The reindeer herders of Aoluguya, China, are a group of former hunters who today see themselves as “keepers of reindeer” as they engage in ethnic tourism and exchange experiences with their Ewenki neighbors in Russian Siberia. Though to some their future seems problematic, this book focuses on the present, challenging the pessimistic outlook, reviewing current issues, and describing the efforts of the Ewenki to reclaim their forest lifestyle and develop new forest livelihoods. Both academic and literary contributions balance the volume written by authors who are either indigenous to the region or have carried out fieldwork among the Aoluguya Ewenki since the late 1990s.
Table of Contents:
List of illustrations
Foreword
F. Georg Heyne
Acknowledgements
Map of Aoluguya
Contributors
PART I: ENCOUNTERING THE EWENKI
Introduction: Writing the ‘Reindeer Ewenki’
Åshild Kolås
Chapter 1. From Nomads to Settlers: A History of the Aoluguya Ewenki (1965–1999)
Si Qinfu
PART II: MIGRATIONS: REINDEER HERDING IN FLUX
Chapter 2. In the Forest Pastures of the Reindeer
Tang Ge
Chapter 3. Ambiguities of the Aoluguya Ewenki
Åshild Kolås
Chapter 4. The Many Faces of Nomadism among the Reindeer Ewenki: Uses of Land, Mobility and Exchange Networks
Aurore Dumont
PART III: REPRESENTATIONS: DEFINING THE REINDEER EWENKI CULTURE AND IDENTITY
Chapter 5. A Passage from Forest to State: The Aoluguya Ewenki and their Museums
Bai Ying and Zhang Rongde
Chapter 6. The Ecological Migration and Ewenki Identity
Xie Yuanyuan
Chapter 7. Tents, Taiga and Tourist Parks: Vernacular Ewenki Architecture and the State
Richard Fraser
PART IV: LOCAL VOICES
Chapter 8. Campfire
Weijia
Chapter 9. My Homeland
Gong Yu
Chapter 10. Hunting along the Bei’erci River
Gu Xinjun
Glossary
Index
About the Author :
Åshild Kolås is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, and has authored two books and numerous articles, mainly on Tibetan identity and cultural representation. She carried out fieldwork in Aoluguya in 2008 and 2009, conducted under a project on “Pastoralism in China: Policy and Practice” funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Review :
“This edited volume is the first book-length, English-language publication devoted to [the Ewenki] and makes a very welcome addition to the growing ethnographic literature on northern Asia’s indigenous peoples… The book strikes an elegant balance between history, contemporary social commentary, and original narratives by members of the Ewenki community… This valuable contribution is ideal for acquainting the broader world with one of China’s least-known minority groups, for anthropologists and social historians as well as readers hoping to learn something new about Asia’s modern pastoral peoples. Highly recommended.” • Choice
“This unique and well-documented edited collection… is unique for presenting the work of acknowledged foreign- and China-based ethnographers on Tungus-speaking peoples in China, as well as sections written by Ewenki authors and representatives. It is represented as the first English-language book devoted solely to the Ewenki community of Aoluguya….[With] this finely crafted, rich volume …one could hope for increased dialogue and communication with this rich and ultimately transnational pastoralist community at the edge of the Chinese taiga.” • Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice
“[This volume] makes a considerable contribution to indigenous studies in general. One of the significant features of his collection is that the authors represent a highly complicated picture of the relations between the state and the Ewenki community that is far from the plain schemes discussing challenges facing indigenous communities today through the simplistic ‘civilixation/tradition’ dichotomy.“ • Nomadic Peoples
“[The book] It provides a thorough presentation of the history and life of the Ewenki of Aoluguya, and is both an important contribution to the otherwise scarce English-language literature on this particular group of people and at the same time adds valuable knowledge to the anthropology of northern Eurasian peoples as a whole.” • Anthropology Book Forum
“Reclaiming the Forest touches on many essential topics in current anthropology—the expansion of the state, tradition versus modernization, development and privatization, and the survival and revival of indigenous culture—and portrays them particularly effectively by focusing on one group in one place.” • Anthropology Review Database
“This is an exciting, finely crafted edited collection which focuses on a group of Ewenki who are poorly known in the English language literature... The volume is evenly balanced with both academic and literary contributions by local Ewenki authors.” • David Anderson, University of Aberdeen
“This book is a valuable contribution to the anthropology of northern Eurasian peoples. With contributions by Western and Chinese anthropologists, along with contributions by Ewenki reindeer herders themselves, the book is a comprehensive and innovative presentation of the history and lifeways of the Ewenki of Aoluguya.” • John Ziker, Boise State University
