Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 49 (3) 2021   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.3.119-126

Annotation:  First Evidence of Pleistocene Archaeology on the Neyshabur Plain and its Role in Reconstructing the Materials from Dwelling 2 on Suchu Island, the Lower Amur (1977 Season, Excavation III) Results of Radiocarbon Dating of Early Burials in the Firsovo Archaeological Area, Barnaul Stretch o A Mortuary Complex with Animal Skulls at Khankarinsky Dol, a Scythian Age Cemetery in the Northweste A Monumental Horse Burial in the Armenian Highlands Scarab Amulet-Beads from 1st–2nd Century Children’s Burials at a Necropolis on the Iluraton Plateau, Traces of the Dahaean and Sarmatian Cultural Legacy in Ancient Turan and Old Rus Shovels Used by Russians in 17th–18th Century Siberia Hunting Equipment of Russians Living near Tara on the Irtysh in the 17th and 18th Centuries Location of Tatar Settlements in the Middle and Lower Tara Region According to 18th Century Maps From the Serbian Fair to the Russian Museum: On the Ethnographic Relevance of the Gingerbread Collec Tungus-Manchu Traditional Beliefs. Part 1: Fertility Cult and Images of Divine Ancestresses Urbanization Processes in the Indigenous Population of the Altai Republic: Stages, Factors, Prospect The Ratio of Indigenous to Immigrant Populations in the Western Steppe During the Bronze Age (Based A Digital X-Ray Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Skeletal Samples from the Baraba Forest-Steppe Cranial Traumas in a Sample from the Pucara de Tilcara Fortress (Jujuy Province, Argentina)   

Urbanization Processes in the Indigenous Population
of the Altai Republic:
Stages, Factors, Prospects

A.P. Chemchieva

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This article explores the specificity of the urbanization process in the native population of the Altai Republic and assesses its principal trends over the course of the years 1926-2020. The focus is on quantitative aspects such as the growth of urban settlements and their population. I look at the ways the urban network has developed in the Altai Mountains. The only urban administrative center shows a potential for agglomerative growth and continues to accumulate the rural population. Townships that had emerged during the Soviet period were unattractive for natives. Three stages in the urbanization process are described: 1926-1950s, 1960-1980s, and 1990 to the present. Over the entire period in question, urbanization was extensive, i.e. caused by migration from rural areas. At the first stage, the key factor was political (collectivization). In the second stage, the factors were socio-cultural (attractiveness of urban lifestyle), economic (higher income and greater availability of jobs), and political (the abolition of “futureless” villages). The main factor at the third stage was socio-economic crisis. A conclusion is made that the potential for extensive urbanization in the native population of the Altai Republic has not yet been exhausted. The most attractive places to migrate are still the region’s capital and its suburbs. However, migration to other cities of Russia is likely to rise. A prediction is made that the role of intensive factors of urbanization in the indigenous population of the Altai Republic will increase.

Keywords: Urbanization, migration, stages, factors, indigenous population, Altai Republic