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ENERGY OF SHARING AMONG THE EVENKIS OF SIBERIA

Anna Sirina

Abstract

The article deals with the practice of gift-giving and sharing in modern hunter-gatherer societies, namely among the Evenkis and some other people speaking Tungus languages. This study is based on the field researches conducted in 1988–1991, 1999–2002, 2005–2008 in different regions of Siberia. Being originally taiga hunters and reindeer herders, the Evenkis practiced a custom called nimat. Sharing of a large animals hunter has killed with his neighbours and strangers is at the core of this practice based on the principles of generalized and balanced reciprocity. Nimat combines the features of gift-giving, sharing and exchange. In the scientific literature a gift-giving and sharing practice is regarded as having an economic, cultural, social, moral and emotional significance and values. This article traces the role of sharing in gaining access to diverse pool of taiga resources, including land, and state resources, namely social payments and salary. The Evenkis extended social relations to nature and “other-than-human persons”, including animals and master-spirits, who give luck or fortune in the hunt to the hunter. As a result of social interactions with other peoples and with the natural environment a hunter extends his personality on to broader social and geographical spaces. This ongoing process of sharing and exchange creates a permanent source of material and spiritual energy and ensures stability under the fluctuation of natural and social environment. All the sides involved in the process of reciprocity are provided with the new opportunities for the continuity of socio-biological form of life and the reproduction of ethnic and cultural identity. The article examines how sharing is transformed under the influence of political, socio-economic and environmental factors, and researches the impact of process on social relationships. Special attention is paid to the process of sharing of goods, services and money. Today gift-giving, sharing and exchange practices are considered as creative social interactions producing a long-term cumulative effect on the group of people and beyond.

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