Market and Non-Market Trade in Animal Products among the Evenki of Hulunbuir

• In Event: Production and Society in Hulunbuir

Abstract

This paper explores the market and non-market trade in products from animals, both wild and domestic among the Evenki of Hulunbuir (Inner Mongolia). While some Evenki are reindeer herders who practice hunting occasionally in the taiga, other groups are engaged in the Mongolian herding type of “five muzzles ” in the steppe. These two types of pastoral economies are, to some extent, incorporated into the Hulunbuir local economy. The first section examines how Evenki herders choose to integrate or not their animals into the local market: which animals are devoted to the market while others are kept (and sometimes consumed) within the community? Can we find common strategies in both types of domestic economies? These choices enable us to get a better outlook of the kinds of existing transactions (trade, sales, gift) regulating the local economy. The second section analyzes the circulation of animal products and people between nomadic and sedentary spaces.
This work is based on fieldwork conducted between 2008 and 2014 among the different Evenki communities of Hulunbuir area.

Author

• Aurore Dumont, The Chinese University of Hong Kong