Words and Silences: Nenets Reindeer Herders and Russian Evangelical Missionaries in the Post-Soviet Arctic

By: Laur Vallikivi

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Words and Silences tells the story of an extraordinary group of independent Nenets reindeer herders in the northwest Russian Arctic. Under socialism these nomads managed to avoid the Soviet state and its institutions of collectivization, but soon after the atheist regime collapsed, while some staunchly resisted, many of them became fervent fundamentalist Christians. By exploring differing concepts of how traditional and convert Nenets use and define words and of the meanings they ascribe to the withholding of speech, Laur Vallikivi shows how a local form of global Christianity has emerged through intricate negotiations of self, sociality, and cosmology. Moving beyond studies of modernization and globalization that have all-too-predictable outcomes for indigenous peoples, Words and Silences invites us to view not only religious devotees, but words themselves, as agents of a complex and ongoing transformation.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 360 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780253068781
Related ISBNs:: 9780253068750, 9780253068774, 9780253068767
Publisher:: Indiana University Press
Date of Addition:: 05/16/24
Copyrighted By:: IUP
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: Nonfiction, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies, Language Arts, Philosophy
Grade Levels:: Graduate Student
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.