Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains

Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border

Edited by Alex Oehler and Anna Varfolomeeva - Contributions by Aivaras Jefanovas; Alex Oehler; Anna Varfolomeeva; Benedikte Møller Kristensen; Igor Rassadin; Konstantin Klokov; Nicolas Rasiulis; Selcen Küçüküstel; Tayana Mongush-Arakchaa and Victoria Peemot

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Contributors to this edited collection examine Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, this book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Going beyond reindeer, the contributors explore the less known roles of yaks, horses, wolves, fish, as well as spirits of place and many other sentient beings, all of which co-constitute local notions of “home places.” The contributors extend their analysis beyond conventional categories of wild and tame in a region that is increasingly hostile toward its own inhabitants due to global efforts to create protected nature reserves. Using ethnographic nuance, the contributors highlight the many connections between humans and other species, stressing the networks of relationships that transcend idioms of dominance or mutualism. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, environmental studies, and Asian studies.

Lexington Books

Pages: 296 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-7936-0253-4 • Hardback • December 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-7936-0254-1 • eBook • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Physical, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Environmental Geography, Social Science / World / Asia

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains

Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Contributors to this edited collection examine Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, this book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Going beyond reindeer, the contributors explore the less known roles of yaks, horses, wolves, fish, as well as spirits of place and many other sentient beings, all of which co-constitute local notions of “home places.” The contributors extend their analysis beyond conventional categories of wild and tame in a region that is increasingly hostile toward its own inhabitants due to global efforts to create protected nature reserves. Using ethnographic nuance, the contributors highlight the many connections between humans and other species, stressing the networks of relationships that transcend idioms of dominance or mutualism. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, environmental studies, and Asian studies.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 296 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-7936-0253-4 • Hardback • December 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-7936-0254-1 • eBook • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Physical, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Environmental Geography, Social Science / World / Asia

Author

Alex Oehler is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Anna Varfolomeeva is assistant professor at School of Advanced Studies at Tyumen State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Figures

Introduction: On Making Home Together

Alex Oehler

Part I - Tozhus, Tozhu District, Republic of Tyva

Chapter One: The Wolf-Pack Approach: Tozhu Hunting Strategies in the Siberian Taiga

Tayana Mongush-Arakchaa

Chapter Two: Predatory Relations of Tozhu Hunter-Herders

Aivaras Jefanovas

Chapter Three: Emplacing Herder-Horse Bonds in Ak-Erik, South Tyva

Victoria Peemot

Part II - Tofas, Tofalaria, Irkutsk Oblast’

Chapter Four: People, Reindeer, and All the Others: The Shared Taiga as Common Tofa Household

Konstantin B. Klokov

Chapter Five: On the Role of the Horse in Tofa Households

Alex Oehler and Igor Rassadin

Chapter Six: Taking Stock: Tofa Reindeer Herding Today

Alex Oehler

Part III - Dukhas, Khövsgöl Aimag, Mongolia

Chapter Seven: Householding as a More-Than-Merely-Human Improvisation Amidst Manifold Frontiers in a Boundless Home(land)

Nicolas Rasiulis

Chapter Eight: “I Can’t Leave My Erens”: Living in a Spirited Geography with Reindeer

Selcen Küçüküstel

Chapter Nine: Killed by Mutton: On the Powers of Animal Products in Dukha Households

Benedikte Møller Kristensen

Part IV - Soiots, Okinskii District, Republic of Buriatiia

Chapter Ten: Jade Hunters: Local Connections to Land and Resources in Okinskii District of Buriatiia

Anna Varfolomeeva

Chapter Eleven: Falling In and Out of Rhythm

Alex Oehler

Conclusion: The Calls of Homeland

Anna Varfolomeeva

Index

Notes on the Contributors

Reviews

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains: Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border highlights the complex attunements between humans, animals, and invisible entities in the taiga, using a historical and anthropological perspective. Through rich and original ethnographical vignettes, this volume offers subtle insights into the taiga landscape, perceived as a home shared by human and non-human sentient beings, and adds to our understanding of the shaping of multispecies coexistence in a time of change and uncertainty in Inner Asia.
— Charlotte Marchina, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

With true-to-life detail, the contributors to this volume describe the big and small techniques and procedures that herders and hunters of southern Siberia use to make a good home for themselves and their animals. This collection features important and timely ethnographies that show how humans, reindeer, horses, dogs, wolves, and a whole range of spiritual beings cooperate and compete—coexist, really—in the sentient ecology of the Siberian forests.
— Gregory Delaplace, Paris Nanterre University