
































Uncovering the Contemporary Lives of the Little Known Chinese Ewenki 

Review by Jeanette Lykkegård 

Reclaiming the Forest: The Ewenki Reindeer Herders of Aoluguya 

by Åshild Kolås & Yuanyuan Xie (eds)  

Berghahn Books, 2015

Reclaiming  the  Forest,  edited  by  Åshild  Kolås  and  Yuanyuan  Xie,  is  the  outcome  of  a  joint

collaboration between the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Chinese Academy of Social

Sciences (CASS) on the research project, “Pastoralism in China: Policy and Practice,” funded by the

Research Council of Norway. This cross-country teamwork has produced a remarkable volume with

several contributions from Chinese scholars and also indigenous people of the Ewenki community, and

this is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of 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.  The book is thematically

divided into four parts, framed by an introductory chapter.

In the introduction, Kolås clarifies that this book “challenges the implicit pessimism in popular

conceptions of the Reindeer Ewenki as a relic of the past, as in the epithet 'the last hunting tribe'” (p. 7).

The purpose of the volume is thus primarily to concentrate on the present-day situation of these people

and the challenges that they face, as well as their responses to these challenges. The overall objective is

to  raise  awareness  of  the  Ewenki  reindeer  herders  of  China  by  offering  a  “glimpse  into  the

contemporary world of the people of Aoluguya” (p.  13).  The difficulty  of this  worthy goal  shines

through, as the present situation is hard to convey without a comprehensive understanding of history.

Thus, historical events, which have led to great cultural changes and loss of language and spiritual

leaders, fill a considerable amount of pages (see especially the chapters by Kolås and Siqinfu). The title



of the introduction, “Writing the ‘Reindeer Ewenki,’” stirred expectations towards more elaborations

on the creative collaborative process of actually writing and editing the book – something, which I

would have appreciated.

The first part of the book consists of only one chapter by Siqinfu, focusing on the changes the

Aoluguya Ewenki have met with from 1965 onward. Siqunfu takes a critical stand towards the story of

majority China in order to bring forth the “small story” of the Aoluguya Ewenki. We follow the story of

Ewenki  hunters,  as  they  are  forcibly  moved  away  from  their  hunting  settlement  Qiqian  as  a

consequence of the collapse of the Sino-Sovjet alliance The now Old Aoluguya was founded in 1965.

The reindeer were declared government property and the Ewenki were drawn into the Chinese socialist

market  economy.  As  a  new  industry  of  antler  harvesting  for  the  medicinal  market  grew  –  and

mainstream society criticized shamanism and other aspects of the Ewenki’s traditional lifestyle – the

value of reindeer changed from being of social, practical and religious character to a mere economic

one (p. 27). From the late 1990’s the number of reindeer decreased drastically. The official explanation

blames the “primitive” methods of the Ewenki, but Siqinfu states that the problem rather derives from

poachers, traffic accidents, pesticides, diseases and predators. Problems with alcoholism and lack of

interest in herding from the younger population of the community led to other social complications,

such as lack of intergenerational transfer of cultural  education within the community,  as well  as a

breakdown in parent-child relationships and absent fathers. Siqinfu states that “the Aoluguya Ewenki

are losing their culture, largely through their integration into Chinese politics, economy and culture” (p.

35)  and  further  that  “Aoluguya  Ewenki  society  has  been  offered  only  one  path  to  the  future  –

assimilation into mainstream society” (p. 39). It becomes clear that avoiding the popular pessimist

outlook, which this volume sets out to do, is a challenging undertaking.

The  second  part,  “Migrations:  Reindeer  Herding  in  Flux,”  is  comprised  of  three  chapters,

thematically revolving around practices and organization of reindeer herding. Tang Ge describes the

transformation of the Ewenki from hunters, using reindeer mainly for transport to becoming mainly

reindeer herders, a change that accelerated after the resettlement in 2003 to the New Aoluguya and the

contemporary  hunting-ban.  This  recurrent  theme  here  focuses  on  how  this  affects  the  social

organization  in  the  reindeer-camps,  <em>urilen</em>.  Tending  the  herd  used  to  be  a  female  job,

whereas now both men and women engage in managing the reindeer. The current situation is ascribed

to continuous negotiation between Ewenki and the government (p. 49), where the Ewenki wanted to

maintain their traditional way of life, and although a powerful government wish for the Ewenki to

become sedentary reindeer ranchers, they have usually only accepted the changes to some degree while

upholding some kind of continuity with traditions (p. 50). Åshild Kolas continues the discussion of this



transition by emphasizing the ambiguities hereof, arguing that the Ewenki currently find themselves in

a “liminal space of law” (p. 65), where they are neither a hunting tribe, nor true pastoralists. In 1980 the

production brigades were dismantled,  and rights to  animals  and pastures were to  be distributed to

individual herding and farming households. In Aoluoga, however, this has not been fully implemented.

Another  ambiguity  arises  through the plan for  the  Ewenki  to  occupy guiding positions  for  tourist

hunting trips, while they themselves are deprived of their hunting rights. To close this part,  Aurore

Dumont focuses on how the Ewenki use flexible strategies to maintain and adapt their economy to

changing conditions (p.  77).  While  migrating between settlement and forest  camps, new economic

networks are created and she emphasizes the agency of the Ewenki to maintain a form of continuity

despite serious state interventions.

The third part, “Representations: Defining the Reindeer Ewenki Culture and Identity,” offers

insights into ascribed as well as self-defined identities of contemporary Ewenki. Bai Ying and Zhang

Rongde open this part by problematizing the local Ewenki museums as a governmental instrument or –

with a Marxist notion – a “superstructure,” both “reflecting a given society’s politics and economy”

while at the same time serving “as a political tool of that society” (p. 104). Surprisingly, the latest

museum  in  Aoluguya  has  been  designed  by  a  Finnish  consulting  firm,  Poyry,  which  has  now

contributed to a representation of the Ewenki as reindeer herders in line with the Scandinavian Sami,

regardless of the distinct differences between the two groups of people. Then Xie Yuanyuan questions

the  so-called  “ecological  migration”  to  the  new Aoluguya  settlement  in  2003  on  the  ground  that

traditional hunters are “destroyers of the natural environment” (p. 124). We are reminded that the entire

site of old Aoluguya was sold to a private enterprise (p. 121) and that “history shows that the forest

ecosystem was never damaged until the government initiated large-scale industrialization,” whereas he

somewhat romantically refers to the Ewenki hunters as living in an “original affluent society” (p. 124).

Richard Fraser rounds of the third part with a remarkable take on the changing nature of the relations

between  the  Ewenki  and  state,  through  an  exploration  of  the  vernacular  characteristics  and

transformations of Ewenki dwellings over time. He argues that the adoption of ridge-tents and wood-

burners are not non-vernacular transformations, but intelligent adjustments of the vernacular forms as

new materials have become available.

Part four, “Local voices,” contains – as the title promises – contributions from members of the

Aoluguya Ewenki community. It is comprised of the poem “Campfire” by Weijia – an artist who lives

in the forest as a hunter-herder, poet and painter – followed by Gong Yu's "My Homeland," and Gu

Xinjun's account of a hunting expedition, "Hunting Along the Bei'erci River." Gong Yu is named in the

local language Niurika after the last shaman and she contributes with a narrative of her life story and



inheritance. Gu Xinjun’s hunting story reflects back on a time that is no longer, and Kolås presents his

motivation for this story to be a wish for the Ewenki youth to know about the old hunting culture.

Through these local voices it becomes obvious that the historical and cultural inheritance are still very

much  present  in  the  consciousness  of  contemporary  Ewenki,  and  it  thus  becomes  even  more

understandable (and forgivable) why history takes up so much space in a book who’s objective is to

spread knowledge of the present situation of this particular group of people.

Jeanette  Lykkegård is  a  PhD  student  at  the  Department  of  Anthropology  at  Aarhus  University,

Denmark. Her current research is on contemporary Chukchi lifeways in Northern Kamchatka, with a

special interest in existential questions of religion, life and death.

© 2015 Jeanette Lykkegård 


