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Peoples of the Tundra

Northern Siberians in the Post-Communist Transition

John P. Ziker

On ethnographic grounds alone, Ziker’s book is a unique and valuable contribution. Despite increased fieldwork opportunities for foreigners in the former Soviet Union in recent years, much of Russia and Siberia remains terra incognita to Western scholars, except for specialists who know the Russian literature. Ziker’s account of the Dolgan and Nganasan peoples of the Ust Avam community is a fascinating analysis of how people adapt their hunting, fishing, and herding not only to the demanding Arctic environment but also to enormous economic and political adversities created in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. In this sense, the book fills a gap in the ethnographic literature on Siberia for Western students and, at the same time, serves as a microcosm of the devastating changes affecting rural communities and indigenous peoples generally in a disintegrating former superpower: that is, increasing isolation and a shift to nonmarket survival economies.
 

$15.50 list, 197 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-212-1

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-212-9

© 2002

Self-contained study guide

“Brilliant with regard to the author’s ability to handle ethnographic details and develop ample theoretic implications. Prescriptions are accurate, arguments are persuasive. This is a condensed ethnography with both qualitative and quantitative merits.”  — Naran Bilik, Carleton College

Table of Contents

1. Peoples of the Tundra

2. Making a Living: Ecology and Economy

3. The Loud Years: Resistance and Collaboration

4. Alcohol and Violent Death

5. Shamans, Ancestors, Sin, and Sacrifice

6. The Law of the Tundra

7. The Future Is in Their Hands