When Chinese and Russian Evenki Meet: Transborder Reindeer Herders’ Cross-Views

• Main Authors: Dumont, Aurore, Lavrillier, Alexandra, Gabyshev, Semen
• Other Authors: Chine, Corée, Japon (CCJ), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL), École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Cultures, Environnements, Arctique, Représentations, Climat (CEARC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: Evenki; transborder people; Reindeer herding; Participative method; Siberia; China; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04596524

International audience Based on a collaboration between two anthropologists specialising in China andSiberia, an Evenki reindeer herder and co-researcher from Russia and Evenki reindeerherders from China, as well as on fieldwork data gathered separately from the 1990sand collectively in 2014, this paper examines the cross-views of the Evenki from bothsides of the Sino-Russian border. Using what we call a ‘cross-view methodology’, weexplore what emerged when this transborder people gather for the first in China afterdecades of separation. After our methodology, we present the Chinese and RussianEvenki’s recent ethnohistory, their specificities, and common features. We then analysethe intellectuals’ meetings of the 2000s and the reindeer herders’ mutual interests.We explore some cross-views allowed by the pan-Evenki encounters we organised in 2014: the role of Evenki language, human-nature relationships, hunting and reindeerherding, identities, and a real or symbolic ‘porosity’ of a border.