New Technologies among Evenki Hunter-Gatherers in East Siberia. Photographic Analysis
New Technologies among Evenki Hunter-Gatherers in East Siberia. Photographic Analysis

Summary/Abstract: This article presents some results of the photographic analysis project, that we accomplish on the basis of 17,000 photos shot during the anthropological fieldwork between October 2008 and November 2009 among Evenki living in East Buryatia, in the Eastern part of Siberia. The aim of the project is to study the non-verbal patterns of culture. Some activities are significant due to the natural environment and the peripheral position of the Evenki land. Modern and old instruments can be seen together in the taiga, they relate to each other and form pairs. The existence of these pairs show the necessity of the co-presence of modern and old technologies and the importance of the categories – activities – tasks connected with them. An old instrument can remain among the Evenki only if an adaptable new instrument can find its place in the everyday life. Sometimes old practical skills also need to be reinvented for the accomplishment of a particular task. The things which have no modern existing pair, step by step lose their place and extinguish.

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