Introduction: Administrative Functions, Supply, Infrastructure Changes and Creativity in the Settlements of Chukotka

In this introductory article, the authors outline a range of issues that allow us to trace the qualitative component of the dynamics of materiality on the Chukotka Peninsula. The peculiarity of Chukotka settlements is multiple supply deficits and a special temporality of the delivery and circulation of things, materials, and food products. In this context, the authors shift the focus directly from infrastructure objects and their dynamics to the role of human in the implementation of state and personal tasks. The authors consider how human, through his active actions, creatively transforms the world of things, creates not only new buildings, but also new art objects, carries out supply and redistribution, and manages various processes. The most important dynamic aspect is a special temporality (a combination of various processes in time), considered at the macro- and micro levels. On the one hand, it is influenced by various models of interaction between human and material objects, created and accompanied by administrative decisions and with the participation of state institutions. On the other hand, these are microprocesses occurring directly in the villages and created with the direct participation of the local people. In this article, the authors characterize a set of human-related factors that influence the dynamics of material objects in remote villages of Chukotka.