Indigenous Heritage in Siberia
The Power of Objects
Indigenous Heritage in Siberia
The Power of Objects
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Description
This book on indigenous heritage in Siberia focuses on sacred objects, their power, use, and meaning over time. The volume approaches this vast multi-ethnic region by exploring the shifting politics and spirituality of material objects and their role in the construction of ethnic heritage.
It is a unique assessment of resilience among Native cultural groups made even more important by the overarching dominance of the Soviet state and now modern Russia, which has had and continues to have conflicted bureaucratic views towards Siberian ethnic groups and heritage protections. Siberian shamanism is described in detail with its deep implications for religious studies and cultural preservation around the globe.
Regional case studies include ritual rugs, indigenous clothing, Buddhist relics, and wooden carvings. The collection makes clear the implications of this study for a wide range of contemporary debates, in anthropology, religion and the wider social sciences and humanities, including animism, human-animal relations, shamanism, secularisation, global repatriation of cultural objects.
Table of Contents
Preface: The Birch Bark Mask from the Mansi Bear Ceremony: The Story behind the Cover Image, Stephan Dudeck (University of Tartu, Estonia)
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Regimes of Indigenous Heritage in Siberia: Materiality, Power and Polyphony, Nadezhda Mamontova (University of Birmingham, UK) and Dmitriy Oparin (University of Bordeaux, France)
Part One: Regimes of Heritage in Russia
1. On the Margins of the Heritage Empire, Ekaterina Melnikova (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)
Part Two: Trajectories
2. How to Deal with 'Material Culture'? The Case of the Local Museums in Altai Republic, Denis Maslov (Russian State University for the Humanities, Russia)
3. The Biographies of Entangled Humans and Nonhumans: Nenets Reindeer Herders' Relations with Powerful Things, Laur Vallikivi (University of Tartu, Estonia)
Part Three: Connections and Journeys
4. Evenk Shamanic Objects and the Logic of Performance: Mimicking the Other in Museum Context, Nadezhda Mamontova (University of Birmingham, UK)
5. The Journeys of the Nganasan Koika-Idols There and Back Again: Indigeneity, Ownership and Value in Heritage Production, Maria Mochalova (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)
Part Four: Layers of Meanings
6. 'You know that I can't walk without a Khanty dress': Exploring the Meaning and Practice of Indigenous Clothing in Western Siberia, Stephan Dudeck (University of Tartu, Estonia) and Marija Launonen (University of Helsinki, Finland)
7. The Fluid Nature of Ancestral Pbjects among the Asiatic Yupik: Heritage That Is Preserved and Destroyed, Hidden, and Passed On, Dmitriy Oparin (University of Bordeaux, France)
8. 'Sia”mei does not stick to plastic': Modern Practices of Interaction with Sacred Impurity among the Yamal Nenets, Alexandra Terekhina (Arctic Research Station, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia) and Alexander Volkovitskiy (Arctic Research Station, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia)
Part Five: Sovereignties
9. Felting Indigenous Sovereignty: The Political Ecology of Ritual Rugs in Siberian Altai, Dmitry Arzyutov (Ohio State University, USA)
10. Museum Rituals: Contextualising Buddhist Relics and Archaeological Human Remains in Two Siberian Museums, Ksenia Pimenova (Paris Nanterre University, France)
Part Six: Representations
11. Diversity of Attitudes towards the Nenets Sacred Objects in Western and Siberian Museums, Roza Laptander (University of Hamburg, Germany)
12. Construction of Heritage: Categorising, Showcasing and Renegotiating Nanai Objects in Regional Museums in the Russian Far-East, Anne Dalles Maréchal (Jean Monnet University, France)
Part Seven: Cosmologies
13. Emplaced Power and Generation of Luck: The Use of Anthropomorphic Wooden Carvings by the Evenks of East Siberia and Russian Far East, Donatas Brandišauskas (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
14. In the Presence of Power: The Bear's Head in Khanty Cultural Practice, Andrew Wiget (New Mexico State University, USA) and Olga Balalaeva (Independent Researcher)
Afterword: The Power of Objects: Critical Studies of the Indigenous Heritage in Other Circumpolar Areas, Gro Birgit Ween (University of Oslo, Norway)
Index
Product details
| Published | 02 Apr 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 336 |
| ISBN | 9781350507166 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 16 bw illus |
| Dimensions | 234 x 156 mm |
| Series | Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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