Multiplicity of Ontologies: Lakes and Humans in Siberia

Abstract

Global climate change and modernization efforts in the Soviet era have affected the relationship between humans and lakes in Northeast Siberia and have compelled local Sakhas to perceive and renegotiate the status of lakes. These changes have distanced Sakhas from their lakes, and, thus, fishermen and trappers have entered a new epoch, when they not longer fully understand the way lakes respond to human agency. By describing contemporary incoherent local practices at lakes (trapping and fishing), I intend to reflect on new, emergent and multiple ontologies among Sakhas.