Leaving Footprints in the Taiga : : Luck, Spirits and Ambivalence among the Siberian Orochen Reindeer Herders and Hunters / / Donatas Brandišauskas.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: Brandišauskas, Donatas,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the Circumpolar North ; 1
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (305 p.)

Nowhere have recent environmental and social changes been more pronounced than in post-Soviet Siberia. Donatas Brandišauskas probes the strategies that Orochen reindeer herders of southeastern Siberia have developed to navigate these changes. “Catching luck” is one such strategy that plays a central role in Orochen cosmology -- luck implies a vernacular theory of causality based on active interactions of humans, non-humans, material objects, and places. Brandišauskas describes in rich details the skills, knowledge, ritual practices, storytelling, and movements that enable the Orochen to “catch luck” (or not, sometimes), to navigate times of change and upheaval.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Tables, Maps and Figures -- Preface -- A Note on Transliteration -- Introduction: Luck, Spirits and Places -- Chapter one. People I Lived With: Community, Subsistence and Skills -- Chapter two. Luck, Spirits and Domination -- Chapter three. Sharing, Trust and Accumulation -- Chapter four. ‘Relying on My Own Two’ Walking and Luck -- Chapter five. Living Places: Tracking Animals and Camps -- Chapter six. Mastery of Time: Weather and Opportunities -- Chapter seven. Herding, Hunting and Ambiguity -- Chapter eight. Rock Art, Shamans and Healing -- Chapter nine. Conclusions: Ambivalence, Reciprocity and Luck -- Glossary of Orochen and Russian Terms -- Bibliography -- Index