The Food Sharing Debate: A Case Study from Siberia

This study of food sharing in Dolgan and Nganasan communities in the Taimyr Autonomous Region of north central Siberia began with the unexpected increasing reliance on non-market distribution after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Prior to that, the Dolgan and Ngnasan had experienced varying degrees of integration with market and formally controlled systems of distribution.

After 250 years as colonial subjects of czarist Russia, where merchants and tribute collectors bartered and paid for furs, native Siberians became subject to policies of the Soviet government. Aimed to transform from clan-organized 'primitives' to workers in the planned-socialist economy, the transformation to Socialism, operating through the collectivization of property and settlement into permanent villages, was severe. The Dolgan and Nganasan in my chief study community, Ust Avam, and other communities nearby lost all their domestic reindeer by the mid-to-late-1970s. At the collapse of the USSR in 1991, these people largely worked for state-managed rural enterprises, hunting caribou, fishing, and trapping, and producing crafts for the state. As part of the settlement and employment conditions in the Soviet north, they received relatively high salaries, and village stores were well stocked with a variety of locally produced and non-local foods. Since 1991, however, the Dolgan and Nganasan have found themselves at the margins of Russia's depressed economy. Most people have been laid off, and village stores have minimal products to offer.

Living in difficult-to-access rural communities, the Dolgan and Nganasan have been surviving through subsistence production and minimal participation in the larger Russian and global economies. As some entrepreneurial endeavors did not prove profitable or possible due to administrative and lending difficulties in the 1990s, the formal economy diminished its influence in Ust Avam. This change is significant for local perceptions of economic wealth, since the Dolgan and Nganasan were involved in industrial hunting and fishing during the Soviet period. Unlike hunters in more accessible parts of Siberia, where roads facilitate sales and barter of meat and fish to outsiders, the Dolgan and Nganasan in Ust Avam have limited opportunities in the market. Now, food sharing within these remote communities has taken on more importance; providing for individuals who cannot provide for themselves is expected. Dolgan and Nganasan cosmologies encourage cooperation in land-use, food production, and distribution. For example, the "tundra" requires hunters to share their catch, or hunting will not be successful in the future. Taking care of people in the community is a virtue (cf. Bird-David 1992, Bodenhorn 2000).