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Climate change among nomadic and settled Tungus of Siberia: continuity and changes in economic and ritual relationships with the natural environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2013

Alexandra Lavrillier
Alexandra Lavrillier*
Affiliation:
European Centre for the Arctic (CEARC)/University of Versailles and Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcités /CNRS UMR 8582, Paris, France ([email protected])
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Abstract

Living in close relationship with the Siberian environment, for several decades the Tungus (Evenk and Even peoples) have been noticing numerous changes in climate, flora and fauna. Based on fieldwork among reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen in Yakutia, the Amur region and Kamchatka, this paper explores how climate change is perceived, and how it causes economic, social and ritual changes. It questions the modifications of the economic and religious human-environment relationships through various aspects. It analyses the indigenous perception of a link between the environment and identity and the indigenous notion of adaptation and vulnerability. It also compares their adaptive strategies that either use old techniques, or trigger mutations. In this context, the notion of reciprocity seems to be disappearing and a new notion of time-space in managing the environment is appearing. This paper analyses the religious changes, such as the creation of new rituals and millenarian narratives or the rebirth of shamanistic legends.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 49 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: POLAR WORLDS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2011 , July 2013 , pp. 260 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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