Economic Acculturation of Lower Ilim Evenki: Farmers and Reindeer Breeders (XVIII - Early XX Centuries)

Abstract

The issue of acculturation of the indigenous population of Siberia is considered on the example of the Lower Ilim group of Evenki. The emergence of “yasak villages” is studied as a transitional stage between nomadic nature management and peasant farming. It is shown that the reduction in the number of Lower Ilim Evenki is largely due to their transition to the peasant class, which was not recorded in the documents. Attention is paid to the impact of natural and sociocultural conditions on the transformation of nature management and lifestyle. It was established that the factors of neighborhood and characterized by strip farming living with the Russian population contributed to the borrowing of agriculture only when the natural environment allowed it and there were accompanying circumstances, such as the loss of deer, and the reduced economic potential of the nomadic collective. Two main types of economic acculturation with stability and efficiency have been identified. The acculturation of Lower Ilim Evenki is considered on the basis of archival sources. The novelty of the work consists in the introduction into the scientific circulation of documents that allow you to reconstruct the course of economic and social changes - from the traditional commercial-reindeer herding lifestyle to settled lifestyle and a change in ethnic self-identification. It is noted that the attention to the mixed Evenki-Russian population from the side of researchers of the 1920s was associated with the search for theoretical positions for the transformation of the native economy.

Keywords

• evenki
• tungus
• settlement
• yasak villages
• low ilim foreign government
• roving foreigners
• nomadic foreigners
• agriculture
• reindeer husbandry
• identity