Time and Practie in the Evenki Native Village in the North Baikal

The project of my dissertation is based upon material I gathered in native Evenki villages in North Baikal, Republic of Buriatia, Russia. I spent one year (2007-2008) doing my fieldwork among the local population mostly in Kholodnaia village in the North Baikal area. I also spent five months doing archival research in St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude. My interest in doing fieldwork at this place was stimulated by several reasons. This village is inhabited by fishers, hunters and reindeer herders who need to occupy a large territory in order to survive in modern economical and social conditions. Also, the village has 'indigenous' position and represents its status in political field. At the same time, discussions on ecological situation around Lake Baikal , industrial development and indigenous affairs take place there. The focus of my research interest is on local changes of interpretations of subsistent practices and time organization in the post-Soviet Evenki village under post-Soviet conditions. I will describe how social changes of post-Soviet Russia impacted ecological changes and which concepts of further regional development local population have. The local practices of subsistence and time organization are related. I will question local und erstanding of the forest law, divisions between 'legality' and 'illegality' and how cultural references are used by locals in daily activity. Time structure is also represented in so-called 'dead places' which are the ruins of the former Soviet regime: fo rmer taiga settlements, former industrial buildings and territories. Local population gave new life to 'dead places' and inspired them by new meanings. I will illustrate how people interpret the past. Local history is deeply individualized and I aim to sh ow how locals resituate discursive history and trigger versions of local history. I will describe how social processes of remembering and forgetting shape local identity, where the use of time is central.