Cet article traite des objectifs et de la conception d'un portail communautaire ouvert de toponym... more Cet article traite des objectifs et de la conception d'un portail communautaire ouvert de toponymie donnant accès aux données d'un système d'information géographique (SIG), fondé sur les noms de lieux autochtones des Evenks. La plupart des projets de toponymie autochtone proposés en ligne sont destinés soit à un usage professionnel par la recherche, soit à servir de répertoire définitif du savoir autochtone. La forme la plus commune employée pour documenter et représenter les systèmes de dénomination des lieux autochtones demeure l'atlas toponymique. Pourtant, notre comparaison de noms de lieux dans le temps et dans l'espace montre à l'évidence qu'il existe, aux côtés de la stabilité et du conservatisme habituellement attribués aux noms de lieux autochtones, un modèle dynamique de dénomination géographique qui se retrouve dans les sociétés nomades, où les noms ne sont pas simplement transmis d'une génération à l'autre, mais sont modifiés ou réinventés. Pour obtenir ce résultat, il a fallu aborder par différentes approches les méthodes employées par les chercheurs et les chercheuses pour collecter et représenter les concepts géospatiaux et les noms de lieux dans les sociétés nomades, à l'aide de la technologie SIG. Notre projet aborde cette question par la création d'un portail numérique en accès libre alliant un SIG à la cartographie vernaculaire et à la toponymie autochtones, à un grand nombre de données sur le sens et l'usage des toponymes par les Autochtones, ainsi qu'à leur évolution et à leur transformation. Nous appelons cette méthode « processus toponymique », et plaidons en faveur de l'application d'une approche sémiotique de la documentation et de la représentation du savoir toponymique autochtone fondée sur l'utilisation d'un SIG accessible en ligne.
This paper examines vernacular weather observations amongst rural people on Sakhalin, Russia's la... more This paper examines vernacular weather observations amongst rural people on Sakhalin, Russia's largest island on the Pacific Coast, and their relationship to the ice. It is based on a weather diary (2000-2016) of one of the local inhabitants and fieldwork that the author conducted in the settlement of Trambaus in 2016. The diary as a community-based weather monitoring allows us to examine how people understand, perceive and deal with the weather both daily and in the long-term perspective. Research argues that amongst all natural phenomena, the ice is the most crucial for the local inhabitants as it determines human subsistence activities, navigation and relations with other environmental forces and beings. People perceive the ice as having an agency, engage in a dialogue with it, learn and adjust themselves to its drifting patterns. Over the past decade, the inability to predict the ice's behaviour has become a major problem affecting people's well-being in the settlement. The paper advocates further integrating vernacular weather observations and their relations with natural forces into research on climate change and local fisheries management policies.
The article examines the process of production and change of place names based on data collected ... more The article examines the process of production and change of place names based on data collected in 2017 among the Okhotsk Ewenki, the easternmost Indigenous community in Siberia, Russia. Through ethnographic and semiotic analysis, we show that Ewenki place names are not simply reproduced, but rather generated and transformed through empathic contact and engagement within a semiotic circle of shared knowledge and praxis among humans and other beings encountered, especially in ambulatory travel. We consider place names as complex signs which evolve from landscape, mobility as a spatial practice, and relationships with nonhuman beings. Through ecosemiotics and nonhuman ontology, we examine how the concept of shifting landscapes and interactions with different environmental agents, especially animals, contribute to the production of space and place names and their changes. We also show that the responsible voicing of the land with place names is related to Ewenki understandings of territorial prerogatives, and rights, which are perceived as being shared with other beings.
This paper analyses landscape terminology in Ewenki, one of the Tungusic languages spoken by indi... more This paper analyses landscape terminology in Ewenki, one of the Tungusic languages spoken by indigenous hunters and reindeer herders in Siberia, using examples of three key conceptual categories: ‘mountain’ / elevation, flat terrain and river terms. Based on linguistic data obtained from 14 Ewenki communities across a large, diverse geographic terrain, semantic analysis suggests that the system of landscape terminology in Ewenki is heterogeneous with significant variations in the meaning of landscape terms and categories one can observe across the dialect continuum. The uniqueness of the Ewenki landscape terminology lies in the fact that the same term can reference completely different landscape features, remaining semantically linked to all of these objects. This variation in meaning is especially evident in terms for ‘plains’, as this type of landscape is particularly prone to transformations in their Siberia homeland. These changes reflect the Ewenki people’s unique nomadic engagement with the land, their flexible adaptation to new ecosystems and their perception of landscapes as being constantly changing or fluid. The relationships between the meanings of the terms across the dialect continuum are considered within ethnophysiography and ontology of the geographic domain.
Аннотация. Статья представляет собор обзор современных работ по этно-физиографии и исследованиям ... more Аннотация. Статья представляет собор обзор современных работ по этно-физиографии и исследованиям пространства и места (space and place studies). Этнофизиография-новое междисциплинарное направление науки на стыке культурной географии, лингвистики и социальной антропологии. Она исследует то, как разные сообщества воспринимают и концептуализируют ландшафтные черты и объекты. Автор предлагает ввести методы и теоретические подходы эт-нофизиографии в исследования ландшафта и названий мест среди коренных народов Севера и Сибири. Этот регион с его многочисленными языковыми меньшинствами практически не представлен в кросс-культурных исследованиях по этнофизиографии.
В статье представлен анализ отношения к языку, коммуникативных ситуаций и кодовых переключений ср... more В статье представлен анализ отношения к языку, коммуникативных ситуаций и кодовых переключений среди эвенков п.г.т. Тура Эвенкийского муниципального района Красноярского края. Статья основана на материалах социолингвистического опроса, наблюдений и интервью, собранных в период с 2007 по 2014 г. Анализируется противоречие между отношением эвенков к эвенкийскому языку как «вымирающему» и неуместному в городе и его использованием в различных коммуникативных ситуациях, как в общении с исследователем, так и внутри сообщества. Автор приходит к выводу, что кодовые переключения с русского на эвенкийский язык зависимы скорее от контекста общения и установок говорящих, нежели от сфер употребления языка. Соответственно использование эвенкийского языка не ограничивается какой-либо детерминированной сферой общения, например связанной с «традиционной» культурой, что является довольно широко распространенным стереотипом. Статья призывает к тому, чтобы в условиях языкового сдвига и роста доли городского населения больше внимания уделялось изучению коммуникативных практик на миноритарных языках в крупных поселках и городах.
The paper presents an analysis of language attitude, communicative situations and code-switching among the Evenki people in the urban settlement of Tura, the Evenki Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is based on the author’s observations, interviews, and survey conducted in the period between 2007 and 2014. The research highlights the contradiction between the attitude of the Evenki speakers to their native language as vanishing and inappropriate in a city and its actual use in various communicative situations, both in interaction with the researcher and within the community. The author comes to the conclusion that code-switching from Russian to Evenki depends more on the context of communication and speakers’ attitudes rather than on language domains. Accordingly, the use of the Evenki language is not limited to any determined domains of language use, for example, associated with “traditional” culture, which is a dominant stereotype. The paper argues that—in the situation of a language shift and with a growing percentage of the urban population—more attention should be paid to the study of communicative practices in minority languages in urban settlements and cities.
This article discusses hybrid identities and language contact of the Indigenous peoples of Southe... more This article discusses hybrid identities and language contact of the Indigenous peoples of Southern Sakhalin, Russia’s biggest island located in the Far East. It argues that mobility, advanced techniques of navigation, and a wide range of contacts with the neighbouring populations has facilitated multilingualism on Sakhalin. The international spirit and language super-diversity that were preserved until the beginning of the 20th century were significantly violated by the colonial regimes of Japan and Soviet Russia with their strong focus on ethnic and language classification. However, numerous redistributions of administrative boundaries, mass resettlements, and mixed marriages have paradoxically made the intervening of languages and identities in southern Sakhalin even more complicated. These radical changes further challenge current ethnic and language policies as well as development practices that rested on outdated perspectives on ethnic purity and traditional authenticity. These policies result in the exclusion of many Indigenous people, who fail to fit the dominant discourse on language and identity, which is colonial in nature. A more nuanced account of reality, though, raises a variety of questions ranging from special rights, to Indigenous peoples speaking non-Indigenous languages, to the adequacy of language revitalisation in ethnically mixed communities.
This paper examines processes by which Alaskan and Siberian indigenous peoples have been rendered... more This paper examines processes by which Alaskan and Siberian indigenous peoples have been rendered as political subjects, “traditional” hunters-gathers, and sustainable enterprise owners amid their respective colonial and post-colonial industrial economies. The comparison is instructive because, despite being part of diametrically opposed (Soviet versus USA) national political organizations, policies and the exercise of biopower towards indigenous peoples have proceeded along similar lines. In the post-colonial era, these lines have converged around neoliberal and social development policies which support indigenous “self-determination” through minimal subsistence rights and the creation of ethnic enterprises and partnerships with non-indigenous capitalist corporations. On both sides of the North Pacific, however, this transition has come about without formal recognition of the well-developed systems of aboriginal marine tenure and fishing rights, as has been the case in other indigenous-state Treaty regimes (e.g., Canada and New Zealand). The lack of such protections, we argue, has led to poor management of coastal zones as social-ecological systems, making sustainable indigenous livelihoods and small enterprises based on marine resources difficult to develop or maintain. We examine, in particular, the relationship of Sakhalin and Southeast Alaska indigenous hunter-fishers as strong, independent peoples whose salmon fishing rights were usurped and their corporate groups reorganized to fit notions of modern industrial and neoliberal social-economic organization. Further, we argue for more synergistic policies between indigenous subsistence and commercial economies to reduce ‘black market’ transactions and conserve valuable fishing knowledge, skills, and cultural practices which are vital to heritage, livelihoods, and wellbeing.
This article deals with the relationships between identity , language, and " clan organization " ... more This article deals with the relationships between identity , language, and " clan organization " among Ilimpii Evenki, and how these relationships formed and changed over the course of the twentieth century under the influence of Soviet nationalities policy, administrative reform, and local discursive practices. It is based on the author's field materials collected in the period 2007 to 2012 in the Evenki Municipal District (Evenkia) of Krasnoiarskii Krai, as well as on unpublished sources stored in the archives of Tura (Evenkia), Krasnoiarsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. The central question under investigation deals with why the names of the former administrative clans of contemporary Ilimpii Evenki were used to label language communities; the results suggest that the main reasons were the specifics of the Soviet nationalities policy of the 1920s—which shaped the establishment of national regions on the basis of Evenki " clan " organization—as well the emergence of a new literary Evenki language and resettlement campaigns in the mid-twentieth century.
This paper deals with the current sociolinguistic situation among the indigenous peoples living o... more This paper deals with the current sociolinguistic situation among the indigenous peoples living on the island of Sakhalin, the Russian Far East. The discussion is based on the criteria developed by the UNESCO project on endangered languages for the assessment of language vitality and usage of minority languages in different domains, such as home, education, and media. The paper also discusses language and identity issues, especially the problem concerning the applicability of official statistical data to the description of language shift in multiethnic societies of the type present on Sakhalin. Статья посвящена социолингвистической ситуации среди коренных малочисленных народов, живущих на Сахалине, на Дальнем Востоке России. Она базируется на критериях, разработанных группой ЮНЕСКО по языкам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения, для оценки языковой ситуации в целом и изучения использования языков меньшинств в различных сферах: дома, в системе образования, в СМИ и т.д. Кроме того, в статье обсуждаются вопросы соотношения языка и идентичности, в частности проблема применимости официальной статистики к описанию языкового сдвига в таких многоэтничных сообществах, каким является Сахалин.
This article explores S. M. Shirokogoroff’s critical approach to the study of language as a part ... more This article explores S. M. Shirokogoroff’s critical approach to the study of language as a part of culture and a means of scientific classifications of mankind into a certain number of linguistic categories. The purpose of this article is to highlight a peculiar but rather underestimated contribution of Shirokogoroff to sociolinguistics, as his ideas were often stranded in critical relation to much that was dominant in social and linguistic thought in the first part of the twentieth century. Three dimensions of his work are mainly the focus of this article: the Ural-Altaic hypothesis, linguistic classifications, and the creation of standard languages in Soviet Russia. Finally, it discusses the applicability of Shirokogoroff’s critique to the contemporary Russian nationalities’ policy towards indigenous minorities.
This article examines discussions on language maintenance among the indigenous inhabitants of the... more This article examines discussions on language maintenance among the indigenous inhabitants of the Evenki municipal district of Krasnoiarsk krai, specifically exploring the model of a nomadic preschool as a means of Evenki revitalization. Relying on field materials, the author aims to clarify why Evenki leaders have chosen this model over others. She concludes that the choice may be explained by primordialist understanding of language and ethnicity among indigenous peoples. In conditions of language shift, this choice rarely stimulates implementation of adequate language planning.
В статье исследуются определения “традиционной экономики” и стратегии ее развития в современных у... more В статье исследуются определения “традиционной экономики” и стратегии ее развития в современных условиях, используемые государством, промышленными компаниями (“Сахалин Энерджи”) и одним из коренных малочисленных народов Севера – нивхами. Данные исследования показывают, что популярная концепция устойчивого развития может стать механизмом, оказывающим влияние на традиционную экономику, а устойчивое развитие понимается как стадия социальной эволюции, которую коренным народам еще только предстоит достичь. Автор приходит к выводу, что представление о “примитивном обществе” в отношении коренных народов Севера продолжает успешно существовать в постсоветском дискурсе.
Интернет является неотъемлемой частью социальной жизни людей, живущих не только в городах, но и в... more Интернет является неотъемлемой частью социальной жизни людей, живущих не только в городах, но и в сельской местности. Некоторые исследователи даже предпочитают использовать термин «онлайновая среда обитания». В последнее десятилетие в России с проникновение интернета в отдаленные поселки наблюдается рост интернет-сообществ коренных народов Севера, в которых участники обсуждают широкий круг вопросов, касающихся родной культуры и языка (хотя наиболее активными участниками по-прежнему являются преимущественно городские жители). Автор считает, что подобные сообщества позволяют их участникам эффективнее конструировать формы культурной аутентичности и, соответственно, относительно быстрее распространять их на максимально широкую аудиторию. Данная статья посвящена одному из таких сообществ – группе «Эвенки» ВКонтакте. В ней рассматривается, каким образом эвенки, используя информационные технологии, репрезентируют современную эвенкийскую культуру. Основная проблема заключается в том, что идея использования интернета в деле продвижении эвенкийской культуры входит в противоречие с широко распространенным в общественном дискурсе взгляде на технологии, как на основную угрозу «традиционности», исконному образу жизни и даже сохранению языков коренных народов. Обсуждение этой проблемы участниками группы «Эвенки», их попытки найти выход из сложившегося противоречия, а также их представления о будущем эвенкийской культуры, находятся в фокусе статьи. Работа основана на материалах наблюдений, анкетирования, интервью и контент-анализа, собранных автором во ходе «полевой» работы в группе «Эвенки» в 2013-2014 гг.
The Internet has become an inevitable part of social life. Some researchers even prefer to use a term “online habitat” referring to everyday people’s activity on the web. Over the last decade, in Russia there has been a significant growth in the number of ethnicallyoriented online communities of the indigenous peoples of the North as a result of the Internet penetration into the most remote settlements (though the most active members of them are still constituted mainly by urban population). Their participants discuss a wide range of questions concerning their culture and language. The author believes that such online communities make it possible for their members to construct more effectively new forms of cultural authenticity and, therefore, relatively quickly spread them among the wide audience. This article is devoted to one of those communities, a group named “The Evenks” on VKontakte. It considers how the group’s participants represent the contemporary Evenk culture by using information technologies. However, the main problem is that an idea of the use of the Internet as a means of promotion of the Evenk culture comes into contradiction with the widely-spread view on technologies as a threat to “traditionality”, traditional way of life, and even maintenance of the Evenk language. Discussions of the community’s members surrounding this problem, their attempts to find the way out of it, as well as their thoughts on the Evenk culture’s future constitute the main focus of the article. The material was collected by the author though participant observation, interview, questionnaire survey and content-analysis during her “fieldwork” in the online community in 2013-2014.
Cet article traite des objectifs et de la conception d'un portail communautaire ouvert de toponym... more Cet article traite des objectifs et de la conception d'un portail communautaire ouvert de toponymie donnant accès aux données d'un système d'information géographique (SIG), fondé sur les noms de lieux autochtones des Evenks. La plupart des projets de toponymie autochtone proposés en ligne sont destinés soit à un usage professionnel par la recherche, soit à servir de répertoire définitif du savoir autochtone. La forme la plus commune employée pour documenter et représenter les systèmes de dénomination des lieux autochtones demeure l'atlas toponymique. Pourtant, notre comparaison de noms de lieux dans le temps et dans l'espace montre à l'évidence qu'il existe, aux côtés de la stabilité et du conservatisme habituellement attribués aux noms de lieux autochtones, un modèle dynamique de dénomination géographique qui se retrouve dans les sociétés nomades, où les noms ne sont pas simplement transmis d'une génération à l'autre, mais sont modifiés ou réinventés. Pour obtenir ce résultat, il a fallu aborder par différentes approches les méthodes employées par les chercheurs et les chercheuses pour collecter et représenter les concepts géospatiaux et les noms de lieux dans les sociétés nomades, à l'aide de la technologie SIG. Notre projet aborde cette question par la création d'un portail numérique en accès libre alliant un SIG à la cartographie vernaculaire et à la toponymie autochtones, à un grand nombre de données sur le sens et l'usage des toponymes par les Autochtones, ainsi qu'à leur évolution et à leur transformation. Nous appelons cette méthode « processus toponymique », et plaidons en faveur de l'application d'une approche sémiotique de la documentation et de la représentation du savoir toponymique autochtone fondée sur l'utilisation d'un SIG accessible en ligne.
This paper examines vernacular weather observations amongst rural people on Sakhalin, Russia's la... more This paper examines vernacular weather observations amongst rural people on Sakhalin, Russia's largest island on the Pacific Coast, and their relationship to the ice. It is based on a weather diary (2000-2016) of one of the local inhabitants and fieldwork that the author conducted in the settlement of Trambaus in 2016. The diary as a community-based weather monitoring allows us to examine how people understand, perceive and deal with the weather both daily and in the long-term perspective. Research argues that amongst all natural phenomena, the ice is the most crucial for the local inhabitants as it determines human subsistence activities, navigation and relations with other environmental forces and beings. People perceive the ice as having an agency, engage in a dialogue with it, learn and adjust themselves to its drifting patterns. Over the past decade, the inability to predict the ice's behaviour has become a major problem affecting people's well-being in the settlement. The paper advocates further integrating vernacular weather observations and their relations with natural forces into research on climate change and local fisheries management policies.
The article examines the process of production and change of place names based on data collected ... more The article examines the process of production and change of place names based on data collected in 2017 among the Okhotsk Ewenki, the easternmost Indigenous community in Siberia, Russia. Through ethnographic and semiotic analysis, we show that Ewenki place names are not simply reproduced, but rather generated and transformed through empathic contact and engagement within a semiotic circle of shared knowledge and praxis among humans and other beings encountered, especially in ambulatory travel. We consider place names as complex signs which evolve from landscape, mobility as a spatial practice, and relationships with nonhuman beings. Through ecosemiotics and nonhuman ontology, we examine how the concept of shifting landscapes and interactions with different environmental agents, especially animals, contribute to the production of space and place names and their changes. We also show that the responsible voicing of the land with place names is related to Ewenki understandings of territorial prerogatives, and rights, which are perceived as being shared with other beings.
This paper analyses landscape terminology in Ewenki, one of the Tungusic languages spoken by indi... more This paper analyses landscape terminology in Ewenki, one of the Tungusic languages spoken by indigenous hunters and reindeer herders in Siberia, using examples of three key conceptual categories: ‘mountain’ / elevation, flat terrain and river terms. Based on linguistic data obtained from 14 Ewenki communities across a large, diverse geographic terrain, semantic analysis suggests that the system of landscape terminology in Ewenki is heterogeneous with significant variations in the meaning of landscape terms and categories one can observe across the dialect continuum. The uniqueness of the Ewenki landscape terminology lies in the fact that the same term can reference completely different landscape features, remaining semantically linked to all of these objects. This variation in meaning is especially evident in terms for ‘plains’, as this type of landscape is particularly prone to transformations in their Siberia homeland. These changes reflect the Ewenki people’s unique nomadic engagement with the land, their flexible adaptation to new ecosystems and their perception of landscapes as being constantly changing or fluid. The relationships between the meanings of the terms across the dialect continuum are considered within ethnophysiography and ontology of the geographic domain.
Аннотация. Статья представляет собор обзор современных работ по этно-физиографии и исследованиям ... more Аннотация. Статья представляет собор обзор современных работ по этно-физиографии и исследованиям пространства и места (space and place studies). Этнофизиография-новое междисциплинарное направление науки на стыке культурной географии, лингвистики и социальной антропологии. Она исследует то, как разные сообщества воспринимают и концептуализируют ландшафтные черты и объекты. Автор предлагает ввести методы и теоретические подходы эт-нофизиографии в исследования ландшафта и названий мест среди коренных народов Севера и Сибири. Этот регион с его многочисленными языковыми меньшинствами практически не представлен в кросс-культурных исследованиях по этнофизиографии.
В статье представлен анализ отношения к языку, коммуникативных ситуаций и кодовых переключений ср... more В статье представлен анализ отношения к языку, коммуникативных ситуаций и кодовых переключений среди эвенков п.г.т. Тура Эвенкийского муниципального района Красноярского края. Статья основана на материалах социолингвистического опроса, наблюдений и интервью, собранных в период с 2007 по 2014 г. Анализируется противоречие между отношением эвенков к эвенкийскому языку как «вымирающему» и неуместному в городе и его использованием в различных коммуникативных ситуациях, как в общении с исследователем, так и внутри сообщества. Автор приходит к выводу, что кодовые переключения с русского на эвенкийский язык зависимы скорее от контекста общения и установок говорящих, нежели от сфер употребления языка. Соответственно использование эвенкийского языка не ограничивается какой-либо детерминированной сферой общения, например связанной с «традиционной» культурой, что является довольно широко распространенным стереотипом. Статья призывает к тому, чтобы в условиях языкового сдвига и роста доли городского населения больше внимания уделялось изучению коммуникативных практик на миноритарных языках в крупных поселках и городах.
The paper presents an analysis of language attitude, communicative situations and code-switching among the Evenki people in the urban settlement of Tura, the Evenki Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is based on the author’s observations, interviews, and survey conducted in the period between 2007 and 2014. The research highlights the contradiction between the attitude of the Evenki speakers to their native language as vanishing and inappropriate in a city and its actual use in various communicative situations, both in interaction with the researcher and within the community. The author comes to the conclusion that code-switching from Russian to Evenki depends more on the context of communication and speakers’ attitudes rather than on language domains. Accordingly, the use of the Evenki language is not limited to any determined domains of language use, for example, associated with “traditional” culture, which is a dominant stereotype. The paper argues that—in the situation of a language shift and with a growing percentage of the urban population—more attention should be paid to the study of communicative practices in minority languages in urban settlements and cities.
This article discusses hybrid identities and language contact of the Indigenous peoples of Southe... more This article discusses hybrid identities and language contact of the Indigenous peoples of Southern Sakhalin, Russia’s biggest island located in the Far East. It argues that mobility, advanced techniques of navigation, and a wide range of contacts with the neighbouring populations has facilitated multilingualism on Sakhalin. The international spirit and language super-diversity that were preserved until the beginning of the 20th century were significantly violated by the colonial regimes of Japan and Soviet Russia with their strong focus on ethnic and language classification. However, numerous redistributions of administrative boundaries, mass resettlements, and mixed marriages have paradoxically made the intervening of languages and identities in southern Sakhalin even more complicated. These radical changes further challenge current ethnic and language policies as well as development practices that rested on outdated perspectives on ethnic purity and traditional authenticity. These policies result in the exclusion of many Indigenous people, who fail to fit the dominant discourse on language and identity, which is colonial in nature. A more nuanced account of reality, though, raises a variety of questions ranging from special rights, to Indigenous peoples speaking non-Indigenous languages, to the adequacy of language revitalisation in ethnically mixed communities.
This paper examines processes by which Alaskan and Siberian indigenous peoples have been rendered... more This paper examines processes by which Alaskan and Siberian indigenous peoples have been rendered as political subjects, “traditional” hunters-gathers, and sustainable enterprise owners amid their respective colonial and post-colonial industrial economies. The comparison is instructive because, despite being part of diametrically opposed (Soviet versus USA) national political organizations, policies and the exercise of biopower towards indigenous peoples have proceeded along similar lines. In the post-colonial era, these lines have converged around neoliberal and social development policies which support indigenous “self-determination” through minimal subsistence rights and the creation of ethnic enterprises and partnerships with non-indigenous capitalist corporations. On both sides of the North Pacific, however, this transition has come about without formal recognition of the well-developed systems of aboriginal marine tenure and fishing rights, as has been the case in other indigenous-state Treaty regimes (e.g., Canada and New Zealand). The lack of such protections, we argue, has led to poor management of coastal zones as social-ecological systems, making sustainable indigenous livelihoods and small enterprises based on marine resources difficult to develop or maintain. We examine, in particular, the relationship of Sakhalin and Southeast Alaska indigenous hunter-fishers as strong, independent peoples whose salmon fishing rights were usurped and their corporate groups reorganized to fit notions of modern industrial and neoliberal social-economic organization. Further, we argue for more synergistic policies between indigenous subsistence and commercial economies to reduce ‘black market’ transactions and conserve valuable fishing knowledge, skills, and cultural practices which are vital to heritage, livelihoods, and wellbeing.
This article deals with the relationships between identity , language, and " clan organization " ... more This article deals with the relationships between identity , language, and " clan organization " among Ilimpii Evenki, and how these relationships formed and changed over the course of the twentieth century under the influence of Soviet nationalities policy, administrative reform, and local discursive practices. It is based on the author's field materials collected in the period 2007 to 2012 in the Evenki Municipal District (Evenkia) of Krasnoiarskii Krai, as well as on unpublished sources stored in the archives of Tura (Evenkia), Krasnoiarsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. The central question under investigation deals with why the names of the former administrative clans of contemporary Ilimpii Evenki were used to label language communities; the results suggest that the main reasons were the specifics of the Soviet nationalities policy of the 1920s—which shaped the establishment of national regions on the basis of Evenki " clan " organization—as well the emergence of a new literary Evenki language and resettlement campaigns in the mid-twentieth century.
This paper deals with the current sociolinguistic situation among the indigenous peoples living o... more This paper deals with the current sociolinguistic situation among the indigenous peoples living on the island of Sakhalin, the Russian Far East. The discussion is based on the criteria developed by the UNESCO project on endangered languages for the assessment of language vitality and usage of minority languages in different domains, such as home, education, and media. The paper also discusses language and identity issues, especially the problem concerning the applicability of official statistical data to the description of language shift in multiethnic societies of the type present on Sakhalin. Статья посвящена социолингвистической ситуации среди коренных малочисленных народов, живущих на Сахалине, на Дальнем Востоке России. Она базируется на критериях, разработанных группой ЮНЕСКО по языкам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения, для оценки языковой ситуации в целом и изучения использования языков меньшинств в различных сферах: дома, в системе образования, в СМИ и т.д. Кроме того, в статье обсуждаются вопросы соотношения языка и идентичности, в частности проблема применимости официальной статистики к описанию языкового сдвига в таких многоэтничных сообществах, каким является Сахалин.
This article explores S. M. Shirokogoroff’s critical approach to the study of language as a part ... more This article explores S. M. Shirokogoroff’s critical approach to the study of language as a part of culture and a means of scientific classifications of mankind into a certain number of linguistic categories. The purpose of this article is to highlight a peculiar but rather underestimated contribution of Shirokogoroff to sociolinguistics, as his ideas were often stranded in critical relation to much that was dominant in social and linguistic thought in the first part of the twentieth century. Three dimensions of his work are mainly the focus of this article: the Ural-Altaic hypothesis, linguistic classifications, and the creation of standard languages in Soviet Russia. Finally, it discusses the applicability of Shirokogoroff’s critique to the contemporary Russian nationalities’ policy towards indigenous minorities.
This article examines discussions on language maintenance among the indigenous inhabitants of the... more This article examines discussions on language maintenance among the indigenous inhabitants of the Evenki municipal district of Krasnoiarsk krai, specifically exploring the model of a nomadic preschool as a means of Evenki revitalization. Relying on field materials, the author aims to clarify why Evenki leaders have chosen this model over others. She concludes that the choice may be explained by primordialist understanding of language and ethnicity among indigenous peoples. In conditions of language shift, this choice rarely stimulates implementation of adequate language planning.
В статье исследуются определения “традиционной экономики” и стратегии ее развития в современных у... more В статье исследуются определения “традиционной экономики” и стратегии ее развития в современных условиях, используемые государством, промышленными компаниями (“Сахалин Энерджи”) и одним из коренных малочисленных народов Севера – нивхами. Данные исследования показывают, что популярная концепция устойчивого развития может стать механизмом, оказывающим влияние на традиционную экономику, а устойчивое развитие понимается как стадия социальной эволюции, которую коренным народам еще только предстоит достичь. Автор приходит к выводу, что представление о “примитивном обществе” в отношении коренных народов Севера продолжает успешно существовать в постсоветском дискурсе.
Интернет является неотъемлемой частью социальной жизни людей, живущих не только в городах, но и в... more Интернет является неотъемлемой частью социальной жизни людей, живущих не только в городах, но и в сельской местности. Некоторые исследователи даже предпочитают использовать термин «онлайновая среда обитания». В последнее десятилетие в России с проникновение интернета в отдаленные поселки наблюдается рост интернет-сообществ коренных народов Севера, в которых участники обсуждают широкий круг вопросов, касающихся родной культуры и языка (хотя наиболее активными участниками по-прежнему являются преимущественно городские жители). Автор считает, что подобные сообщества позволяют их участникам эффективнее конструировать формы культурной аутентичности и, соответственно, относительно быстрее распространять их на максимально широкую аудиторию. Данная статья посвящена одному из таких сообществ – группе «Эвенки» ВКонтакте. В ней рассматривается, каким образом эвенки, используя информационные технологии, репрезентируют современную эвенкийскую культуру. Основная проблема заключается в том, что идея использования интернета в деле продвижении эвенкийской культуры входит в противоречие с широко распространенным в общественном дискурсе взгляде на технологии, как на основную угрозу «традиционности», исконному образу жизни и даже сохранению языков коренных народов. Обсуждение этой проблемы участниками группы «Эвенки», их попытки найти выход из сложившегося противоречия, а также их представления о будущем эвенкийской культуры, находятся в фокусе статьи. Работа основана на материалах наблюдений, анкетирования, интервью и контент-анализа, собранных автором во ходе «полевой» работы в группе «Эвенки» в 2013-2014 гг.
The Internet has become an inevitable part of social life. Some researchers even prefer to use a term “online habitat” referring to everyday people’s activity on the web. Over the last decade, in Russia there has been a significant growth in the number of ethnicallyoriented online communities of the indigenous peoples of the North as a result of the Internet penetration into the most remote settlements (though the most active members of them are still constituted mainly by urban population). Their participants discuss a wide range of questions concerning their culture and language. The author believes that such online communities make it possible for their members to construct more effectively new forms of cultural authenticity and, therefore, relatively quickly spread them among the wide audience. This article is devoted to one of those communities, a group named “The Evenks” on VKontakte. It considers how the group’s participants represent the contemporary Evenk culture by using information technologies. However, the main problem is that an idea of the use of the Internet as a means of promotion of the Evenk culture comes into contradiction with the widely-spread view on technologies as a threat to “traditionality”, traditional way of life, and even maintenance of the Evenk language. Discussions of the community’s members surrounding this problem, their attempts to find the way out of it, as well as their thoughts on the Evenk culture’s future constitute the main focus of the article. The material was collected by the author though participant observation, interview, questionnaire survey and content-analysis during her “fieldwork” in the online community in 2013-2014.
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Papers by Nadezhda Mamontova
The paper presents an analysis of language attitude, communicative situations and code-switching among the Evenki people in the urban settlement of Tura, the Evenki Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is based on the author’s observations, interviews, and survey conducted in the period between 2007 and 2014. The research highlights the contradiction between the attitude of the Evenki speakers to their native language as vanishing and inappropriate in a city and its actual use in various communicative situations, both in interaction with the researcher and within the community. The author comes to the conclusion that code-switching from Russian to Evenki depends more on the context of communication and speakers’ attitudes rather than on language domains. Accordingly, the use of the Evenki language is not limited to any determined domains of language use, for example, associated with “traditional” culture, which is a dominant stereotype. The paper argues that—in the situation of a language shift and with a growing percentage of the urban population—more attention should be paid to the study of communicative practices in minority languages in urban settlements and cities.
located in the Far East. It argues that mobility, advanced techniques
of navigation, and a wide range of contacts with the neighbouring populations has facilitated multilingualism on Sakhalin. The international spirit and language super-diversity that were preserved until
the beginning of the 20th century were significantly violated by the
colonial regimes of Japan and Soviet Russia with their strong focus on
ethnic and language classification. However, numerous redistributions
of administrative boundaries, mass resettlements, and mixed marriages
have paradoxically made the intervening of languages and identities
in southern Sakhalin even more complicated. These radical changes
further challenge current ethnic and language policies as well as development practices that rested on outdated perspectives on ethnic purity and traditional authenticity. These policies result in the exclusion of many Indigenous people, who fail to fit the dominant discourse on
language and identity, which is colonial in nature. A more nuanced
account of reality, though, raises a variety of questions ranging from
special rights, to Indigenous peoples speaking non-Indigenous languages, to the adequacy of language revitalisation in ethnically mixed communities.
Статья посвящена социолингвистической ситуации среди коренных малочисленных народов, живущих на Сахалине, на Дальнем Востоке России. Она базируется на критериях, разработанных группой ЮНЕСКО по языкам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения, для оценки языковой ситуации в целом и изучения использования языков меньшинств в различных сферах: дома, в системе образования, в СМИ и т.д. Кроме того, в статье обсуждаются вопросы соотношения языка и идентичности, в частности проблема применимости официальной статистики к описанию языкового сдвига в таких многоэтничных сообществах, каким является Сахалин.
представление о “примитивном обществе” в отношении коренных народов Севера продолжает успешно существовать в постсоветском дискурсе.
The Internet has become an inevitable part of social life. Some researchers even prefer to use a term “online habitat” referring to everyday people’s activity on the web. Over the last decade, in Russia there has been a significant growth in the number of ethnicallyoriented online communities of the indigenous peoples of the North as a result of the Internet penetration into the most remote settlements (though the most active members of them are still constituted mainly by urban population). Their participants discuss a wide range of questions concerning their culture and language. The author believes that such online communities make it possible for their members to construct more effectively new forms of cultural authenticity and, therefore, relatively quickly spread them among the wide audience. This article is devoted to one of those communities, a group named “The Evenks” on VKontakte. It considers how the group’s participants represent the contemporary Evenk culture by using information technologies. However, the main problem is that an idea of the use of the Internet as a means of promotion of the Evenk culture comes into contradiction with the widely-spread view on technologies as a threat to “traditionality”, traditional way of life, and even maintenance of the Evenk language. Discussions of the community’s members surrounding this problem, their attempts to find the way out of it, as well as their thoughts on the Evenk culture’s future constitute the main focus of the article. The material was collected by the author though participant observation, interview, questionnaire survey and content-analysis during her “fieldwork” in the online community in 2013-2014.
The paper presents an analysis of language attitude, communicative situations and code-switching among the Evenki people in the urban settlement of Tura, the Evenki Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is based on the author’s observations, interviews, and survey conducted in the period between 2007 and 2014. The research highlights the contradiction between the attitude of the Evenki speakers to their native language as vanishing and inappropriate in a city and its actual use in various communicative situations, both in interaction with the researcher and within the community. The author comes to the conclusion that code-switching from Russian to Evenki depends more on the context of communication and speakers’ attitudes rather than on language domains. Accordingly, the use of the Evenki language is not limited to any determined domains of language use, for example, associated with “traditional” culture, which is a dominant stereotype. The paper argues that—in the situation of a language shift and with a growing percentage of the urban population—more attention should be paid to the study of communicative practices in minority languages in urban settlements and cities.
located in the Far East. It argues that mobility, advanced techniques
of navigation, and a wide range of contacts with the neighbouring populations has facilitated multilingualism on Sakhalin. The international spirit and language super-diversity that were preserved until
the beginning of the 20th century were significantly violated by the
colonial regimes of Japan and Soviet Russia with their strong focus on
ethnic and language classification. However, numerous redistributions
of administrative boundaries, mass resettlements, and mixed marriages
have paradoxically made the intervening of languages and identities
in southern Sakhalin even more complicated. These radical changes
further challenge current ethnic and language policies as well as development practices that rested on outdated perspectives on ethnic purity and traditional authenticity. These policies result in the exclusion of many Indigenous people, who fail to fit the dominant discourse on
language and identity, which is colonial in nature. A more nuanced
account of reality, though, raises a variety of questions ranging from
special rights, to Indigenous peoples speaking non-Indigenous languages, to the adequacy of language revitalisation in ethnically mixed communities.
Статья посвящена социолингвистической ситуации среди коренных малочисленных народов, живущих на Сахалине, на Дальнем Востоке России. Она базируется на критериях, разработанных группой ЮНЕСКО по языкам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения, для оценки языковой ситуации в целом и изучения использования языков меньшинств в различных сферах: дома, в системе образования, в СМИ и т.д. Кроме того, в статье обсуждаются вопросы соотношения языка и идентичности, в частности проблема применимости официальной статистики к описанию языкового сдвига в таких многоэтничных сообществах, каким является Сахалин.
представление о “примитивном обществе” в отношении коренных народов Севера продолжает успешно существовать в постсоветском дискурсе.
The Internet has become an inevitable part of social life. Some researchers even prefer to use a term “online habitat” referring to everyday people’s activity on the web. Over the last decade, in Russia there has been a significant growth in the number of ethnicallyoriented online communities of the indigenous peoples of the North as a result of the Internet penetration into the most remote settlements (though the most active members of them are still constituted mainly by urban population). Their participants discuss a wide range of questions concerning their culture and language. The author believes that such online communities make it possible for their members to construct more effectively new forms of cultural authenticity and, therefore, relatively quickly spread them among the wide audience. This article is devoted to one of those communities, a group named “The Evenks” on VKontakte. It considers how the group’s participants represent the contemporary Evenk culture by using information technologies. However, the main problem is that an idea of the use of the Internet as a means of promotion of the Evenk culture comes into contradiction with the widely-spread view on technologies as a threat to “traditionality”, traditional way of life, and even maintenance of the Evenk language. Discussions of the community’s members surrounding this problem, their attempts to find the way out of it, as well as their thoughts on the Evenk culture’s future constitute the main focus of the article. The material was collected by the author though participant observation, interview, questionnaire survey and content-analysis during her “fieldwork” in the online community in 2013-2014.