ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of terminologies used in hunting, reindeer herding, and fishing activities by the Ewenki people in Siberia. The chapter observes that Ewenki people’s traditional ecological knowledge is closely related to and reflected in their endangered native language. The terminologies used reflect local knowledge of land, vegetation and animals, their traditional means of classification and management, as well as cultural values and beliefs. The Ewenki native language is especially rich in terms that embed important IEK and there is no comparable Russian terminology to replace those terms. It is argued that despite the prevalence of Russian language and a decline in Ewenki native language, particularly among the younger members of the community, Ewenki language is still important for its functional role in environmental cognition.
