Sibirica

This issue of Sibirica focuses on one of the Siberian regions—The Republic of Sakha (Iakutiia). This in-depth presentation has two main goals: we hope to provide the readers with a more detailed look into the current situation in the republic and to start a new initiative of the journal to take close-up looks at various Siberian regions. For Siberian studies Sakha represents an interesting case: on the one hand, its experience and developments are unique, its recent political and economic changes are setting an example of potential way to devolution; on the other hand, the republic’s experiences are typical of those in any other Siberian peripheral region.

This article is about the Sakha music business and the people involved in it. It discusses different strategies of making music and shows that different music genres have their own setting of social relations. Due to the specific economic and social situation, social relations in the music business are often informal. The classic theory of the cultural industry states that producing music is a calculated market economy-oriented activity. This article questions such an approach and shows that social and cultural ideas are present in the music-making process. The Sakha music business cannot be seen as only a profit-oriented sphere. Whereas producers and musicians are interested in formal, contract-based relations in purely economic cases, the informality maintains its importance. Ideas of solidarity and mutual support are linked to the perception of being in one music community, which uses different elements of Sakha culture in their music. As is demonstrated in the article, incorporation of Sakha motives is not only a marketing strategy but also a way for musicians and producers to act as carriers of the Sakha culture whose mission is to develop it.

The article presents an interpretation of the life stories of indigenous women in Iakutiia. Individual biographies of several women are analyzed with the focus on the agency of indigenous women in contemporary Russian reality. The article argues that the economic crisis in Russia and its social consequences are reasons for women to make the choice for action. The contemporary portrait of indigenous women is juxtaposed with the traditional values and image of women that assists in their ability to get through challenges of time and adapt to the demands of the contemporary period.

This article analyzes the family relationships of the Sakha people with particular focus on the concept of the father, both in a historical setting and in a contemporary context. The aim of this article is to shed light on alternative aspects of the life of Sakha pastoralists and to examine them within the broader historical and cultural perspective. Unlike previous studies on manhood and gender in post-socialist Russia, I suggest that the realization of a masculine identity as a father was possible, and that it has been transmitted through the generations, even during the socialist era. Hunting as a mode of minor subsistence and the perception of the socio-ecological environment related to it has been crucial for the preservation of the status of a man among the Sakha.

This report is on contemporary processes related to horse breeding in Sakha (Iakutiia), northeastern Russia. I demonstrate the importance of the horse figure in the philosophy of the Sakha, a hunting and herding people of Siberia, as well as the parallelism between the diminishing utilitarian function of the horse and reinforcing symbolism in the post-communist context.

This report presents an analysis of material from regional government-owned newspapers in the Republic of Sakha (Iakutiia). The analysis reveals a high level of respect for Sakha community leaders who regard the technological and industrial progress of the Sakha people as their main interest. The newspapers indicate tolerance for Sakha nationalism on the part of the republican government, even though this tolerance could jeopardize its relationship with the Russian Federation's central government.

Claudia Weiss, Wie Sibirien “unser” wurde. Die Russische Geographische Gesellschaft und ihr Einfluss auf die Bilder und Vorstellungen von Sibirien im 19. Jahrhundert. Kristina Kuentzel-Witt

Niobe Thompson, Settlers on the Edge: Identity and Modernization on Russia’s Arctic Frontier Patty A. Gray

Susan A. Crate, Cows, Kin, and Globalization: An Ethnography of Sustainability John P. Ziker

Athol Yates and Nicholas Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide: Rail, Rivers & Road David Lempert

Rane Willerslev, Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism and Personhood among the Siberian Yukahgirs Joseph Long

Books Received for Review