Mammoth Tusk, Society, and the State: Informal Practices of Natural Resource Use in the North-East of Russia and Their Social and Economic Impact

Abstract

The article discusses the issue of mammoth tusk mining which has been practiced in Yakutia for quite some time. Currently the commercial tusk mining is still not fully regulated by law, and this has been instrumental in sustaining the shadow or informal economy. This study draws on field research conducted in 2013–2021 and examines the social conditions in Yakutia that have been conducive to informal practices as well as the ways in which rural dwellers themselves think about these practices. We argue that it is the chain of post-Soviet transformations that has brought about proper conditions and social connections for the rise of the informal economy where a part of the population is constantly involved in collecting tusks. The miners exploit the politics of identity to successfully keep distance from the state regulation, which may be ethnographically explained in terms of the antinomy of the state and the indigenous culture of the north.