Cows, Kin, and Globalization An Ethnography of Sustainability

by Crate, Susan Alexandra

• ISBN13: 9780759107403
• ISBN10: 0759107408
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-19
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

Crate presents the first cultural ecological study of a Siberian people the Viliui Sakha, describing the local and global forces of modernization that continue to challenge their survival, and will be of interest to environmental and economic anthropologists, as well as to practitioners interested in sustainable rural development, globalization, indigenous rights in Eurasia, and post-Soviet Russia.

Author Biography

Susan A. Crate is a writer and scholar who conducts research in cultural and political ecology, environmental policy, sustainable community development, and global climate change in Siberia, Russia, and the circumpolar North. She is assistant professor of human ecology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Prologue	p. xvii
Central Themes: Local Cultures/Global Forces	p. xxii
On the Use of "Indigenous"	p. xxiii
A Note on the Transliteration	p. xxiv
Map-out of the Chapters	p. xxv
At Home in Siberia	p. 1
Biogeography of the Viliui	p. 3
The Pre-glacial and Glacial Periods in the Sakha Republic	p. 5
Geology of Sakha and the Viliui	p. 7
Climate and Hydrology on the Viliui	p. 7
Hydrology on the Viliui	p. 8
The Boreal Ecosystem: Floral and Faunal Adaptations	p. 12
Fauna	p. 14
Human Adaptations to Extreme Northern Environments	p. 16
Sakha Subsistence Adaptations to the Subarctic	p. 16
Viliui Historical Ecology	p. 43
Southern Origins	p. 43
Viliui Sakha Origins and Local History	p. 48
Local History: The Elgeeii Area	p. 51
Invasion from the West	p. 55
Local Impacts of Russian Colonization in Viliui Sakha Settlements	p. 56
The Soviet Period: From Lenin's Socialism to Stalin's Legacy	p. 60
The Soviet Period for Viliui Sakha	p. 63
Cows-and-Kin: The Cultural Ecology of Post-Soviet Viliui Sakha Survival	p. 93
Viliui Sakha Villages on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century	p. 93
Moving through the Seasons: Village and Household Life	p. 97
Having What It Takes: The Demands of Keeping Cows in the Subarctic	p. 110
Year-Round Activities	p. 112
Seasonal Cow-Care Activities	p. 114
Haying: Foraging for the Quintessential Crop	p. 121
Getting to Cows-and-Kin	p. 121
Inter-Household Cows-and-Kin Dependencies	p. 122
The Centrality of Kin	p. 124
Cows-and-Kin in Case Studies	p. 127
The Theoretical Context of Cows-and-Kin	p. 135
Contemplating Cows-and-Kin	p. 139
Having and Knowing Land	p. 145
Having Land	p. 145
The Great Divide	p. 147
The Three Modes in Sum	p. 163
The Question of Ancestral Right to Land	p. 164
The Second Village Factor: An Argument to Return to Smaller Settlements?	p. 165
Final Thoughts on Having Land	p. 165
Knowing Land	p. 166
The Elders and Their Life Stories	p. 167
Elder Narratives and the Loss of Local History	p. 187
An Environmental History of the Viliui	p. 191
Glasnost on the Viliui	p. 194
Soviet Industrialization	p. 196
The Post-Soviet Period: Reconciling the Past	p. 199
Impacts of Industrialization on the Viliui	p. 199
Official Efforts to Reconcile the Environmental Issues of the Viliui Regions	p. 207
The Birth and Demise of the Viliui Committee	p. 209
Environmental Victories in Post-Soviet Russia: A Recipe for Success?	p. 212
Imagining a Future of Environmental Justice on the Viliui	p. 215
Diamond Mining and Indigenous Rights in Comparative Context: The Case of Canadian Diamonds	p. 221
Stereotypes and Definitions of the North	p. 222
A History of Northern Exploration and the Fur Trades of Russia and Canada	p. 223
The Case of Diamonds in Arctic Canada	p. 228
The Cultural and Historical Landscape of Canadian Land Claims	p. 230
Diamonds and Developments in the North West Territories	p. 233
The Pluses and Minuses of the Canadian Arctic Diamond Economy	p. 241
Charting a Course to Sustainability for Indigenous Peoples and Mines	p. 246
Implications for Viliui Sakha	p. 248
Investigating Viliui Sakha Sustainability	p. 251
Defining Sustainability on the Local Level	p. 251
Defining Sustainability in Focus Groups	p. 252
Defining Sustainability in Interviews	p. 264
Bringing Findings into a Larger Discussion	p. 269
Global Mining, Indigenous Peoples, and Sustainability	p. 273
Mining in Historical Perspective	p. 274
Mining in the Twenty-First Century	p. 277
The Local Impacts of Twenty-First-Century Mining	p. 278
The Ok Tedi Case	p. 283
Mining, Indigenous Peoples, and Sustainability	p. 287
Epilogue	p. 289
Revisiting the Central Themes	p. 289
Toward an Ethnography of Sustainability	p. 295
Sustainability Research in Anthropology	p. 299
Sustainability and Indigenous Peoples	p. 301
Indigenous Sustainability in the Arctic Context	p. 303
Indigenous Sustainability in the Russian North	p. 305
The Dialogue of Sustainability	p. 311
Glossary	p. 315
References	p. 323
Index	p. 343
About the Author	p. 355
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