Risky Futures: Climate, Geopolitics and Local Realities in the Uncertain Circumpolar North Olga Ulturgasheva and Barbara Bodenhorn, eds. (London: Berghahn Books, 2023). 234 pp., ISBN 978-1-80073-593-4. Evil Spirits and Rocket Debris: In Search of Lost Souls in Siberia Ludek Broz (New York: Berghahn Books, 2024), 240 pp., ISBN: 978-1-80539-260-6.

Abstract The expansion of state capacity as a prerogative for increased penal practices in the first quarter of the nineteenth century forced the Russian Empire to renegotiate its relationship with the Siberian Cossack Hosts, and most notably, their inorodets troops. This article will explore the consolidation of Turkic “ethno-estates” across the West Siberian Plain in the early nineteenth century, focusing on the empire's courtship of Tatar and Kazakh service elites as a response to its growing policing needs within the ever-expanding exile system. Although the material condition of most Siberian inorodtsy continued to decline during this period, a closer analysis of the reforms leading up to Speransky's Statute of 1822 demonstrates that the empire's chronic shortage of able-bodied men placed the service Tatars and Kazakhs in a relatively fortuitous position.

Abstract The article discusses the activity of extracting mammoth tusks in the Arctic regions in the context of the cultural and ethnic characteristics of the Indigenous people of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It identifies factors affecting the contemporary activity around collecting mammoth fauna. Findings of surveys carried out among the population of Yakutia yield a profile of contemporary mammoth collectors and reasons why some members of the population have a fear of obtaining mammoth remains. In addition, the article describes specific features of the attitude of the local population towards the collection of mammoth tusks, such as their reluctance to disturb the peace of nature, as well as their perception of mammoth tusks as a source of additional income.

Abstract This article focuses on the revitalization of the Koryak language, one of the seven Indigenous languages in Kamchatka, Russia. It begins by framing the ethnolinguistic situation in Kamchatka in the context of demographic and statistical data, and continues with an overview of efforts to preserve and develop endangered Indigenous languages in the region. It then introduces the uptake of digital technology for Koryak language learning. To support technology inclusion with remote communities, a mobile language learning application called “Koryak Tuyu” has been developed to facilitate the study of Koryak as a supplemental tool through both home-based individual learning and classroom learning. The article provides a description of the language application and a discussion of the application's features and components.

Abstract Solon, a Northern Tungusic language spoken in Hulunbuir, China, is currently the most viable Tungusic language, with approximately 20,000 speakers. This article presents a sociolinguistic survey based on two months of fieldwork in the Ewenke Autonomous Banner, a key Solon-speaking area with 10,000 speakers. The data was gathered through observation, interviews, and questionnaires across different age groups, focusing on language proficiency, language use, intermarriage of the Solon community, and language attitudes. Although Solon retains certain language vitality, it faces severe danger due to declining language assessments among younger generations (aged 13–25). The endangerment level of the Solon language is rapidly approaching the “definitely endangered” status, underscoring the urgency of preservation efforts.

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 Nenets reindeer pastoralists of Yamal in the Russian Arctic, successfully deal with rapidly changing climate and natural gas industrialization. We present results from our long-term ethnographic study (2001–present) on the adaptive strategies that Nenets nomadic households have employed over time, their tradeoffs, inherent risks, and social implications of these strategies. While some strategies limit the adaptive flexibility of herding, they simultaneously enable agency that keeps Nenets households on the land—critical for maintaining their nomadism. Rapid climate change in the Arctic, which could lead to increased icing of pastures, makes reindeer herding more vulnerable. We examine meteorological data from Yamal to better understand the climatic trends challenging reindeer nomadism. Our analysis is relevant for policymakers through understanding Nenets adaptation and interactions with ecological processes and institutions.

Abstract This article focuses on informal road networks in remote Siberian communities: their connectivity and the relations between road owners and road users. These informal roads serve both as conduits and hindrances for local connectivities. Data was collected in the villages Vershina Khandy and Tokma of the Irkutsk region, and the study describes the variety of informal roads in the region: subsistence trails and tracks, inter-settlement roads, forest roads, and oil and gas service roads. Different actors participate in the expansion of the informal road network; our research demonstrates that communities accommodate new infrastructures and negotiate their mobility and connectivity informally according to their needs and desires under uneven power hierarchies. In conclusion, we discuss the possibilities and constraints that different groups of roads users experience because of the informal character of roads.

Abstract the young Polish anthropologist Stanisław Poniatowski undertook fieldwork in the Russian Far East in summer 1914. He collected almost five hundred various artifacts (objects, photographs, anthropometric measurement forms, etc.) and linguistic material from the local Nanai and Udege communities along the Amur River. The outbreak of World War I changed Poniatowski's plans and caused the separation (fragmentation) of his original collections, now housed at the Polish Ethnological Society in Wrocław, Poland and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in the US. The article describes a new multistep effort to digitally “reunite” Poniatowski's collections and convert them into a cultural resource for researchers, museum specialists, and Indigenous communities for heritage and language preservation.

Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia Selcen Küçüküstel (New York: Berghahn Books, 2021) 238 pp., ISBN 978-1-80073-062-5.