Migration and its effects on life ways and subsistence strategies of boreal hunter-fishers: Ethnoarchaeological research among the Selkup, Siberia

Abstract

The article explores the role of migration as a trigger for transformations of life ways, subsistence strategies, material culture and ethnic identity in boreal hunter-fisher societies based on ethnoarchaeological evidence. Fieldwork among the Taz Selkup, a mobile hunter-fisher-reindeer herder community that migrated into the northern taiga of Western Siberia three centuries ago, provides insights into the consequences of migration into a new environmental zone. Based on a multi-disciplinary approach in dialogue with the Selkup including survey and excavation, ethnohistory, observation and interviews we are able to identify different factors at play in these processes, including environmental conditions, cultural traditions and mutual relations with other ethnic communities such as Evenks, Kets and Khanty in the surrounding regions. The results reveal a range of economic and related lifeway adaptations, including multi-species strategies and niche construction related to the uptake of reindeer husbandry in the north which are reflected e.g. by the use of smoke ovens against mosquitoes to bind the reindeer to the human settlements. Another such strategy is feeding the reindeer with fish in winter, a practice that might leave archaeologically detectable traces in the stable isotope ratios of the animal bones. Also related to reindeer herding are changes in seasonal rounds and dwelling structures, leading to the originally sunken winter houses developing into lighter, ground-level forms that are only used for one or two seasons, and to an adoption of conical tents and other tent types for temporary summer and winter dwellings. The interrelation of these processes includes adaption to new ecological conditions, cultural influences from other groups, and mechanisms of cultural resilience, leading to the continuing development of a specific Northern Selkup culture. Interculturality constitutes a major characteristic in the migration process, and Selkup ethnicity and ethnic self-perception are identified as fluid categories in a dynamic spatial and temporal net of social and cultural interrelations with other groups.