Self-determination and the legal basis for the Northern indigenous people development: an analysis of the documentary of the «Scientific Sibirica» database

Relevance. The state policy of the past decades in relation to indigenous peoples of the North aimed at creating favorable socio-economic conditions, guarantees preservation of traditional ways of life and traditional economic activities. The complexity of the implementation of the constitutional rights of the peoples of the north is a result for a number of reasons, listed in the monograph by S.N. Kharyuchi. One of them is the relative small amount of people, living in extreme climatic conditions, deprived of the opportunity of choice other means of livelihood in addition to traditional, distanced from developed economic areas and limited cooperation with other peoples of Russia [1, 2008].

Materials and methods. The study of the problems of indigenous peoples of the Arctic and ways to solve them requires a modern information support. In order to ensure the infor-mation needs of scientists and experts engaged in studies of various aspects of life of indigenous peoples of the northern regions and development of recommendations and programs of sustainable development, the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS) has established a problem-oriented bibliographic database “Indigenous peoples of the North” [2, 2009]. Information array of the database can serve as a significant source of information for scientific research on a wide range of issues related to indigenous peoples. This database is designed to provide information support on a wide range of problems (social, economic, political, ethno-ecological, socio-medical, cultural and historical) of northern peoples. A distinctive feature of the database is its objective, geographic and ethnographic headings that make it possible for bibliometric analysis of the documentary flows (DF) on one or another problem of development of northern peoples or the range of issues concerning one the peoples or indigenous problems within the same region. Bibliometric (Logical and statistical) analysis provides information about the structure (type, chronology, theme, language and etc) of the documentary flow, data on productive base sources of information [3, 2000].

The volume of problem-oriented DB. In December 2014 it amounted to about 24,000 documents for the period 1988—2014. In 2011, DB “Indigenous Peoples of the North” was included in a thematic section with its subject categories in bibliographic DB “Scientific Siberica”, freely available at the SPSTL SB RAS website for all categories of users.

Geographical coverage of the DB. It is large and includes materials on the northern areas of Siberia, the Far East, the European North of Russia (Arkhangelsk, Murmansk region, the Republic of Karelia and Komi) and polar regions overseas — Sweden, Finland, Norway, the United States (Alaska), Canada and Denmark (Greenland). The sources of the selection line for the establishment and replenishment of this database is a mandatory copy of Russian literature and foreign publications coming into SPSTL and materials from remote databases. Each docu-ment contains a full bibliographic description, the abstract, geographic headings, translations for foreign publications, sections. Search is possible for key words, authors, editors, year and place of publication, location or subjects, language and type of publication. If necessary, you can combine the fields and use “complex” search by several parameters.

From a thematic section “Indigenous People of the North” a flow of documentary on legal issues, development and self-government was selected and a bibliometric analysis held.

Results . The term structure of the documentary flow over a 25-year period is represented in the diagram (Pic. 1); growing interest researchers to the aforesaid problem in the last decade is clearly observed.

Picture 1. Documentary flow dynamics

Publications made in 2013—2014 are more actively enter the library funds, therefore they are excluded from the diagram; but their number is more than 300 documents by now and we can predict further growth.

The round diagram reflects the specific structure of the documentary flow where conference materials (40%) prevail. It should be noted that the scientific meetings play an important role in the exchange of information between scientists and specialists and their materials allow them to evaluate the state of modern fundamental and applied research. Regularity of scientific meetings at various levels on various aspects of studying the indigenous peoples of the North is a testament to the active work of specialists in this field.

It is impossible to list all of the conferences, focused on the indigenous issues. So just to name a few: permanent “Congress of ethnographers and anthropologists of Russia”, and “Legal problems of Norway and Russia”: Northern Dimension” (Arkhangelsk, 2010)," “Indigenous People in contemporary legal environment: challenges, priorities and prospects” (Khanty-Mansiysk, 2012), “Man in History: North-East frontier of Russia in the context of the political, economic, ethno-social and ethno-cultural processes of XVII — beginning of the XXI century” (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2012), “The Arctic regions of Russia: problems of parliamentta-rianism, represen- tation and regional identity. From tribal communities — to Parliament of Yamal” (Salekhard, 2012), “Political, economic and socio-cultural aspects of regional management in the European North” (Syktyvkar, 2013) and many others.

Picture 2. Type structure of the DB

More than half of publication consists of articles from periodicals (29%) and collections of scientific papers (20%), where the latest achievements of scientists and specialists are reflected. The most reliable periodicals on indigenous issues could be divided into two groups: 1) journals publishing laws and regulations: Gosudarstvo i Pravo of the Russian Federation”,"Bulletin of normativnih aktov federativnih organov ispolnitelnoi vlasti"; 2) journals publishing scientific articles: “Gosudarstvo i pravo”, “Rossijskaya Federaciya segodnya”, “Istori-cheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul'turologiya i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki”, “Vestnik Soveta Federacij”, “Etnosocialnye processy v Sibiri”, “Konstitucionnoe i municipalnoe pravo”. Indigenous issues are covered on the pages of university perio-dicals (North East, Northern (Arctic), Novosibirsky and Sibirsky Federal Universities).

The diagram shows that the rights of indigenous peoples of the North are the most actively studied issues. The works devoted to the analysis of inter-ethnic relations in indigenous areas are not numerous.

The main contribution to the study of the legal issues of development, self-development and local self-government are introduced by institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Institute of Ethnonology and Anthropology (Moscow), Institute of Philosophy and Law (Novosibirsk), Institute of Humanitarian Research and Indigenous Peoples of the North of SB RAS (Yakutsk), Institute of Language and Literature and History of Karelian Research Center of RAS (Petrozavodsk). Research is done by university teachers from: the North-Eastern Federal University, Tyumen State University, Northern (Arctic) Federal University, Moscow State University,

Komi Republican Academy of State services and Management, and others. It should be noted that universities publish monographs and textbooks online [7, 2013; 12, 2012].

Picture 3. Theme structure of monographs

Among the authors S.N. Gorbunov should be mentioned [20, 21, 22, 23]. He is dealing with the study of the rights of indigenous peoples of the North. In geographical terms the most active materials on the legal framework, development issues, self-determination and self-development of indigenous peoples of the Arctic are published in the Republic of Sakha (Yaku-tia), the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Districts, as well as in the European North of Russia.

The language structure of the analyzed information flow is rather homogeneous — more than 90% of the documents are published in Russian, the other materials presented in English.

Conclusion

Bibliometric analysis of documentary flows on legal aspects of development, self-determination and self-development of Indigenous Peoples of the North has shown its dynamics, specific, geographic, linguistic structure; revealed groups of magazines, “fresh” monographs. Information array of the problem-oriented bibliographic databases such as “Indigenous peoples of the North” can serve an important foundation for research on a broad range of issues concerning indigenous peoples. Materials are available for all researchers. Information from the database of own SPSTL generation is possible to find at (“Resources and Services” → “on-line catalogs and databases”→ “bibliographic database”→ “Scientific Sibirica”→ “Indigenous People”).