The multiperspectival nature of place names: Ewenki mobility, river naming and relationships with animals, spirits, and landscapes

The article examines the process of production and change of place names based on data collected in 2017 among the Okhotsk Ewenki, the easternmost Indigenous community in Siberia, Russia. Through ethnographic and semiotic analysis, we show that Ewenki place names are not simply reproduced, but rather generated and transformed through empathic contact and engagement within a semiotic circle of shared knowledge and praxis among humans and other beings encountered, especially in ambulatory travel. We consider place names as complex signs which evolve from landscape, mobility as a spatial practice, and relationships with nonhuman beings. Through ecosemiotics and nonhuman ontology, we examine how the concept of shifting landscapes and interactions with different environmental agents, especially animals, contribute to the production of space and place names and their changes. We also show that the responsible voicing of the land with place names is related to Ewenki understandings of territorial prerogatives, and rights, which are perceived as being shared with other beings