Reindeer Herding of the Far East Indigenous Peoples in Modern Conditions

V. A. Turaev

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2017. Vol. 19

Reindeer Herding of the Far East Indigenous Peoples in Modern Conditions

Full text (russian)

Author(s)

V. A. Turaev

Abstract

The paper examines the process of transformation of the reindeer economy of the indigenous peoples of the Far East in the conditions of market economy. We analyzed public sentiment related to transformation processes, fatigue from the monotony of state farm life, the impoverishment of the population as a result of reforms, hopes for a speedy enrichment through privatization, which greatly contributed to the growth of prices for products of reindeer husbandry on the international market, the impact of mass media, advocating the return to a traditional way of life, as an instrument of "national revival", etc. The article shows the regional features of reorganization of reindeer herding state farms to private farms, national enterprises, cooperatives, family and neighbors-territorial communities, their subsequent legal evolution and causes of liquidation (the underdevelopment of the domestic market, the disparity of prices for the products of agriculture and industry, high transportation tariffs on the export of products to consumers, etc.). The features of the management of reindeer husbandry in the new conditions at the Federal, regional and local levels, financial support for reindeer herding and reindeer herders families from the Federal and regional budgets, the formation of the legal basis of reindeer husbandry forms of ownership of reindeer, formed from the divestiture of the industry, modern conditions of doing deer management, labor and life of the reindeer, as reindeer herding enterprises of various organizational-legal forms, the problems faced by reindeer herding in the Far East at the present time. Based on the analysis the conclusion is given about the absence of state-legal rehabilitation of reindeer herding as agriculture in the Far East. Out of six regions, which have historically evolved reindeer, in its economic function it is preserved today only in Chukotka, small spots of commodity reindeer husbandry may appear under certain conditions in some areas of the Kamchatka region. In most regions of the Far East reindeer is bracketed by a market economy. Efforts made by local authorities to preserve the remnants of Soviet legacy rich in reindeer herding, in most cases are not dictated by the desire to make the industry economically efficient, but by the desire to keep it as a base for the traditional lifestyle of indigenous peoples. This desire stems from the orientation of the state for the revival of traditional lifestyle of indigenous peoples. However, in a market economy, it is hardly feasible. The older generation of herders, for whom reindeer herding as the embodiment of traditional lifestyle had self-sufficient value, leave this life. For those who will come to replace them, reindeer herding will be meaningful only if it is combined with the benefits of the market economy that is not happening. Without this revival, neither herding nor the traditional lifestyle of indigenous peoples of the Far East will not take place.

Keywords

Far East, indigenous small-numbered peoples, reindeer husbandry, conditions of market reforms

UDC

39(571.6)

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