ann
(Ann)
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grown with the development of imperial rivalry between major Eurasian
states. Russians, too, raided for their own human resources, as in
1652 when they captured 361 Dagur women and children.^60 The Qing,
in response, expanded their influence over the relatively unsubjected
peoples in the lower SAH reaches as well as strengthened their control
of semisubjects on the mid-SAH.
Indigenous peoples were in this way compelled to take sides, and their
political relationships deliberately altered for purposes of imperial incorp-
oration. This process of transformation fromaimantogūsa, however,
also required manipulation of these peoples’ecological ties, which would
likewise undergo not always predictable change. Contacts linking basin
peoples and their surroundings produced a diversity that not only compli-
cated the construction of a more centralized Manchuria, but also condi-
tioned the extent to which the region could be incorporated into either a
Romanov or a Qing empire. The state’s limited control over regional
diversity defined Manchuria’s status as a borderland under construction
where relatively uncoordinated foraging practices prevailed. The imperial
core, in contrast, had been long dominated by intensive agricultural
activities under intricate state supervision.
Consequently, methods used to turn Han peasants into imperial sub-
jects could not be applied to SAH basin foragers without considerable
modification, a process further complicated by Russian competition for
these same human resources. Traditional foraging practices, sable tribute
most prominently, were critical for the development of the basin’s human
resources, but hampered their further refinement for empire.
sable-centered environmental relations
For any aspirant rulers of the region, the political was necessarily the
environmental in the sense that relations between sovereign and subject
were traditionally maintained through sable (Martes zibellina) pelt
tribute. Tribute as guest ritual has generally been examined within the
context of interstate diplomacy rather than as a form of environmental
interaction creating complex ties between people and their surrounding
ecologies. However,gong, the Chinese word for tribute, was not syn-
onymous withalban, a Manchu term that could also mean“tax”or even
“official duties.”So the Manchurian practice retained to varying degrees
in different circumstances the sense of all three definitions. Its foraging
bureaucracy collected a wider range of remittances (seeTable 4 ) than
the mainly grain and silver taken in by its China proper counterpart, the
78 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
