VU Orientalistikos centras kviečia į socialinės antropologijos seminarų ciklą:

1. Š. m. Kovo 8 d. 14 val. Seminaro tema: Temporality and Scale of Northern Baikal Hunters, Reindeer Herders and Fishers’ Movements.
 Pranešėjas: Dr. Vladimir Davydov (Aberdeen University, Scotland).

2. Š. m. Kovo 9 d. 18 val.  Seminaro tema: Mediating Names: Personification of Animals and Social Relations in the Taiga among Evenkis in the North Baikal, Siberia
Pranešėja: Dr. Veronika Simonova (Aberdeen University, Scotland).

 
Seminarai vyks J. Kovalevskio auditorijoje (buvusi OC biblioteka) įėjimas per Filologijos fakultetą.

Pranešimo santraukos

Vladimir Davydov

PhD Candidate, University of Aberdeen

Lecturer, Saint-Petersburg University of Culture and Arts

Temporality and Scale of Northern Baikal Hunters, Reindeer Herders and Fishers’ Movements

Generally, Russian managers of development projects and administrators interpreted the space of the village as if the village were a completed portrait. However, such a narrow view does not take into consideration people’s movements. I argue that the stay in the taiga and the stay in the village should not be approached as the contrasting lifestyles; rather they are the complementary life phases which together constitute the strong sense of locality and the way of life of local people who adapted to the combination of different types of movements in their routine practices.

I propose a classification of movements which is based on the concept of scale. Small-scale movements are those which do not cover large distances and usually imply a return to the same point within a short period of time. This type of movement means the use of one main base where a movement starts and finishes. Large-scale movements usually do not imply a quick return to the same place and cover larger distances; yet, they are built upon a set of small-scale movements which imply return to certain points of a route. In this sense, large-scale movements are based upon the use of several bases.

The importance of movement through different surrounding locations is reflected in the narratives and talk of villagers. A good knowledge of the surrounding territories is a result of both daily practices involving constant motion and of the telling and the listening to the stories which depict certain locations that are the points along their routes. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the temporal and spatial dimensions of villagers’ practices within small- and large-scale movements and how these movements are represented in local people’s talk. Moreover, it aims to elaborate the role of the stationary points within the structure of these movements.

Veronika V. Simonova, PhD candidate, department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, UK; candidate of science in Sociology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow

Mediating Names: Personification of Animals and Social Relations in the Taiga among Evenkis in the North Baikal, Siberia

The presentation focuses upon how Evenki reindeer herders and hunters socially nominate animals with personhood via the practice of naming (local term - pogonialo). Names in the taiga emerge as cultural categories blurring the border between humans and animals. 

Along with a name, an animal receives a privilege of participation in social life. The ethnography of names in this particular context demonstrates that the principle of social creation of human names analogously finds its reflection in animal names, in particular, domestic reindeer. As a result, name appears as a biography, identity, and memory unifying a person, a reindeer who received the name of that person, and a local community.

The practice of naming and reproduction of names in everyday routines is viewed as a reference to a particular cultural context what makes the process of remembering to be a unique act of cultural creativity continuously engaging new reasons and meanings.

Research methodology is based upon approaches of contemporary western anthropology declaring human-animal-landscape relations enjoy parity statuses; hence, animals have personhood similar to human beings. This intellectual tradition majorly stands upon ethnography of indigenous peoples of the North and today dominates in anthropological research methodology related to the issues of human-environmental relationships. However, this presentation explores human-animal relations relevant for North Baikal Evenkis from slightly different angle. The personification of animals via naming is explored as creative and unique experience significant in forming social relations in the taiga.