Siberian Indigenous Traditions of Game Keeping and the Supernatural: Historical Continuities and Discontinuities

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Siberian Indigenous communities have been used for centuries as a stand-in for various western categories, mostly as a contrast to civilized, developed or familiar groups. This paper will consider the importance of history when archaeologists contemplate the role of the supernatural and the centrality of game keeping among prehistoric communities. Siberia is an excellent example of a vast region at an arm’s length geographically and historically; not well known and therefore useful as a placeholder for imagined religious traditions and human animal relations. Yet we have rich historical travelers’ accounts, many dubious ethnographic reports, and some veritable descriptions. Furthermore, during the last two decades indigenous communities in Siberia asserted themselves into these narratives through a range of new, old and invented traditions; many focused on the supernatural and the relationship between humans and animals. I will explore the nature of "historical facts", and suggest ways to think about historical continuities and discontinuities geographically and temporally.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22837