Leaving Footprints in the Taiga - Luck, Spirits and Ambivalence among the Siberian Orochen Reindeer Herders and Hunters

Nowhere have recent environmental and social changes been more pronounced than in post-Soviet Siberia. Donatas Brandi¿auskas probes the strategies that Orochen reindeer herders of southeastern Siberia have developed to navigate these changes. "Catching luck" is one such strategy that plays a central role in Orochen cosmology -- luck implies a vernacular theory of causality based on active interactions of humans, non-humans, material objects, and places. Brandi¿auskas describes in rich details the skills, knowledge, ritual practices, storytelling, and movements that enable the Orochen to "catch luck" (or not, sometimes), to navigate times of change and upheaval.

List of contents

List of Figures

Preface

A Note on Transliteration

Introduction: Luck, Spirits and Places

Chapter 1. People I lived With: Community, Subsistence and Skills

Chapter 2. Luck, spirits and domination

Chapter 3. Sharing, Trust and Accumulation

Chapter 4.'Relying On My Own Two': Walking and Luck

Chapter 5. Living Places: Tracking Animals and Camps

Chapter 6. Mastery of Time: Weather and Opportunities

Chapter 7. Herding, Hunting and Ambiguity

Chapter 8. Rock Art, Shamans and Healing

Chapter 9. Conclusions: Ambivalence, Reciprocity and Luck

Glossary of Orochen and Russian Terms    

Bibliography

About the author

Donatas Brandišauskas is Professor at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies and Senior Researcher at the Department of History at Vilnius University in Lithuania. He is Associate Researcher at the Centre of Arctic and Siberian Exploration at the Russian Academy of Science, and Associate Researcher at the University of Versailles (CEARC) in France.

Product details

• Authors: Brandiauskas, Donatas Brandiesauskas, Donatas Brandisauskas, Donatas Brandišauskas, Brandisauskas Donatas
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.2016
• EAN: 9781785332388
• ISBN: 978-1-78533-238-8
• No. of pages: 305
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 567 g
• Series: Studies in the Circumpolar Nor; Studies in the Circumpolar North; Studies in the Circumpolar North; Studies in the Circumpolar Nor
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Relating to indigenous peoples, Social and cultural anthropology, Siberia, Anthropology (General), SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies