Petra Rethmann - Böcker

Koriak have been described as a nomadic people, migrating with the reindeer through rugged terrain. Their autonomy and mobility are salient cultural features that ethnographers and state administrators have found equally fascinating and menacing. Tundra Passages describes how this indigenous people in the Russian Far East have experienced, interpreted, and struggled with the changing conditions of life on the periphery of post-Soviet Russia. Rethmann portrays the lives of Koriak women in the locales of Tymlat and Ossora in northern Kamchatka, within a wider framework of sexuality, state power, and marginalization, which she sees as central to the Koriak experience of everyday life. Using gender as a lens through which to examine wider issues of history, disempowerment, and marginalization, she explores the interpretations and strategies employed by Koriak women and men to ameliorate the austere effects of political and socioeconomic disorder. Rethmann’s innovative work combines historical and ethnographic descriptions of Koriak life, narration, and practices of gender and history.With the demise of the Soviet Union, scholars have begun an active discussion of the political processes that affect marginalized and indigenous peoples in Russia. This work contributes to this discussion by revealing the tensions and potentially contradictory strategies of indigenous people within a world shaken by change, uncertainty, and disorder.

Globalization has challenged concepts such as local culture and cultural autonomy. And the rampant commodification of cultural products has challenged the way we define culture itself. Have these developments transformed the relationship between culture and autonomy? Have traditional notions of cultural autonomy been recast?Cultural Autonomy showcases the work of scholars who are exploring new ways of understanding the critical issue of globalization and culture. By defining culture broadly – as a set of ideas or practices that range from skateboarding to the work of public intellectuals such as Edward Said – they trace how issues of cultural autonomy have played out in various areas, including the human rights and environmental movements and among indigenous peoples. Although the contributors focus on the marginalized issue of autonomy, they offer a balanced perspective – one that reveals that globalization has not only limited but also created new forms of cultural autonomy.

Globalization has challenged concepts such as local culture and cultural autonomy. And the rampant commodification of cultural products has challenged the way we define culture itself. Have these developments transformed the relationship between culture and autonomy? Have traditional notions of cultural autonomy been recast?Cultural Autonomy showcases the work of scholars who are exploring new ways of understanding the critical issue of globalization and culture. By defining culture broadly – as a set of ideas or practices that range from skateboarding to the work of public intellectuals such as Edward Said – they trace how issues of cultural autonomy have played out in various areas, including the human rights and environmental movements and among indigenous peoples. Although the contributors focus on the marginalized issue of autonomy, they offer a balanced perspective – one that reveals that globalization has not only limited but also created new forms of cultural autonomy.

This book offers a brief introduction to the anthropological study of Russia. Moving beyond the conceptual iron curtain that has divided past study of Russia into "East" and "West," it situates Russia in a global context and provides readers with all of the necessary analytical tools for understanding the complex cultural and social configurations of the contemporary Russian Federation. Based on extensive fieldwork in Russia, it offers unique insights into a number of cultural configurations—including socialism, violence, mythology, colonialism, nationalism, gender, memory, democracy, media, and art. Through the use of interesting case studies and ethnographic "snapshots," the author has produced a lively and engaging overview of Russia’s cultural meaning and significance.

Looking at encounters that can puncture or jolt us, this volume uses art as a lens through which to register and understand exceptional experiences. The volume also includes the fieldworker’s experience of unexpected events that can lead to key understandings, as well as revelatory moments that happen during artistic creation and while looking at art. By exploring exceptional experiences through art, the volume asks probing questions for anthropology. In recognizing that art is all-encompassing – including, as it does, narrative, performance, dance and images – Exceptional Experiences situates itself within a number of conversations on methodological and conceptual issues in anthropology and beyond.

Looking at encounters that can puncture or jolt us, this volume uses art as a lens through which to register and understand exceptional experiences. The volume also includes the fieldworker’s experience of unexpected events that can lead to key understandings, as well as revelatory moments that happen during artistic creation and while looking at art. By exploring exceptional experiences through art, the volume asks probing questions for anthropology. In recognizing that art is all-encompassing – including, as it does, narrative, performance, dance and images – Exceptional Experiences situates itself within a number of conversations on methodological and conceptual issues in anthropology and beyond.