (grandmother, mother, aunt). In some cases, there may be two persons responsible for moving, usually a husband and his wife. It is believed that women are more responsible, and, in the opinion of men, "they are better at it". When preparing for the relocation, the informal distribution of duties occurs in the family. It is especially well observed at the stage of transportation and collection of luggage, when each member of the family has a role to play. Usually women are responsible for selecting the right things and proper packaging. In cases where packaging requires considerable physical efforts, women usually instruct and supervise the corresponding actions of men. Men help to carry things (to load and unload), children can guard the luggage and carry out various small packs (e.g., to bring boxes from the store for packing). The distribution of roles in families varies: "We actively dragged things with my brother. It is clear that only small, feasible things. Collecting boxes — our mother did it without us, as I recall, but we dragged them a lot"(1)3.

Packing things is the important stage of moving. The safety of things during transportation depends on the proper packaging. Each member of a family has his own methods and ways how to pack things properly. They use various sources of knowledge: someone uses the advice of parents and relatives, and the representatives of modern youth usually use the Internet.

The treatment of things is affected by such factors as age, financial situation, the composition of those moving to a new place, the motives for resettlement, setting for temporary or permanent residence, ideas about life in a new place and other factors. Naturally, when family people move with their children for permanent residence, they collect the luggage more thoroughly. Young people, as a rule, take almost nothing with them, except equipment and personally significant things. Young people, according to their own and external evaluations, "strive for minimalism", "easily part with things", "focuses on fashion," "does not cling to things." People of the older generation (especially the elderly) try to take as much as they can, and, if possible, take all the acquired property they have.

During the move, the attitude to different types of family things – memorial and purely everyday ones varies. Differences are evident at all stages of preparation and implementation of the move. The attitude towards memorial things is careful. The criteria for sorting out the things of these types are different and the process of their transportation is not the same. The study showed that the absolute majority of those moving to the Kola North, regardless of age and individual attitude towards things, tried to keep items that belonged to family relics. This applies especially to photos and family albums. This behavior is considered as a matter of course, many informants confirmed it only in response to a clarifying question ("of course", "sure", "first of all," "necessarily").

Household items, as a rule, are selected on the basis of practical considerations: their cost, functionality, convenience in use, and their condition. Significant reorganization of the objective world of the family when moving is primarily related to getting rid of things of certain categories. In most cases, these are items that are considered unnecessary and obsolete: "When preparing to move, of course, first of all, we got rid of all rubbish. <...>. Those were old things that had to be thrown away long time ago, but we had no time to do it "(2).

The old, unused things ("junk", "trash") that were stored in the attic, in the shed, in the storeroom were thrown out first. They lost functionality long time ago, they were out of date, but it was hard to throw them away. Most people who moved did not want to take them to the "new life". In other cases, this behavior is motivated by the inability to transport all things for some reason: lack of sufficient living space in a new location, transportation difficulties, etc. Memorial family things are less subject to such sorting. People try to transport them intact and safe, and it is out of the question to give them to someone or throw away. There are some exceptions, of course.

During the move, it is customary to keep the most valuable things "with you" or "closer to yourself." The treatment of these things is almost not affected by economic, social and other circumstances. Here the personal, psychological factor plays a big role. First of all, people take family photographs.

In stories of settlers from the villages, icons are often noted among the things taken for memory: "My grandmother told me that the grandfather's mother, before they left to the North to her grandfather, had removed the fold from the red corner, wrapped it in the kerchief on which it stood, put it in the bag and gave it with the words: "Give it to your son, and he will give it to Verka when she grows up" (3). The elder relatives tried to hand over the icon as a family relic and a guard to protect relatives on the trip and in a new place from various troubles. In addition, the migrants took those objects which they were emotionally related to, as they were identified with the abandoned house and relatives. Most often these were things made by the hands of loved ones (father, mother, grandmother): "My mother keeps old grandmother's kerchiefs, tablecloths, cloths that my grandmother made herself" (4).

Family relics occupy a special place among all the types of memorabilia. People consider "relic" and "thing-memory" in different ways. For some of them, they are synonymous, for others they denote absolutely different categories of objects. In particular, the distinction between

"relics" and memorabilia can be made by the criteria of collectivity/individuality of the embodied memory or property. From this point of view, "relics" are always the "family" things. The analysis of usage shows a lot of variations when using these terms. Anyway, after clarifying questions, the informants began to explain what "family heirloom" means to them, and what is "a memorable thing". The status of the "family relic" is much higher than other types of "memorabilia". Hence there is more emotional attitude to them when moving. Since all family relics are endowed with high symbolic value, and some of them possess material value, people try to save and preserve these things under any circumstances [50, Razumova I.A., pp. 3–76; 51, Razumova I.A.; 52, 53, Suleimanova O.A.].

Individual memorabilia are stored for a relatively short time. This is so because small things and trinkets (e.g., even tickets left after visit of a museum) are often kept until they cause certain emotions of their owner. Usually, individual memorabilia lose its status and relevance with the death of the owner. However, it can have another fate: memorabilia of relatives become a family heirloom and begin to be inherited. In order to become a relic, the thing must be "selected" from many others. As a rule, it is only a very original in form or valuable thing. These include jewelry or aesthetically highly valued things. The more interesting are the cases of exclusive symbolization of objects that do not possess any commodity or aesthetic value, meaningful only for a narrow circle of persons and on a sole basis — to serve as a memory. E.g., a piece of soap is stored as a relic in one of the Northerners' families.

Some people accumulate enough memorabilia during their lifetime and can periodically get rid of them. Moving promotes this process. People moving to a new place of residence try to get rid of all the "superfluous". The desire not "to litter" the new apartment (house), as well as the difficulties of transportation, help to get rid of even such things that were previously considered "very necessary". More often these are things that have a memorial value to the individual and do not have any material value. As a rule, they include subjects related to personal biography, but not connected with other people (friends, relatives). E.g, student notebooks, reminiscent of their own childhood and adolescence, admission tickets as evidence of visits to certain places, collections that have lost relevance due to changes of interests and have no material value (collections of candy wrappers, bottles, etc.).

The lost relevance distinguishes memorabilia from the family relics. A family relic will never be thrown out because it is difficult to transport it or there is not enough space for it in a new house. Respect to family relics removes the issue of trowing. Only emergency circumstances can be important here. The status of memorabilia is very unstable. They are constantly balancing between the opportunities to become a family heirloom or to be in a garbage dump. Anyway, in the situation of moving, a strong reflection arises in relation to these things. The real saved objects are a special occasion for pride. In addition, it turned out that the more complexities arise in the process of transporting a thing, the more symbolic value increases: "How many difficulties we had to transport these carpets from Krasnodar to Apatity! Now they are keeping twisted behind the wall, waiting for their hour. As soon as the son marries, they will be inherited. For me, they are no longer just ordinary carpets; so many memories are associated with them, as I dragged them from there "(5).

Thus, the practice of handling things during the move depends not only on the circumstances of the move, but also on the value of the thing for the family and its individual members. When selecting things and choosing methods of transportation, settlers are guided by the memorial, material and symbolic value of objects.

"With old things to the new apartment": items as a means of adaptation in a new place of residence

The process of developing the uninhabited space goes after the move. The acquaintance with the subject world of the residents of the Murmansk region (Apatity, Kirovsk, and Kandalaksha) shows that when creating the interior of a dwelling, the attitude of people is changing to certain things and their categories (furniture, utensils, household appliances, interior decorations, etc.).

The arrangement of everyday life in a new place is influenced by the very process of moving and the related aspects of thing behavior. In order to start settling, you must first leave the old housing, carry your things, and relive the related difficulties. In the ethnographic tradition, the concept of "road" contrasts the concept of "house". The house is associated with stability; settled way of life, a place inhabited and "one's own"; the road is a movement, instability of the situation, "alien" and unknown. At the same time, the house and the road are connected as different poles of a single scale, combining settled way of life and mobility. As A.V. Golovnev notes, "in the anthropology of motion, dynamics and statics are contrasted only to show their variability and range of intermediate states. This is not about replacing static measurements with dynamic ones, but about two-dimensionality"[54, Golovnev A.V., pp. 4–14].

Various options for moving are possible depending on the changes that the family is undergoing: 1) the actual resettlement, when the whole family moves; 2) dividing, if part of the family is resettled, 3) separation – one person leaves. Depending on the type of moving and the composition of those who is moving, the thing behavior also varies. In all cases, there is a complete or partial transformation of the family's objective world. If the all the family moves, then, as a rule, there is just a transfer of property from one house to another. Naturally, the objective world, one way or another, is transformed. Some of the things can be damaged during the move or owners can throw some things away, etc. However, in most cases, there is no drastic change. The exception is the situation of forced (emergency) resettlement.

Moving from the parental home of one of the members of the family is different as the reorganization occurs due to the transfer of a part of the object fund of the family to a new place of residence. The ritual parallel represents the redistribution of the "share" in the rituals of the person's life cycle with the aim of stabilizing the crisis situation, ensuring a smooth transition [55, Sedakova O., p. 54–63]. The property share is allocated from an organized and ordered subject world. A person leaving a parental home, as a rule, takes away not only personal things, but also things of common use, since he has not yet had time to acquire his own things necessary for everyday life. In such a way, there is a redistribution of the object fund of the family. The "share", which is allocated to the leaving person, in each case depends both on the material capabilities of the family, and on the individual preferences of the person: "The student needs, in principle, where to sleep. Well, also some furniture. In general, some kind of utensil, like, e.g., a mother has given a pan, a frying pan, and an iron. So, some necessary things and clothes"(6).

In process of moving, some things get a "second" life. E.g., what was stored in the garage for a long time or in the shed (there were cases when things had been brought from the garbage dump) is given to the separated children, referring to the fact that it can still be good for some time.

When moving family things can change and often change their status. The objects of the everyday life that were previously used for purely utilitarian purposes or performed decorative functions can become family relics: "I took crocheted napkins from my parental home. <...>. They just gathered dust in their house, and now I keep them quiveringly. <...>. I took it as a memory of my mother, to save them, so to speak "(7). In particular, a number of items from the status of family (which all family members used) are transferred to the category of things of individual use; things get a "second" life and a new history.

As I.A. Razumova notes nowadays "the basic ritual moments during moving in are observed not only by rural, but also by urban residents" [50, Razumova I.A., p. 131]. Now in the culture of urban residents of the Kola North, one can observe the certain elements of the traditional rite of moving in a new house when moving to a new place of residence. Some of the informants said that they had made the cat first enter the house, and where the animal would prefer to stay for a while, they decided to put a baby crib or arrange a bed. There were reports about the use of various amulets, e.g., hanging the horseshoe above the door. This kind of ritual was a bit modified in modern conditions, of course.

Those who moved to a new place face the difficulties connected with the perception of a new place as "uninhabited" or "alien". They have to re-create their house and get used to it. If moves happen often, this perception either becomes the additional stress factor, or, on the contrary, becomes blunted and disappears (the following model os formed: "my house is where I am at the moment): "I love when the house is in order and everything is in its place. <...>. After moving we could not find anything for a long time, forgot where were our things. All this kicked me out of my track, my hands just dropped, and I did not want to do anything "(8). Apparently, a change in the arrangement of things leads to psychological discomfort. People consider the objective environment not only as a means of ensuring functional processes, but also as a necessary individual sphere, connected with the peculiarities of their personality.

The uninhabited space is perceived as "alien", "cold", "uncomfortable". Old things help to make space more familiar and mastered. Many travelers take personal things that have symbolic significance with them for this reason: "we took all sorts of trinkets, yes, although my husband grumbled that it was not necessary to litter the new apartment. I do not know how to explain this, but I would feel uncomfortable if I had to live among all new and unfamiliar things"(9). According to informants, these kinds of things, despite all their uselessness, help to miss the house and left friends less, they help not to feel lonely in a new place — so they connect people with their former place of residence and act as communicants.

Leaving parental home, children often take away trinkets (figurines, toys, etc.) from relatives, "to be less homesick and miss close people less." If before leaving these things served to create coziness or were used for other purposes, now they acquire additional meaning. Usually old things or trinkets in the parental home are considered as "littering" space; people periodically want to throw them away, but for some reason do not do it. When the departing person takes them to a new place of residence, these items begin to be perceived differently, serve as "connection" with the old house and "domestication" of the new, creating a sense of comfort.

The study confirmed that young people adapt more easily to a new place. However, there were cases when young people arranged a "museum" of memorabilia in their apartment, storing various trinkets, as well as things of relatives. It is natural that people of median age and older often perceive things as a part of their biography. Making property is an important line of the spent life: the history of how the property was earned, how it was "received" and so on. Things give calmness, the sense of stability. This "protecting mechanism with the help of things in the daily practice of older people" was analyzed in detail by M.E. Elyutina [56, Elyutina M.E., pp. 101– 109].

As a rule, the symbolic significance of a thing increases more when you move, the further is the distance or the sharper is the border separating relatives. One thing is to move within the region and the other is to immigrate to a distant country. Ethnic migrants in the towns of the Kola North noted that the things familiar to them in everyday life became more than just household items in a new ethnic environment. They reminded of homeland, past way of life, close people who came to their house, and many other things; that is how things became commemorative ones.

The way of adaptation depends on the type of space. In a rented apartment, the decisive factor is the unstable situation of the resident (the request to clear the dwelling can follow at any time). Moving to your own new apartment is accompanied by the desire to replace old things with new ones, to minimize the presence of old things in a new apartment. In the hostel, on the contrary, people take something valuable from the house there. Moving to a new apartment is often a reason to get rid of old and annoying things. For young respondents the following set is typical: "new life — new things".

Moving of representatives of ethnic cultures from the "alien" regions is a special case. The mandatory conditions for the successful social adaptation of ethnic migrants include the gradual transformation of the material and objective environment of life in a new place. In order to feel comfortable and able to lead a habitual way of life, migrants need a suitable object and household environment. Its creation is facilitated by imported "national" things (clothes, utensils): "I am pleased to drink tea not from different mugs, but from bowls. <...>. Cooking in a frying pan, for example, is not very convenient for me. It's good that we have cooking pots — both small and large "(10).

Utensils for cooking belong to the basic necessities, and its use in a new place can be considered as the element of household adaptation. As firther to the south the region of departure is, the more important the climate differences are, the more exotic the North is: "I brought all sorts of dresses, sarafans from Tajikistan with me. I have a lot of beautiful summer things, but I think I won’t be able to put them on here, bearing in mind what a short and cold summer is here"(11). The change of place of residence forced to give up the old habits in handling things. Some immigrants did not have a clear idea of the northern climate and got in by surprise. In autobiographical stories, the motive is very stable for the disparity between the items of clothing and footwear taken to the northern conditions. Some things, habitual in the past, can not be used in the alien environment, they are used only on holidays. In addition, ethnic migrants often have to completely abandon their national dress. Some could not bring it by force of circumstances; others feel sorry for wearing, since the object is in one copy; someone is ashamed (usually young). Thus, national things can be transferred to the category of stored exhibits.

Summarizing, we emphasize that certain categories of things can act as a cultural and psychological "stabilizer", helping to get used to new conditions and overcome the gap with the former place and time of life.

Conclusion

The research has shown that any movement influences the semantics and functions of things. Any spatial movement can affect the status and purpose of an object, and conversely, changing the status or function of a thing results in a change in its location. During the move, the object environment of the family is reorganized and transformed completely or partially, which leads to accelerated re-identification of its individual elements and the change in the status of things.

At all stages of preparation and implementation of the move, the behavior varies in relation to things with different status. This applies to the criteria for their selection, and the process of transportation. The actions to "collect" and "select" things (categorization) are taken, related to getting rid of certain categories of things at the preparatory stage. Memorial family items are least subjected to any sorting; they are also liable to the most careful transportation.

In general, the study of the transfer of things, bearing in mind the variable circumstances of the relocation of family members, makes it possible to trace the semiosis and commemoration, to understand the mechanism of functioning of family material culture in different historical contexts and, above all, in the current conditions of the increasing territorial mobility of the population.

The list of informants:

• 1    — Female, born in 1978, native of Bobrov, the Voronezh region. She is currently living in Apatity, Murmansk region. She has the experience of moving within the region and the country.

• 2    — Female, born in 1966, native of Apatity, the Murmansk region. She has the experience of moving within the region.

• 3    — Female, born in 1982. The native of the Tver region. She is currently living in Apatity, the Murmansk region. Field materials from personal archive of I.A. Razumova.

• 4    — Female, born in 1983, native of Apatity, the Murmansk region. She has the experience of moving within the region.

• 5    — Female, born in 1957, native of the Krasnodar region. She is currently living in Apatity, Murmansk region.

• 6    — Female, born in 1981, native of Monchegorsk, the Murmansk region. She is currently living in Apatity, Murmansk region.

• 7    — Female, born in 1988, native of Apatity, the Murmansk region. She has the experience of moving within the Murmansk region.

• 8    — Female, born in 1958, native of Kirovsk, the Murmansk region. She has been living in Apatity since 1966. She has the experience of moving within Apatity, the Murmansk region.

• 9    — Female, born in 1968, native of Apatity, the Murmansk region. She has the experience of moving within the Murmansk region.

• 10    — Male born in 1977, native of Dushanbe (Tadjikistan). He has been living in Apatity since 2003.

• 11    — Female, born in 1982, native of Dushanbe (Tadjikistan). She has been living in Apatity since 2003.