Les voies du corral. Aspects de l'orientation dans les pratiques pastorales et les performances rituelles contemporaines des éleveurs de rennes du Nord-Kamtchatka

Abstract

Herding directions. Aspects of orientation in contemporary pastoral practices and ritual performances of reindeer herders in northern Kamchatka Among the reindeer herders of northern Kamchatka far east Siberia, Russian Federation), pastoral practices and ritual performances reveal a similar connection to orientation. In the village of Ačajvajam, this relationship expresses itself explicitly in the spring, when Chukchee, Even and Konak herders together build a corral in order to separate the female reindeer from the rest of the herd before calving time, and then celebrate the birth of the fawns in the residential outskirts of their village. Never consistently fixed, the pragmatic and symbolic marks of orientation determine a moving topography in which the positions of humans, animals and “spirits” sometimes overlap with one another or even take the place of each other. In this perpetual movement, body gesture (dancing) and vocal gesture (guttural sounds, melodic singings) appear as powerful markers of orientation.