Subsistence and Food Sharing in Northern Siberia: Social and Nutritional Ecology of the Dolgan and the Nganasan

Abstract

Traditional foraging activities and extensive food sharing are critical to the contemporary nutritional well-being of Dolgan and Nganasan people in the Taimyr Region, Russia. Despite recent economic transformations geared toward free-market capitalism in the post-socialist era, since 1991, a native communal resource-management regime has developed. This article outlines the social and nutritional significance of subsistence and food sharing within a remote indigenous community in Arctic Siberia. Empirical data on procurement processes and relationships, along with data on food distributions and rationales, are discussed. These data are relevant to questions about food sharing and its significance in hunting-and-gathering economies and the evolution of human sociality.

KEYWORDS:

• cooperation
• kinship
• reciprocity
• demand sharing
• communal resources
• indigenous Siberians

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my friends in Ust'-Avam for their willingness to participate in the study. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the L. B. S. Leakey Foundation and American Councils of Teachers of Russian (Title VIII Research Scholar Program) for support of the field research. I greatly appreciate the comments of Will Palmer and two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this article. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0631970, and a 2007 Faculty Research Associates Fellowship from Boise State University.

Notes

Pitulko, V. (1998). Archaeological survey in Central Taymyr. Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History: 457–467.