Black Food: Subsistence, Diet, and Exchange in Yessei Yakut Society

This article investigates the concept of black food among the Lake Yessei Yakut in Siberia. With reference to two sources, archival records from the Russian Polar North Census of 1926–27 and contemporary fieldwork material, I investigate the local diet based on subsistence fishing and hunting and the food exchanges it entails. The article looks into changes that affected the food habits and concludes with an analysis of the social meaning of the concept of black food.