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Some thoughts about Nenets Syadeis from the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum

On By Roza LaptanderIn All1 Comment

Last week on the Internet was published a short video about two very old Nenets Syadei with the following text:

  • Cambridge University Museums have been running a project called ‘Museum Remix – Unheard’ during lockdown. It’s an invitation to re-interpret the stories museums tell. Each month they have released a challenge – this month’s is ‘Video’. Curators present a selection of objects from Cambridge collections using short videos; viewers are invited to respond by making a 3-minute video in any format by September 30. The information is here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/museumremix Absolutely anyone over the age of 16 is very welcome to participate.The selection of objects includes two Syadei (sacred wooden figures) made by members of the Siberian Nenets community, held at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum. Here’s the video about them, which I made over the summer: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/magic/syadei-sacred-objects You’ll find a Russian version there too.The SPRI museum team would love to get some feedback from Russia, and especially from the Nenets community; this feedback doesn’t necessarily have to fall within the Museum Remix project. We are also hoping simply to let members of the Nenets community know that we hold these objects. I would be very grateful if you could circulate these links to people who might be interested – and/or let me know if there’s anyone in particular I should contact. Thanks!
Syadei from the collection of the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum

After this publication, I asked my daughter´s opinion about these Nenets Syadeis and their story which is now published on the Internet. It was interesting to know this young Nenets opinion about using Nenets religious items for the public performance. What surprised me was that my daughter reacted quite emotionally to this video and said that she does not agree that this Syadei on the video is undressed. She said that according to Nenets customs and ethics it is not allowed to show a naked body to anybody, therefore even Nenets wooden idols, like Syadei and other domestic family religious items, should have own clothes. Also, the Nenets researcher Galina Kharuchi said, that it is quite common to give to Nenets idols sometimes presents. It can be new clothes or coins from white metal, even if they are in a museum. So, maybe it is a good advice for museum curators how they can thank these idols for their work. However, I do not think that these Syadeis are an example of the exploitation of the indigenous religious heritage since they are now museum objects.

Job opportunity in Manchester

On By Anna Stammler-GossmannIn AllLeave a comment

Shared by Francis Joy: an employment position in Manchester. A job opportunity for Russian speaking social anthropologists interested in animism and environment – research associate for a 6 year project called “Cosmological Visionaries: Shamans, Scientists and Climate Change at the Ethnic Borderlands of China and Russia”. A Manchester-based ‘Russia team’ will conduct qualitative interview-based research each year on deforestation, climate change and animist cosmologies in Northern Siberia and Russian Far East

 

https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jobs.ac.uk%2Fjob%2FCAR571%2Fresearch-associate-in-anthropology-cosmological-visionairies%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0UvDMXfdQGvWtI6BuM8X_3ZjQHMGraaDmNxgtvTfjbZLZZA2koyHV26-Y&data=02%7C01%7Canna.stammler-gossmann%40ulapland.fi%7C5fcf9bd0700b4ffa128908d8346ff51c%7C4c60a66f0a8d446e9ac0836a00d84542%7C0%7C0%7C637317002747537687&sdata=cPIkdUFDFOqqbeE1idcOEFkUSjtO6a%2BTugvzgRLIdhA%3D&reserved=0

Arctic view on Russia’s changed constitution

On By arcticcentreIn All, Announcements, Indigenous Peoples, Russian NorthLeave a comment

The population of Russia officially supported the suggested changes in the world’s largest country’s constitution, with almost 78% of those who voted. Half of the circumpolar Arctic, including most of its indigenous peoples, will be governed by a different constitution from now on. Looking at the results of the vote, it is, however, noticeable how certain regions in the Arctic deferred from the general voting pattern.

Mayor Avsentyeva of Yakutsk during voting – the photo with the cross in the “yes” box was faked later – her office announced that she voted against! photo Алексей Толстяков/facebook.com
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Tromso job offer: Associate Professor Anthropology

On By fstammleIn All, AnnouncementsLeave a comment

Many of our team have cooperated with anthropologists from Tromso in one way or the other. Now the department there advertises a job at the level of associate professor, with a job description that might appeal many of us:

“fieldwork-based methods; human-nature relations; environmental transformations and climate change; and the social reverberations of global inequality.” And

“Experience with the following would be an advantage (in no particular order of priority): audio-visual methods; human rights perspectives; and marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous peoples.”

I have been in touch with Natalia Magnani and Jennifer Hayes there, and both are definitely nice and interesting colleagues to work with. Prospective applicants, give it a try!

Ysyakh 2020 – solstice festival online

On By fstammleIn All, Announcements, Fieldwork, Indigenous Peoples, Russian North, SpiritualityLeave a comment

Midsummer, solstice on the 21 June is for many northern peoples and cultures an important holiday. In Finland it’s called Juhannus and a state holiday. In Yakutia, where I am now, it’s called Ysyakh, and considered the Sakha people’s new year day. The 2020 celebrations obviously come in a very different format in comparison to any previous festivities, for a number of reasons including but not limited to the corona virus.

The president of Yakutia ‘Il Darkhan’ Aysen Nikolaev congratulating for the Ysyakh 2020 on regional TV. Note his Sakha festive clothes, the Sakha horse on his left, the sacred horse pole Serge behind him, and the few participants in the ritual with covid-19 masks
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Permafrost thaw responsible for Norilsk oil spill, impacting indigenous fishing?

On By fstammleIn All, Announcements, Extractive Industries, Indigenous Peoples, Russian North3 Comments

Talking to a friend in Se Yakha, at the shore of the Ob Bay close to the Kara Sea, I realised how far the consequences of the recent Norilsk oil spill could go: the recent New York Times article about the oil spill cite environmentalists and even a Russian minister saying that the consequences of the spill could last for a decade. This is echoed by our friends from the Yamal Peninsula, who might be again among the most vulnerable victims.
The concern is that the spilled oil will eventually end up in the Kara Sea. And if that happens, it will contaminate the water along of the migration route of fish, on which the indigenous population along the shores rely for their subsistence and livelihood.

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COVID-19 impacts in the Arctic: anthropological research gaps / ideas?

On By fstammleIn All, Announcements, indigenous health, Indigenous Peoples, PublicationsLeave a comment

Dear all,
I’m contributing to an expert document on the impacts of COVID-19 in the Arctic. I think it is essential that we highlight research gaps that we notice as anthropologists working in the Arctic. I would like to invite everybody to use the comment function here in this blog to highlight what anthropologists in the Arctic should study relating to the impacts of COVID-19 in the Arctic. It could be that with this we might be able to influence political decisions on this in the future. But actually the question is of interest well beyond that: If you have noticed any important gaps that we should really know but we don’t know yet, please go ahead and write them here as a comment, or, if you feel uncomfortable to go public with your observation / idea, in an email to Florian Stammler at the University of Lapland in Finland. If you want, you can also share some of your impressions how life has changed in COVID-19 times in the part of the Arctic region that you know best. No idea how much is going to come in. But if it is a lot, those of you who are contributing could also think about co-authoring an article in a journal about this. This would be something sort of a “crowd-authored” article, almost like our natural science colleagues, whose articles sometimes get over 30 authors:) Looking forward to your input. Florian

Record early river-thaw in Siberia

On By fstammleIn All, Fieldwork, Russian North11 Comments

The warm weather in Siberia seems to have led to an exceptionally early ice-thawing on Siberia’s major rivers. The specific of the river geography here is that all the major rivers flow from south to north, into the Arctic Ocean. This means the ice melts in the south first, and then the water pushes into the existing ice downstream northwards, leading to ice-jams. Sometimes this is visually quite impressive. This year this happens earlier than usual all over the Russian Arctic, read the following info west to east:

Sometimes the ice chunks pushed one over another by the river water can be quite high. In Yamal this is all carefully monitored by search and rescue services (12 May 2020, Salekhard, photo K. Ochepkov)
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Nenets mothers’ education: another PhD defense

On By fstammleIn All, Announcements, Indigenous Peoples, Russian North, teaching2 Comments

After recently having celebrated the world’s first Nenets PhD defense, now we can witness another one, in three days time, 14 May 11.15 Norwegian time! Zoya Vylka Ravna shall defend her thesis with the very technical name “The Inter-Generational Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge By Nenets Women: Viewed in the context of the state educational system of Russia.” Surely this is going to be an interesting look by a European Nenets woman who studied trajectories of child upbringing in both the European and the Yamal part of the Nenets tundras. At the end of her popular summary to her thesis, she is very critical about the contemporary boarding school system, arguing that it “undermines the ability of nomadic Nenets communities to maintain their traditional and unique Arctic nomadic culture”.

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Sacred Site worshipping for good health in Corona times

On By fstammleIn All, Fieldwork, Russian North, SpiritualityLeave a comment

Yamal has a legally protected sacred sites inventory: here, Angalskiy Mys

Today in the morning I was just about to brew my breakfast coffee, when my friend Mikhail Okotetto called and told me “we need to go and feed the sacred site here, come along, right now”. I had 5 minutes to grab my stuff and jump to a taxi, and drove out to the land close to Angal’skiy Mys between Salekhard and Labytnangi, where Mikhail and Vasiliy were waiting for me. They were in touch with one of the very few shamans on the Yamal Peninsula, Alexey Okotetto from Synei Sale, who had advised them that it is time to feed the land and pay respect to the spirits, now that we need their protection from diseases more than ever.

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