A “Stressful Business”: Alcohol Trading in Chukotka Villages

Abstract

The article describes the organization of alcohol trade in remote and hard-to-reach Chukchi villages, and the social relations that arise around the sale of alcohol. The analysis is based on field research conducted by the author from 2003 to 2021 in ten settlements of the Chukotka Autonomous District. The differences between the trade process, the premises where the transaction takes place, and the temporal modes of the operation of village stores and illegal “outlets” for the sale of liquor are examined. The author analyzes how rural community practices of adopting alcohol sale time limits in the countryside have affected the daily rhythms of people who drink alcohol. The establishment of a temporal framework is conceptualized as a strategy for the community to gain power over alcohol consumers through body discipline. It is concluded that one of the important reasons for the existence of the illegal alcohol business in the village is the round-the-clock operation of the “point”. It allows the buyer to not postpone their need for alcohol, but to satisfy it at any time. Illegal sellers violate not only the temporal framework for selling liquor adopted at the village meeting, they also violate the social restrictions that the community imposed on the right to buy alcohol. At the same time, the local government and the villagers who do not consume alcohol need the resources and social connections of the illegal vendor. This contradictory situation puts them in the position of a marginalized person.