Mobile Phone Revolution in the Tundra? Technological Change among Russian Reindeer Nomads

This contribution looks at the influence of technological change that nomads in the Russian North have undergone, using as examples two crucial innovations: the snowmobile and the mobile phone. I argue that the snowmobile did not have the same revolutionary impact on the Russian tundra as it did in Fennoscandia, for reasons connected to long distances, infrastructure, spare parts, availability of fuel, priorities of Soviet transport policy as well as the convenience of previously used practices of herd control using ‘sitting transport’. Different from that, I argue that mobile phones have the potential for a greater penetration into nomadic societies. Because they encourage equality rather than stratification, they are low maintenance; they are small enough to be embedded into existing social contexts. Connecting not only neighbours but the whole world, in principle, mobile phones may entail a significant socio-cultural change. The article presents first fieldwork evidence of such change among tundra nomads and relates this to existing theoretical studies on how mobile communication changes societies. Attention is paid to the particularities of a mobile type of communication introduced in mobile communities, that is, among nomads. In doing so, I explore similarities and differences in how technological change influences sedentary and nomadic societies.