Fieldwork story Stammler 1: Yamal, participation over observation is a health risk

On By FstammleIn Fieldwork Stories, Indigenous Peoples, Russian North

participation over observation is a health risk

This was my first cold night ever in a chum in the Yamal tundra. It’s a story of ‘lesson learned’ early on in my fieldwork practice, that you need not only to be keen to participate in people’s life, but also be a good observer for the details. The price I had to pay for this in the end was a fever:(

Here are some photos from that day

after a sleepless night, with high temperature, I still couldn’t hold back and had to participate in the slaughter
He was the guy with whom I swapped the sleeping bag for a yagushka at night. In the rain he was wearing a parka made of Darnit, the material which you use for road construction between the pebbles and the sand.

 

 

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From the trading post Portsy Yakha to the camp site we needed to cross the river
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after a sleepless night, with high temperature, I still couldn’t hold back and had to participate in the slaughter
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 0016.jpg
He was the guy with whom I swapped the sleeping bag for a yagushka at night. In the rain he was wearing a parka made of Darnit, the material which you use for road construction between the pebbles and the sand.