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Abstract

This paper examines landscape perception by Eveny, indigenous hunters, and reindeer herders of Northern Yakutia. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork conducted in Yakutia, it explores how Eveny relate to the landscape through mobility, subsistence practices, and local knowledge.

I argue that for Eveny, the landscape is not a neutral physical terrain but a vibrant, relational space animated by sentient beings - animals, ancestral beings, and master-spirits. Within this animistic ontology, the taiga is perceived through multiple signs and the embodied practices of dwelling, such as hunting, herding, and daily movements. Knowledge of the landscape, therefore, is enacted through lived engagement and the practical skills necessary for dwelling in it.

These perceptual and ontological relations coexist with, and have been reshaped by, the profound historical transformations introduced by Soviet modernization policy in the Arctic. Collectivization, sedentarization, and new territorial-administrative regimes altered mobility patterns, economic activities, and the social organization of Eveny people. Despite these transformations, Eveny relations with the land remain grounded in animistic perceptions and multispecies interactions, particularly with reindeer and predators such as wolves, bears, and eagles.

I further argue that Eveny identity is multilayered and dynamic, shaped by the interplay between indigenous landscape practices, the legacies of Soviet governance, and the political-economic conditions of the contemporary Russian state. Landscape acts as a vital domain through which knowledge, belonging, and moral relations are produced, negotiated, and transmitted. By analyzing the entanglement of environment, history, and identity, the paper contributes to broader debates on space, power, and indigenous knowledge in Northern Siberia. It shows how indigenous dwelling practices challenge the notion of landscape as a passive, purely material setting.