Sharing in Siberia: From Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Social Network Analysis

This paper considers informal social networks by which tundra foods are distributed in the community of Ust’-Avam, Taimyr Region, Russia. The majority of families in Ust’-Avam rely upon subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping for their livelihood, but variation in hunting ability and interest in hunting creates inequalities in household food production. Interhousehold food sharing has been proposed to help buffer consumption risk in particularly vulnerable households, although there are several prominent functional hypotheses. Importantly, there is a good deal of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) surrounding food sharing traditions in Ust’-Avam. This paper provides some vignettes of the TEK of food sharing and discusses social network analysis of interhousehold food sharing in Ust'-Avam as relating to functional hypotheses. Social network analysis of amounts and frequencies of food transferred can consider the relative values of different food items and a series of other relevant factors. This research provides an opportunity to examine the interrelationship of TEK to food sharing networks in communities reliant upon subsistence in the North.