Sorry, your browser doesn’t support embedded videos. Stories Project Stories 11.02.2026 Dismantling the Linear Concept of Time From left to right Victoria Peemot, Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Maria Fedina, and Outi Kaarina Laiti. Photo: Aino Huotari TEXT Sandra Järvenpää Share: How we understand time can have an impact on the fight against ecological crises. The transdisciplinary research project addresses the indigenous concepts of time and their connections to the construction of biocultural heritage. What is it about? The four-year, transdisciplinary project, supported by the Kone Foundation, maps the relationship between biocultural heritage and non-linear concepts of time in four different regions of the world: the Komi Republic, the Sápmi, the South-Western Amazon and Western Mongolia. The researchers explore how the recognition of temporality and time layers relates to biocultural heritage, its production and its protection. The project is based on a transformative and community-based research approach that emphasizes research with local research partners. It combines archival research, ethnography, autoethnography, workshops, game studies, and linguistic research. According to the researchers, various approaches to temporality and moving beyond the linear notion of time, which is strongly prevalent in Western countries, could help humankind in solving the ecological crises they have created. The researchers are Professor of Indigenous Studies Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, PhD Maria Fedina, PhD Victoria Peemot, PhD Francisco Apurinã and EdD Outi Kaarina Laiti. When Maria Fedina asked her mother in the Komi Republic how she understood time, her mother described the shape of a cone. The closer you are to birth, the larger the circumference of the cone; the closer you are to death, the smaller the circumference. Among many Indigenous peoples, the concept of time is understood differently from the dominant Western way of thinking. Time is not linear, moving from the past to the future, but momentary, cyclical and simultaneous. In addition, it is often anchored to a place. Fedina is one of five researchers supported by the Kone Foundation whose multidisciplinary project produces new knowledge on the relationship between non-linear time and biocultural heritage. Biocultural heritage refers to heritage that has developed through interactions between human livelihoods, ways of life and other species over decades, centuries or millennia. The research is being conducted in four different geographical areas: the Komi Republic, the cultural region of the Sámi people, Sápmi, south-western Amazonia and western and northern Mongolia. The four corners of the world were selected through the researchers’ own roots and connections, and in addition, represent different ecological systems, thereby enriching the research. Outi Kaarina Laiti’s research brings a digital dimension to the project. She focuses on exploring how to strengthen the digital presence, agency and participation of the Sámi people through game development and speculative design. “Through making games, we envision possible futures for the Sámi. At the same time, we reflect on what constitutes biocultural heritage created in digital worlds,” Laiti says. In the background ČSV áigi (2025), a public artwork by the artist Outi Pieski commissioned for the Keski-Pasila school and day care centre. Photo: Aino Huotari “The thinking always reaches beyond humans, it includes other beings, plants, animals, the land.” Cooperation with People, Plants and Mountains The Apurinã people, who live in the Southwestern Amazon, have a strong biocultural heritage that is shaped through relationships with trees. For the Apurinã, sacred or “restricted” places – as the Apurinã word kymyrury is better translated – include groves of moriche palms. “For the Apurinã, these plants connect them to both past and future generations, and they are home to the most important factors that give people vitality. Interestingly, these species are also what biologists nowadays call keystone species. If they disappear, the entire ecosystem collapses,” says Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen. The researchers emphasize that they are not only collaborating with the people living in the area. Fransisco Apurinã says that the community-based approach to the research also means collaborating with animals, plants, trees and rocks. “Because we are living in the Anthropocene, humans often dominate other actors. But it is very important to highlight all kinds of actors in the environments being studied, and the relationships that develop between them and the researchers. We want them to feel like they are part of this research,” says Apurinã. Among the Turkic-speaking Tyva and Tukha peoples living in the border region of Mongolia, China and Russia, horses represent a similar kind of sacredness. According to Victoria Peemot, horses are thought to embody their owners’ “life energy,” a soul-like concept among the Tyva and Mongolian people. She has also written her doctoral thesis on the kinship and symbiotic lifestyle between humans and horses in the region. “The thinking always reaches beyond humans, it includes other beings, plants, animals, the land,” says Peemot. Photo: Aino Huotari ”It’s important to understand the time frames of other beings and learn from those who have been here for hundreds or thousands of years.” Dismantling the Linear Concept of Time Could Help Resolve the Eco-Crisis The mountain is probably the best way to understand the temporal layers of the landscape. In Peemot’s home region, at the Tyva-Mongolian borderland, there is a mountain called Agar, which is over 570 million years old. At its foot, small seashells can still be found. They tell the story of the mountain’s “more recent” history, 150 million years ago, when the area was still at the bottom of an ancient sea. The same mountain welcomed the first people to the area about 30,000 years ago and is still inhabited today. The place is both ancient and contemporary, says Peemot. In places like this, one can speak of “deep time”. The rock and soil carry millions of years of information, challenging our understanding of what sustainability really means. “It’s incredible how we can destroy something in ten years that has been here for millions of years.” Peemot refers to lithium mining, which is now widespread in the name of the green transition. She reminds us of the deep inequalities associated with the extractive industry: raw materials are often mined in Indigenous areas, but used elsewhere. For Virtanen, the linear concept of time is strongly linked to the Western ideas of development, consumer culture, and continuous growth – on a planet with limited natural resources. It is rarely stressed that we are planting seeds for thousands of years ahead, for the relations and cycles of diverse beings. She notes that the first scientific sustainability theories of the west were also developed from the perspective of linear time. “It’s important to understand the time frames of other beings and learn from those who have been here for hundreds or thousands of years. For example, there are some trees that live for much longer than humans. Rocks and mountains also hold this kind of deep knowledge”, highlights Virtanen, the project leader. Fedina’s sociolinguistic research of Komi conceptualizations of time showcases how much information is packed into individual words that describe time, such as the names of the months. These words convey details about changes in natural cycles or how plants or animals react to them. “And then it is saddening to contemplate how that information may not necessarily hold true as the climate changes rapidly. So much generational knowledge can be lost in such a short time.” “It is also important to work in the community’s own language. If the information is translated, some knowledge may be lost.” Knowledge Doesn’t Remain Only at the Academic Level The research team will work over the next eight years at the Center of Excellence MultiBEING Justice, which started in January 2026. This will allow the researchers to continue the research on the concepts of time, and, through new collaborations, also study the ways of governing of Indigenous peoples, in which non-human actors are included in political and juridical decision-making. It is important for the researchers that the results of their work are not only used by the academic community. That is why they have produced, for example, educational materials for communities as well as recommendations for action for local and international policy-makers. Francisco Apurinã is often asked to consult on land-use and related issues concerning Indigenous peoples, and Virtanen, as a vice-member of the IPBES panel, has commented on many governmental biodiversity measures. Later this spring the project’s collective exhibition will open in the Siida Museum, Inari. Biocultural heritage: In us, in a possible, and in the land exhibition will present to a wider audience various cultural notions of time. It expands the previous the Digital Natives? Saami Games Now! exhibition, which compiled community-driven game developments over a period of ten years. According to Laiti, Sámi digital games reach new audiences through museums. Peemot says that she always presents the research results to her research collaborators, the herders, first. Only after that will the findings be made available to academics. “It is also important to work in the community’s own language. If the information is translated, some knowledge may be lost.” Contact Information Professor Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, University of Helsinkipirjo.virtanen@helsinki.fi Biocultural heritage is connected to place- and land-based skills, knowledge, values and practices. It is formed through the long-term interaction between people and the environment, and its preservation becomes manifest in landscapes and biodiversity. Biocultural heritage is constructed, shaped and recognized in different ways across cultures. In a changing world, climate change is also disrupting cyclical rhythms and practices. Photo: Aino Huotari