People on the Move: The Use of Space by Northern Baikal Evenkis in the Context of Socio-Economic Changes / V. N. Davydov St. Petersburg: MAE RAS, 2022. 316 p.

This monograph is dedicated to the mobility practices of the hunters, reindeer herders, and fishermen of the Northern Baikal Evenkis and their engagement with life in the world through the structures they build and use in the context of numerous development projects and innovations. The monograph is based on field data collected by the author in the northern Baikal region of the Republic of Buryatia from the Evenki of the village of Kholodnaia. A distinctive feature of this monograph is an important methodological change, as the subject of the study is the process of the Evenkis’ movement and their mobility. The dynamic perspective made it possible to analyze the objects of stationary and mobile Evenki structures as embedded in a complex network of movements connecting a number of places. The author rejected the rigid dichotomy between sedentary and mobile populations and, accordingly, between the village and the taiga, as well as between Evenki and other villagers who use space in a similar way. As a theoretical approach, V.N. Davydov uses A. Escobar’s concept of ‘life projects’ of the local population vs. development projects and the phenomenological approach of T. Ingold. For centuries, the Evenkis have been involved in the life of the Russian state and in various development projects that they adapt to their life-sustaining practices, ways, and methods of movement. The Evenki village is shown as a space of intense internal mobility, and some of its inhabitants’ “opportunistic” lifestyles are examined for the first time. V. N. Davydov emphasizes that the inhabitants have adapted to the development projects to realize their life projects connected with the task of maintaining the connection to nature and society. The Evenkis use new infrastructures to move around the landscape regularly and have adopted various innovations in modern society. At the same time, they have preserved the Evenkis ethos of mutual aid, creativity, and sociality.

Northern Baikal Evenkis, village of Kholodnaia, socio-economic changes, use of space, resources, mobility