Sibirica

Existing explanations of the high rates of alcoholism and suicide among the numerically small indigenous peoples of the Russian North, Siberia, and the Russian Far East relate these social diseases to external factors such as state politics, or the economic, demographic, or socio-cultural situation. However, these reasons do not explain how exactly these factors influence the consciousness of indigenous people and determine the behavior patterns leading to alcohol consumption or suicide. This research report empirically tests the hypothesis that the group-specific attribution style that makes these people more pessimistically assess reasons and causes of events happening to and around them can play a role. The results of quantitative research conducted among teenagers representing both indigenous and non-indigenous populations of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region and the Republic of Komi generally confirm this hypothesis.

This review of the traditional narratives of the indigenous people of the Chukchi and Kamchatka Peninsulas identifies major genres, motifs, plots, and subjects found in Siberian Yupik, Chukchi, Kerek, Koryak, and Itelmen narrative folklore, as well as specific features of the folklore of each of the peoples of the Chukotka-Kamchatka region. In addition to discussing the subjects and motifs found in the narrative tales from Chukotka and Kamchatka, the article reviews developments surrounding the typology and classification of oral traditions of the indigenous cultures of the region and the overall value of the tales as a prehistoric and ethnographic source. This survey will be of interest to those fond of traditional narratives of the Russian Far East, as well as to specialists interested in comparative-typological research of oral narratives in anthropology.

This report describes the status of Severovedenie (Arctic/Siberian social sciences) in today's Russia in the context of the worldwide growing interest in the Arctic region. It also presents a new educational program in Severovedenie launched in 2011 by the European University at St. Petersburg. The article discusses theoretical and methodological issues of contemporary approach to Arctic/Siberian studies.

Alexander D. King, Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia Kathleen Osgood

Robin Hessman, director, My Perestroika (film) Craig Campbell

Douglas Rogers, The Old Faith and the Russian Land: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics in the Urals Johan Rasanayagam

Perry McDonough Collins, Siberian Journey: Down the Amur to the Pacific, 1856-1857 Anna Bara

E.M. Ineshin and A.V. Teten'kin, Chelovek i prirodnaia sreda severa Baikal'skoi Sibiri v pozdnem pleistotsene: Mestonakhozhdenie Bol'shoi Iakor' I Andrzej Weber

Stephen D. Watrous, ed., John Ledyard's Journey through Russia and Siberia, 1787-1788: The Journal and Selected Letters Ryan Tucker Jones

Clive Tolley, Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic, 2 Vols. Elisabeth I. Ward

Books Available for Review