Paper short abstract:

The presentations aims to describe how Evenki reindeer herders and hunters form partnerships with their neighbours the wolves based on interpersonal relations, mutual learning and acknowledgment of certain established social norms contributing to the creation of joint domestic living-places. Futher it demonstrates, how the changing behaviuor and migrations of wolves challenges these modes of interactions in East Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, by exploring Evenki reindeer-herders and hunters’ mutual interactions with wolves, I aim to reveal how the wolf features in the daily lives of Evenki people and vice versa in the dynamically changing socio-environmental contexts of Siberia and the Russian Far East. I demonstrate that the wolf has been one of the most important animals in Evenki social life, morality, economy, and land use. Hence, wolves tend to be perceived by Evenki as non-human persons with their own individualities, potentialities for partnerships, and, often, distinctive characteristics that can be learned by humans through an active process of socialization and rivalry as well as from experiences of sharing the landscapes they inhabit. Thereby I show how Evenki form partnerships with their neighbours the wolves based on interpersonal relations, mutual learning and attunement, and acknowledgment of certain established social norms contributing to the creation of joint domestic living-places. Finally, I describe the contemporary ambiguity Evenki have to deal with in the context of their shifting economic and ecological environment as well as the changing behaviour of wolves.