The economy of reindeer farms in the north-west of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in the XXI century: paternalism and independence

Doi:10.33876/2311-0546/2019-46-2/36-54

Abstract

Reindeer husbandry today occupies an important place in the policy of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in relation to the regions of residence of the peoples of the North and also in the local municipal policy considered in the work of the Anabarsky district. The goals of the policy are to support and preserve the local culture and ensure the food security of the regions associated with reindeer herding. The reindeer breeders of Yuryung-Khaya today are building their economic strategies relying on the paternalistic policies pursued by the state, on the one hand, and actively using broader ties and entrepreneurial skills that were first demonstrated during the decline of the 1990s, on the other. In various contexts, ambivalence is manifested in the behavior of reindeer herders: alternating avoidance practices with the desire for greater autonomy and appeal to the authority of the state. Modern reindeer herders of Yuryung-Khaya to a greater or lesser extent use part of the available resources, not only to meet their primary needs, but also to improve their well-being and strengthen their household.

References

1. Anderson, D.D. 1998. Tundroviki: Ekologiia i samosoznanie taimyrskikh evenkov i dolgan [Tundra People: Ecology and Identity of the Taimyr Evenks and Dolgans]. Novosibirsk: Izdatel’stvo Sibirskogo otdeleniia RAN.
2. Anderson, D.G. 2006. Is Siberian Reindeer Herding in Crisis? Living with Reindeer Fifteen Years after the End of State Socialism. Nomadic Peoples 10 (2): 87–104.
3. Baskin, L.M. 2011. Sovremennoe olenevodstvo v Rossii: sostoianie, mobil’nost’, prava sobstvennosti, paternalizm gosudarstva [Current Reindeer Herding in Russia: Condition, Mobility, Property Rights, State Paternalism]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 2: 28–43.
4. Bourdie, P. 2016. O gosudarstve. Kurs lektsii v Kollezh de Frans (1989–1992) [About the State: Lecture Course at Collège de France (1989–1992)]. Moscow: Delo.
5. Davydov, V. 2014. Coming Back to the Same Places: The Ethnography of Human-Reindeer Relations in the Northern Baikal Region. Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 8 (2): 7–32.
6. Davydov, V.N. 2008. Natsional’naia evenkiiskaia derevnia na Severnom Baikale: soprotivlenie dominiruiushchemu diskursu [National Evenk Village on Northern Baikal: Resistance to the Dominant Discourse]. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsial’noi antropologii XI (3): 146–163.
7. Davydov, V.N. 2014. Fishery in “Free Spaces”: Non-Compliance with Fishery Regulations in a Northern Baikal Evenki Village. Polar Record 50 (4): 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247414000163
8. Gray, P.A. 2016. Sovremennoe sostoianie olenevodstva na Chukotke [The Present State of Reindeer Herding in Chukotka], transl. by S.V. Sokolovskii. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6: 44–56.
9. Gurvich, I.S. 1966. Etnicheskaia istoriia Severo-Vostoka Sibiri [Ethnic History of the North-East of Siberia]. Moscow: Nauka.
10. Ivanova, A.A., and F.M. Stammler. 2017. Mnogoobrazie upravliaemosti prirodnymi resursami v rossiiskoi Arktike [Diversity of Natural Resource Management in the Russian Arctic]. Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniia 4: 210–225.
11. Khakhovskaia, L.N. 2011. Sovetskaia modernizatsiia olenevodstva v otdalennykh severnykh regionakh (na primere Anadyrskogo raiona Chukotki) [Soviet Modernization of Reindeer Husbandry in the Remote Northern Regions (On the Example of the Anadyr District of Chukotka)]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6: 112–127.
12. King, A.D. 2002. Without Deer There is No Culture, Nothing. Anthropology and humanism 27 (2): 133–164.
13. Krupnik, I. 2000. Reindeer Pastoralism in Modern Siberia: Research and Survival in the Time of Crash. Polar Research 19 (1): 49–56.
14. Popov, A.A. 1937. Tekhnika u dolgan [Dolgans Technique]. Sovetskaia etnografiia 1: 91–136.
15. Povorozniuk, O.A. 2011. Zabaikal’skie evenki: sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie i kul’turnye transformatsii v XX–XXI vekakh [Transbaikal Evenks: Socio-Economic and Cultural Transformations in the 20th–21th Centuries]. Moscow: IEA RAN.
16. Sirina, A.A. 2010. Ot sovkhoza k rodovoi obshchine. Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie transformatsii u narodov Severa v kontse XX veka [From the Farm to the Tribal Community: Socio-Economic Transformations of the Peoples of the North at the End of the 20th Century]. Moscow: IEA RAN.
17. Sirina, A.A. 2012. Evenki i eveny v sovremennom mire [Evenki and Evens in the Modern World]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.
18. Sirina, A.A., and V.N. Davydov. 2017. «…Ne imeiushchie ni khlebopashestva, ni skotovodstva, ni olenei, a tol’ko odnu lish’ rechku etu»: paternalizm i rynochnaia ekonomika v severo-vostochnom Pribaikal’e [«... Having neither Arable Farming, nor Cattle Breeding, nor Deer, But Only One This River»: Paternalism and Market Economy in the Northeastern Baikal Region]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 1: 70–85.
19. Skott, J. 2005. Blagimi namereniiami gosudarstva. Pochemu i kak provalilis’ proekty uluchsheniia uslovii chelovecheskoi zhizni [Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed], transl. by E.N. Gusinskogo and Yu.I. Turchinova. Moskow: Universitetskaia kniga, 2005.
20. Sokolovskii, S.V. 2001. Problemy samoopredeleniia i samoupravleniia korennykh narodov (obzor) [Problems of Self-Determination and Self-Governance of Indigenous Peoples (Review)]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 2: 17–30.
21. Ssorin-Chaikov, N.V. 2012. Gobbs v Sibiri: sotsial’naia zhizn’ gosudarstva (iz knigi “Sotsial’naia zhizn’ gosudarstva v severnoi Sibiri”) [Hobbes in Siberia: The Social Life of the State (From the Book “The Social Life of the State in Northern Siberia”)]. Sotsiologiia vlasti 4–5 (1): 155–187.
22. Struchkov, A.I. 2005. Ocherki po istorii Bulunskogo ulusa [Essays on the History of Bulunsky Ulus]. Yakutsk: Bichik.
23. Ventsel, A. 2005. Reindeer, Rodina and Reciprocity: Kinship and Property Relations in a Siberian Village. Münster: Lit-Verlag.
24. Vorobev, D. 2011. “Dikovka” v Chirinde  – promysel dikogo severnogo olenia v XXI stoletii [Wild Hunting in Chirinda  – Wild Reindeer Hunting in the 21st Century]. In “Ne liubopytstva radi, a poznaniia dlia...”: K 75-letiiu Yuriia Borisovicha Simchenko [“Not for Curiosity, but for Knowledge...”: To the 75th Anniversary of Yuri Borisovich Simchenko], edited by N.A. Dubova and Yu.N. Kvashnin. Moscow: Staryi sad.
25. Zelizer, V. 2004. Sotsial’noe znachenie deneg: den’gi na bulavki, cheki, posobiia po bednosti i drugie denezhnye edinitsy [The Social Value of Money: Money on Pins, Checks, Benefits for Poverty and Other Monetary Units. Moscow: Izdatel’skii dom GU-VShE.