Attaining khinem: Challenges, coping strategies and resilience among Eveny adolescents in northeastern Siberia

Abstract

This article examines challenges, coping strategies, and resilience among Eveny adolescents in northeastern Siberia. It explores situations which the study participants associate with challenge and hardship, namely their experiences of transition from life in the family reindeer herding camp to schooling at the age of 7, bullying, boredom, and violence. By situating the data within the Eveny framework of resilience ( khinem), the study provides the ethnographic context for coping strategies and efforts (e.g., sharing, inter- and intragenerational support, availability of safe homes) undertaken by the community in order to mitigate the situations of risk and hardship and to facilitate adolescents’ resilience. The account emphasizes that instead of identifying adolescents as either resilient or vulnerable, it is necessary to explore culturally specific processes and practices which potentially contribute to their acquisition of resilience.