ABSTRACT
During our fieldwork among Evenki people conducted in 2008, we got a chance to see the everyday life of an Indigenous mining company. What we recognized was a persistent misrepresentation of the activities of the company in its internal accounts. We witnessed how in various reports about the internal operations of jade mining and logistics, workers often provided incorrect data, very approximate numbers, and simplified and partial accounts of their actions. Nevertheless, the company operated smoothly without any evident distraction, as if these partial reports and misinformation could not affect the internal communication and coordination of the enterprise’s operations. Inaccurate numbers paradoxically united people and became artifacts of mutual understanding and agreement. Calibration and correction were endless collective processes. We suggest that accounts in Russia were based not on the principle of accuracy but on the principle of intensity. They show how much the accounting body is trying to be accountable.
