PhD candidate Rudolf Havelka, member of the Anthropology team under the supervision of Florian Stammler sends greetings from the field! Rudolf  has recently finished the first part of his field research among the Forest Nenets in Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets AO, in West Siberia, Russia.

Rudolf’s focus is the relationship between religious thinking, ritual practice and the environment of the Forest Nenets. During three months in the field, Rudolf has lived in the summer camp of the Forest Nenets poet, activist and reindeer herder Yuri Vella on Tuiti-yakha River. Yuri is a longstanding friend and great teacher of many anthropologists working in the West Siberian North. At various stages, scholars like Eva Toulouze, Liivo Niglas, Stephan Dudeck, Natalya Novikova, Florian Stammler and many others have learned a lot from Yuri about knowing the forest and reindeer, and about coping with the oil industry in West Siberia. Eva Toulouze maintains a website for Yuri, which we warmly recommend.

After saying farewell to Yuri, Rudolf moved northwards to the Yamal-Nenets Okrug to spend some time with the Pjak-Netunta family on one of the tributaries of the Pur River. He has also established warm contacts with the employees of the Centre for National Cultures in Tarko- Sale. Rudolf is leaving back to field in the middle of September.

We gratefully acknowledge the support for Rudolf´s research by the Lapland Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation