Sibirica

Using an ethnography of speaking approach, this article discusses the ideological aspects of language practices, as they are played out in a traditional Yupik (Eskimo) village in Chukotka, in the Far East of the Russian Federation. The article shows how local linguistic practices and language choices of individual speakers intersect with purist language ideologies, which frame certain beliefs about languages and ways of speaking, making them appear more normal and appropriate than others. Placing the “work of speaking” within the context of cross-cultural dynamics and purist language economies, this article challenges the basic assumption of linguistic purism about language and identity being intertwined.

This article examines the Urals roots and self-perception of the Siberian historian and bureaucrat Peter Andreevich Slovtsov (1767–1843). Best known as the author of the two-volume Historical Survey of Siberia (1838–43), Slovtsov is often described as the first Siberian patriot and precursor to the Siberian regionalist movement. Drawing on a range of published and archival sources to analyze how Slovtsov made sense of his family roots in the Urals region, the author suggests that Slovtsov is best understood as a man of the empire who understood both his own life trajectory and Siberian history as fruits of enlightened imperial rule.

The origin and meaning of the term shaman is a fundamental question in shamanic studies. There are conflicting views on this question in academic circles in China and overseas. Based on historical Chinese documents and Manchu-Tungus ethnic linguistic chronicles, this article argues that the term shaman originated from the language spoken by the Jurchen people of ancient northern China and was transmitted through the practices of generations of Jurchen descendants of the Manchu-Tungus peoples. The term shaman, as it is commonly used, is based on the root sar, which means knowing, or understanding, in the Manchu-Tungus linguistic family. The article concludes that shaman means “a wise man who knows everything.”

Stepan Katyginskii’s manuscript “Dolgan National Games” (Tyalyn Narodnai Onnoolor) is presented here in translation from the Russian. Katyginskii’s material on games is a contribution to knowledge of the traditional means by which organized physical activity occurred in indigenous communities of the Russian Arctic. As an integral part of Dolgan traditional ecological knowledge, Katyginskii’s material includes games that develop skills of aim, endurance, and strength. The article also presents some ethnographic information on the social context of performance of traditional games.

John McCannon, A History of the Arctic: Nature, Exploration and Exploitation Kathleen Osgood

Julian Agyeman and Yelena Ogneva-Himmerlberger, eds., Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union Anna Bara