South Siberia

Examining human-animal relations among the reindeer hunting and herding Dukha community in northern Mongolia, this book focuses on concepts such as domestication and wildness from an indigenous perspective. By looking into hunting rituals and herding techniques, the ethnography questions the dynamics between people, domesticated reindeer, and wild animals. It focuses on the role of the spirited landscape which embraces all living creatures and acts as a unifying concept at the center of the human and non-human relations.

A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the bestselling author of Great Plains In his astonishing new work, Ian Frazier, one of our greatest and most entertaining storytellers, trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia, the storied expanse of Asiatic Russia whose grim renown is but one explanation among hundreds for the region's fascinating, enduring appeal. In Travels in Siberia, Frazier reveals Siberia's role in history—its science, economics, and politics—with great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that we'll never think about it in the same way again. With great empathy and epic sweep, Frazier tells the stories of Siberia's most famous exiles, from the well-known—Dostoyevsky, Lenin (twice), Stalin (numerous times)—to the lesser known (like Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the empress for copying her dresses) to those who experienced unimaginable suffering in Siberian camps under the Soviet regime, forever immortalized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. Travels in Siberia is also a unique chronicle of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, a personal account of adventures among Russian friends and acquaintances, and, above all, a unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the "amazingness" of Russia—a country that, for all its tragic history, somehow still manages to be funny. Travels in Siberia will undoubtedly take its place as one of the twenty-first century's indispensable contributions to the travel-writing genre.

Includes chapter on reindeer herding.

The volume offers a description of the history and linguistic consequences of Russian-Turkic contacts in two adjacent republics in the Altai-Sayan region of south central Siberia, viz. Khakasia and Tuva. First an overview of Russian-Turkic contacts is offered. Next follows a lengthy outline of the standardized form of Khakas to serve as a basis of comparison for the data discussed in subsequent chapters. The complex linguistic history of Abakan, the capital of Khakasia is addressed, in particular what indigenous sources have contributed to the modern urban vernacular. This is in large part the result of intense mixing and amalgamation of the diverse dialects of Khakas. Further the role that Russian has played in shaping the modern speech variety attested in the capital city is examined in detail. Finally, Abakan Khakas data is compared with that of Kyzyl Tuvan, spoken in the capital city of the significantly less Russianized Republic of Tuva. The volume also includes a brief general discussion of the dynamics of language contact and structural change in languages under conditions of contact.

The Buryats are a Mongolian population in Siberian Russia, the largest indigenous minority. The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia presents the dramatic transformation in their everyday lives during the late twentieth century. The book challenges the common notion that the process of modernization during the later Soviet period created a Buryat national assertiveness rather than assimilation or support for the state.

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Contributors to this edited collection examine Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, this book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Going beyond reindeer, the contributors explore the less known roles of yaks, horses, wolves, fish, as well as spirits of place and many other sentient beings, all of which co-constitute local notions of “home places.” The contributors extend their analysis beyond conventional categories of wild and tame in a region that is increasingly hostile toward its own inhabitants due to global efforts to create protected nature reserves. Using ethnographic nuance, the contributors highlight the many connections between humans and other species, stressing the networks of relationships that transcend idioms of dominance or mutualism. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, environmental studies, and Asian studies.

Offers a linguistic window into contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, looking at how they survive and interface with agricultural and industrial societies.

This work presents a trans-Siberian expedition to rediscover the peoples, cultures and riches of Russia's eastern frontiers. It addresses such questions as: who are the people of the region?; have they a distinct culture?; and does the area have a future as part of the Pacific Rim?