ЖИЛИЩА, МЕСТА ХРАНЕНИЯ И ЛЕТНИЕ ПОСТРОЙКИ ЭВЕНКОВ-ОРОЧЕНОВ: НАРОДНАЯ АРХИТЕКТУРА ОХОТНИКОВ-СОБИРАТЕЛЕЙ В ПОСТСОВЕТСКИХ УСЛОВИЯХ
The indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia have given social theorists much food for thought when it comes to studying space and social change. Frederick Engels (1902) modelled his generalisations on social complexity and family structure partly on Giliak ethnography (Sh-ternberg 1999). In the Russia...
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Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «Иркутский национальный исследовательский технический университет»
2006
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Online Access: | http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/zhilischa-mesta-hraneniya-i-letnie-postroyki-evenkov-orochenov-narodnaya-arhitektura-ohotnikov-sobirateley-v-postsovetskih-usloviyah http://cyberleninka.ru/article_covers/16962790.png |
Summary: | The indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia have given social theorists much food for thought when it comes to studying space and social change. Frederick Engels (1902) modelled his generalisations on social complexity and family structure partly on Giliak ethnography (Sh-ternberg 1999). In the Russian language literature, the strategic and provocative use of the ethnographic past perfective by Soviet ethnographers, confirmed in most people's minds that 'primitive-communal' forms of adaptation were aspects of Evenki cultural heritage but not a living forms of adaptive strategy (Petri 1930; Tugolukov 1985; Vasilevich 1969; Turov 1990). The intention of this article is to describe Orochen Evenki strategies and interactions with the land in an active mood. I will not treat the recent Soviet past as a source of static that hinders us from understanding an essential cultural core. Instead, this article will examine how Orochen Evenki hunters and reindeer herders continue to take advantage of the resources made available by the taiga, and a de-industrialising military state, much in the same way that they have done in the historic past. What follows is an ethno-ar-chaeological model of summer site structure with an eye to identifying the typical activity areas that result from everyday subsistence activities. These consist of work with game animals (moose, wild deer, pheasant), preparing meals, working with wood, building a living environment made of temporary or medium-term dwellings and storage structures, and cultivating meadows with controlled burns. As an anthropologist, I have framed these observations by the way that Orochen Evenkis would perceive their own lifeworld. To this end, this article is also a reply to a long-running hear-say discussion, often heard among intellectuals in Russia, that Evenki culture has 'disappeared', has been 'destroyed' or has been overwritten by many decades of industrial development and restructuring in the region. Here I would like to document how the resources churned up by de-militarisation and de-industrialisation have allowed Evenkis to elaborate a complex taiga lifestyle built of canvas, plastic, as well as ungulate skins. I will argue that post-socialist collapse creates both challenges and rewarding environmental changes, which may not be of the order of ancient climate shifts, but nevertheless provide an interesting stage upon which to study the way that hunters adapt. Here I will argue that the vernacular architecture of hunters, as with any other people, responds to their ability to access certain materials in this case coverings. I will argue that post-socialism has allowed Evenkis and other Siberian peoples the luxury of creating multiple living and working spaces of a transitory nature which, although 'non-traditional', nevertheless bear a signature of taiga life. The indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia have given social theorists much food for thought when it comes to studying space and social change. Frederick Engels (1902) modelled his generalisations on social complexity and family structure partly on Giliak ethnography (Sh-ternberg 1999). In the Russian language literature, the strategic and provocative use of the ethnographic past perfective by Soviet ethnographers, confirmed in most people's minds that 'primitive-communal' forms of adaptation were aspects of Evenki cultural heritage but not a living forms of adaptive strategy (Petri 1930; Tugolukov 1985; Vasilevich 1969; Turov 1990). The intention of this article is to describe Orochen Evenki strategies and interactions with the land in an active mood. I will not treat the recent Soviet past as a source of static that hinders us from understanding an essential cultural core. Instead, this article will examine how Orochen Evenki hunters and reindeer herders continue to take advantage of the resources made available by the taiga, and a de-industrialising military state, much in the same way that they have done in the historic past. What follows is an ethno-ar-chaeological model of summer site structure with an eye to identifying the typical activity areas that result from everyday subsistence activities. These consist of work with game animals (moose, wild deer, pheasant), preparing meals, working with wood, building a living environment made of temporary or medium-term dwellings and storage structures, and cultivating meadows with controlled burns. As an anthropologist, I have framed these observations by the way that Orochen Evenkis would perceive their own lifeworld. To this end, this article is also a reply to a long-running hear-say discussion, often heard among intellectuals in Russia, that Evenki culture has 'disappeared', has been 'destroyed' or has been overwritten by many decades of industrial development and restructuring in the region. Here I would like to document how the resources churned up by de-militarisation and de-industrialisation have allowed Evenkis to elaborate a complex taiga lifestyle built of canvas, plastic, as well as ungulate skins. I will argue that post-socialist collapse creates both challenges and rewarding environmental changes, which may not be of the order of ancient climate shifts, but nevertheless provide an interesting stage upon which to study the way that hunters adapt. Here I will argue that the vernacular architecture of hunters, as with any other people, responds to their ability to access certain materials in this case coverings. I will argue that post-socialism has allowed Evenkis and other Siberian peoples the luxury of creating multiple living and working spaces of a transitory nature which, although 'non-traditional', nevertheless bear a signature of taiga life. |
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