Abstract Taking the practices of reindeer ear- and fur-marking in northern European Russia and Western Siberia as its primary focus, this article analyses modifications of informal “traditional” practices as a part of their appropriation by state institutions and highly bureaucratized state-owned enterprises. The practice of making and reading ear- and fur-marks is highly situated and workable only when embedded in a wider web of social communication. Analyzing three cases of the practice in formal institutions, we show that the modifications represent attempts to eliminate the situatedness and embeddedness of the practice. Some modifications can be explained by the attempt to extend the scope of the practice to the level of individuals, but this has made the practice unworkable without reference to special databases and is useless for reindeer herders.

Abstract It is generally believed that if the languages of indigenous peoples of Siberia are preserved anywhere, it would be within the spheres of traditional environmental management: reindeer husbandry, hunting, fishing, etc. However, among Yupik communities in coastal Chukotka, another domain where the Yupik language remains in use is the religious (ritual) sphere—in particular, in various practices for communicating with the spirits of ancestors. This article focuses on Yupik spells, and, more broadly, the Yupik language in a modern ritual context. This allows us to identify and reflect on some characteristic features of the indigenous ritual space that are often insufficiently discussed in ethnographic literature: secrecy and indeterminacy. In addition, the article raises key issues surrounding family memory and heritage as well as the (dis)continuity of ritual knowledge.

Abstract This article is devoted to the work of ivory carving artists in Sakha (Yakutia). It analyzes the ways craftsmen use, engage, and relate to mammoth ivory in their creative work. They start each carving project with consideration of the material, its quality and condition. Material often dictates the ways the creative idea develops and predetermines the outcome. Attention to the material is an important aspect of the relational engagement with it. Mammoth ivory, due to its structure, responds to climatic fluctuations, which is often described by artists as “breathing,” and it therefore demonstrates the qualities of an active material. For craftsmen, mammoth ivory is an agent and sentient material. The article contributes to the discussion of the importance of material in creative work.

Abstract The Ethnological Impact Assessments (EIA) procedure in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is used to protect the interests of indigenous minorities living in areas where extractive companies are planning to operate. Rural women are active in the process of exercising conscious, free choice in the planned activities of industrial companies. Industrial companies, when seeking the consent of indigenous minorities to develop resources, agree to conduct ethnological research and enter contracts for compensation payments. The role of women in the compensation process is virtually ignored. The article discusses economic and socio-cultural aspects of indigenous peoples’ sustainability and the possibility of “structural restoration” of their local system. The proposes ways to preserve traditional knowledge, women's proposals for assuring wellbeing and quality of life for rural families.

Abstract Environmental issues such as climate change benefit from intersectional analysis that uncovers various forms of discrimination and oppression and explores links to other social issues. Intersectionality calls attention to the experiences of different population groups with several intersecting aspects of social identity. Climate justice addresses the ethical dimensions of climate change, including its discriminatory effects. Communities and individuals within Arctic countries and even within Arctic regions are affected differently by climate change. To strive for a comprehensive climate justice that encompasses various human and non-human entities, we must take into account who benefits and who is harmed by climate change along with actions to mitigate and adapt to it, and through which processes. In this article, I examine gender and Indigeneity in the Arctic with regard to climate change.

Abstract Indigenous women's activism occupies a specific niche within local and global Indigenous politics and plays a particularly important role in the socio-cultural and political development of Indigenous communities. In this regard, it is vital to explore not only activist strategies of grassroots Indigenous women's organizing but also their histories, contexts, and activist scopes. The women's collectives in the Olenek Evenki National District of the Sakha Republic (Russian Federation) have a long history of cultural and political activism. In this photo-essay, we aim to narrativize women's activism in Olenek as well as visually represent the activists themselves. Through the photos and the analytical narratives complimenting them, we also want to explore distinct (and diverse) articulations of Indigenous identities and of Indigenous activisms in the post-Soviet Indigenous Arctic.

Abstract Even folklore, represented by original epic canvases, original texts of fairy tale and non-fairy tale prose, samples of ritual song and dance art, and a variety of other genres, represents unique spiritual wealth, a component of the common cultural heritage of the Even people. Even folklore is a stable and well-established system, having an oral form that has been handed down by storytellers from generation to generation since ancient times. At present, the Even, like all indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East, are experiencing a gradual loss of folklore traditions and a narrowing of their repertoire, which is illustrated by the authors’ field material. This article deals with the circumstances of Even people concentrated in thirteen regions of Yakutia. A brief review of the history of Even epic folklore collecting from the eighteenth century to the present is provided. The modern repertoire and the degree of preservation of Even folklore genres in all regions of Even settlement in Yakutia are characterized. There is a gradual extinction of minor genres, such as riddles, proverbs, and sayings, along with the disappearance of archaic epos and fairy tales.

Abstract The article does not investigate the reason behind the recurring cases of missing children and young adults in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and does not offer an explanation for this phenomenon. Instead, it interprets this occurrence as a symptom of the oppressive histories and realities for indigenous groups residing on the territory of this part of the Russian Federation. Although the reasons for children going missing might seem obvious—the vast uninhabited territory of the region and poor infrastructure—the article argues that these cases of missing children are the result and evidence of neglect on behalf of parents and the state. The contributive value of this article is to voice the current precarious situation in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) under the “brotherhood” of the New Russians’ oligarchy and the way that communal cultural practices of the indigenous peoples of Yakutia resist this form of oppressive practice and the possibility of going missing, or extinct.

In the struggle of Russia’s Indigenous northerners for greater control over their ancestral lands, the spatiolegal formations known as Territories of Traditional Nature Use (TTPs, using the Russian acronym) have become their most effective tool. TTPs have assumed diverse characteristics across Russian regions in response to the evolution of federal and sub-federal law and of center-periphery relations at national and regional scales. In the Sakha Republic (Iakutiia), TTP formation is entangled with wider territorial politics and economic trends, which have led to the precarious but powerful advancement of Indigenous rights. This article explores this evolution by comparing the creation of two neighboring TTPs, formed eight years apart under distinct political and legislative conditions. A combination of local efforts, subnational legislative and economic initiatives, and reaction to federal overstep have compelled the improvement and systematization of Indigenous rights in the republic.

This article shows how the sensory perception of rock art guided both archeologists’ interpretations as well as indigenous worldviews in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. The research is based on the author’s ethnographic fieldwork research among indigenous communities of the Olekma, Chara, Aldan, and Amur, and Vitim river basins in the Sakha Republic, the Amur and Zabaikalskii regions, and the Republic of Buriatiia. The article discusses Evenki herders’ and hunters’ interactions with the rock art sites and demonstrates how these sites have served as a source of ritual and cosmological inspiration. Rock art research has also been inseparable from intuitive and embodied experiences for researchers in the field who interact with rock art.