Wild Tungus and the Spirits of Places

• Published in: Ab Imperio
• Main Author: Vitebsky, Piers
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Project MUSE 2012
• Subjects: Крайн*; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/imp.2012.0046

The essay by Piers Vitebsky is based on the author's field research on the Tungus family of peoples in Siberia's north and, in particular, on the Eveny. The author introduces the geographic, social, ethnic, and cultural parameters of the life of the Eveny and attempts to decipher the specifically nomadic features of their life. Vitebsky ties the origin of Eveny nomadism to the reindeer-based economy. The cycle of migration and the ecologically determined routes of migration of domesticated reindeer shape the life of the Eveny. The nomadic way of life is best reflected in the desire of the Eveny to move immediately after a temporary camp is established on the route of their migration. This urge to move is reflected in religious beliefs, which reference a number of spirits by location, while the pluralism of this animistic belief is linked to the desire to change places. The author then focuses on the perception of wildness of the Tungus, which was formed as a result of Russian imperial expansion in Siberia and the encounter of the normative Russian discourse of the sedentary population with the realities of nomadic life of the Tungus peoples. He traces the influence of the discourse of wildness on Soviet transformative policies of forced modernization and sedentarization in the north. In the final part of the essay, the author explores the reproduction of the nomadic way of life in the new circumstances of the Eveny in Soviet and post-Soviet life. Even though the policy of sedentarization was largely successful, the nomadic predispostion is reflected in Eveny mobility between the village and the city. Эссе Пирса Витебского "Дикие тунгусы и духи места" основано на полевом исследовании тунгусской семьи народов, проживающих на русском Крайнем Севере, и в частности на исследовании жизни эвенков. Автор пытается идентифицировать черты социального и культурного уклада эвенков, наиболее ярко отражающие их кочевой способ жизни, зарождение которого автор связывает с оленеводческой основой экономики данного народа. ...