Reclaiming the Forest

Åshild Kolås is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, and has authored two books and numerous articles, mainly on Tibetan identity and cultural representation. She carried out fieldwork in Aoluguya in 2008 and 2009, conducted under a project on “Pastoralism in China: Policy and Practice” funded by the Research Council of Norway.

“This edited volume is the first book-length, English-language publication devoted to [the Ewenki] and makes a very welcome addition to the growing ethnographic literature on northern Asia’s indigenous peoples… The book strikes an elegant balance between history, contemporary social commentary, and original narratives by members of the Ewenki community… This valuable contribution is ideal for acquainting the broader world with one of China’s least-known minority groups, for anthropologists and social historians as well as readers hoping to learn something new about Asia’s modern pastoral peoples. Highly recommended.” • Choice“This unique and well-documented edited collection… is unique for presenting the work of acknowledged foreign- and China-based ethnographers on Tungus-speaking peoples in China, as well as sections written by Ewenki authors and representatives. It is represented as the first English-language book devoted solely to the Ewenki community of Aoluguya….[With] this finely crafted, rich volume …one could hope for increased dialogue and communication with this rich and ultimately transnational pastoralist community at the edge of the Chinese taiga.” • Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice“[This volume] makes a considerable contribution to indigenous studies in general. One of the significant features of his collection is that the authors represent a highly complicated picture of the relations between the state and the Ewenki community that is far from the plain schemes discussing challenges facing indigenous communities today through the simplistic ‘civilixation/tradition’ dichotomy.“ • Nomadic Peoples“[The book] It provides a thorough presentation of the history and life of the Ewenki of Aoluguya, and is both an important contribution to the otherwise scarce English-language literature on this particular group of people and at the same time adds valuable knowledge to the anthropology of northern Eurasian peoples as a whole.” • Anthropology Book Forum“Reclaiming the Forest touches on many essential topics in current anthropology—the expansion of the state, tradition versus modernization, development and privatization, and the survival and revival of indigenous culture—and portrays them particularly effectively by focusing on one group in one place.” • Anthropology Review Database“This is an exciting, finely crafted edited collection which focuses on a group of Ewenki who are poorly known in the English language literature... The volume is evenly balanced with both academic and literary contributions by local Ewenki authors.” • David Anderson, University of Aberdeen“This book is a valuable contribution to the anthropology of northern Eurasian peoples. With contributions by Western and Chinese anthropologists, along with contributions by Ewenki reindeer herders themselves, the book is a comprehensive and innovative presentation of the history and lifeways of the Ewenki of Aoluguya.” • John Ziker, Boise State University

• List of illustrationsForewordF. Georg HeyneAcknowledgementsMap of AoluguyaContributorsPART I: ENCOUNTERING THE EWENKIIntroduction: Writing the ‘Reindeer Ewenki’Åshild KolåsChapter 1. From Nomads to Settlers: A History of the Aoluguya Ewenki (1965–1999)Si QinfuPART II: MIGRATIONS: REINDEER HERDING IN FLUXChapter 2. In the Forest Pastures of the ReindeerTang GeChapter 3. Ambiguities of the Aoluguya EwenkiÅshild KolåsChapter 4. The Many Faces of Nomadism among the Reindeer Ewenki: Uses of Land, Mobility and Exchange NetworksAurore DumontPART III: REPRESENTATIONS: DEFINING THE REINDEER EWENKI CULTURE AND IDENTITYChapter 5. A Passage from Forest to State: The Aoluguya Ewenki and their MuseumsBai Ying and Zhang RongdeChapter 6. The Ecological Migration and Ewenki IdentityXie YuanyuanChapter 7. Tents, Taiga and Tourist Parks: Vernacular Ewenki Architecture and the StateRichard FraserPART IV: LOCAL VOICESChapter 8. CampfireWeijiaChapter 9. My HomelandGong YuChapter 10. Hunting along the Bei’erci RiverGu XinjunGlossaryIndex