Sibirica

The realities of Magadan's Soviet past have greatly influenced how the Russian Orthodox Church characterizes the city as devoid of a strong Church legacy. This article discusses how the imprint of underground approaches to religion remains today in the form of traditions of hidden practice, religious engagement, and expression without direct church involvement. Using material from ethnographic research of a Russian Orthodox diocese, this article argues that hidden practice—initially precipitated by historical circumstances—is now being exercised by some Orthodox Christians as a choice. The article is based primarily on ethnographic interviews with members of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Magadan

In the 1990s, dramatic socio-economic changes caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union greatly impacted reindeer husbandry across Russia. The overall decline of reindeer population at the federal level can be directly linked to economic reforms, which affected all branches of the economy. However, different local herding communities adopted different strategies, which resulted in various and even contradictory trends of reindeer numbers at the regional level. This article analyzes this diversity using statistics from the federal, regional, and local levels, and interviews with herders in different northern regions.

In 2009, a team of archaeologists from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Northeastern State University at Magadan completed the first year of a three-year archaeological and geological project near Nerpich'e (Nerpich'ye) Lake on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. This research will explore the relationship between mid-Holocene human settlement and environmental changes due to volcanic and seismic activity and climate. The Kamchatka Peninsula contains detailed tephra stratigraphy from the mid-Holocene, which will enable detailed chronological reconstruction of social and environmental change. Preliminary results indicate that human settlement locations remained stable over long periods of time, despite repeated volcanic eruptions.

The mini-conference “World Routes: Arctic Workshop of the University of Tartu” took place on 28–29 May 2010 in Tartu, Estonia.

Review of Aleksandra Petrovna Putintseva, Dnevniki Krasnoi Iurty (Khabarovsk: Khabarovskyi kraevoi muzei im. N. I. Grodekova, 2010)

Hugh Beach, Dmitri Funk, and Lennard Sillanpää, eds., Post-Soviet Transformations: Politics of Ethnicity and Resource Use in Russia Anna Bara

Susan A. Crate and Mark Nuttall, eds., Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions Zareen Pervez Bharucha

Benjamin Isitt, From Victoria to Vladivostok. Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917–1919 J. L. Black

U. K. Kuznetsova, The Dictionary of Tuvan Culture: Angloiazychnyi slovar’ tuvinskoi kul’tury Alexander D. King

Yu. V. Popkov and E. A. Tyugashev, Filosofiia Severa: Korenye Malochislennye Narody Severa v Stsenariiakh Miroustroistva [Philosophy of the North: Indigenous Peoples of the North in World Order Scenarios] Karl Mertens

Douglas Rogers, The Old Faith and the Russian Land: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics in the Urals David Z. Scheffel