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This article concerns the Evenkis—hunters and reindeer herders of the Siberian taiga—and their interactions with the landscape reflecting in a land naming. I use a semantic approach to the analysis of the Evenkis' toponyms, which were gathered during my fieldwork in Eastern Siberia in the 1980s and 1990s and were found in the scientific literature and dictionaries. The features of the land are learnt by the Evenkis from their everyday socio-economic and ritual practices, as well as from their eldest since the earl...

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 p...