Evenki Hunters' and Reindeer Herders' Mobility: Transformation of Autonomy Regimes

• Main Author: Davydov, Vladimir
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks 2023
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Geophysics and Seismology; Evenki
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/geo_facpubs/758; https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429354663-27

The chapter analyzes the transformation of the mobility of the northern Baikal Evenkis, approaching it as a result of complex interactions occurring in the context of combining different temporalities—specific ways of organizing movements and practices over time (first—related to the mobility of hunters and reindeer herders; second—manifested due to the presence of the state). Each institution and social group act within their own temporality. An attempt to combine different temporal regimes led to the emergence of new forms of local people’s mobility. Joint movements with reindeer, as well as environmental knowledge and skills, gave Evenkis the possibility of a relatively long period of autonomous existence. The emergence of new centers of resource redistribution inevitably entailed a change in their mobility strategies and affected change in the degree of Evenkis’ autonomy from state institutions. As a result of the establishment of a public supply system and the construction of infrastructure, it gradually decreased. A distinctive feature of the qualitative changes in the mobility practices of the northern Baikal Evenkis is an intensification of pendulum movements between the intensively used places.