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Donatas Brandišauskas. 2017. Leaving Footprints in the Taiga: Luck, Rituals, and Ambivalence among the Orochen-Evenki. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.

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@article{JEF, author = {Aivar Jürgenson}, title = { The Departure of an Era in Estonian Ethnology. Commemorating Dr Ants Viires (December 23, 1918 – 18 March 18, 2015)}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {9}, number = {1}, year = {2015}, keywords = {Ants Viires; obituary}, abstract = {Obituary to Dr Ants Viires.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {154–157}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/198} }

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The paper describes the features of the Simēk ritual (compare semik in Russian) in different ethnic and religious (Orthodox Christian, ‘pagan’, Muslim) and ethnic and territorial groups of Chuvash. The author shows the key role of Simēk in the structure of rituals of the semik and Trinity block and reveals its links with funerary, commemorative and wedding rites. Simēk is one of the main rituals on the Chuvash ritual calendar. Traditionally, it is associated with commemoration customs of the people and is one of the three compulsory days of commemoration of family ancestors. It corresponds to semik in the Russian ritual calendar and is held either on Thursday (for unbaptised Chuvash) or on the Saturday before Trinity (for the majority of Orthodox Chuvash). Today Simēk is performed in the villages as a commemoration ritual with a visit to the cemetery, which involves both villagers and those family members who live in cities. After visiting the cemetery family members conduct visits, turning a commemoration ceremony into a festival. Thus, Simēk strengthens family links between villagers and city dwellers. With increasing levels of religiosity in society the importance of Simēk as a means of preserving and spreading ethnic traditions has also increased. In modern rituals there is some structural transformation of Simēk among the Orthodox community, but at the same time it is possible to trace the actualisation and expansion of the ritual together with the general trends in unification of the Chuvash ritual complex.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.

@article{JEF, author = {Ilze Boldāne-Zeļenkova}, title = { The Role of Ethnographers in the Invention of Socialist Traditions in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {socialist traditions; ethnographers; soviet culture and lifestyle; tools of influencing society; anti-religious campaign}, abstract = {This study, based on archive document research and analysis of publications by Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) ethnographers, discusses the process of invention and implementation of Socialist traditions and the role of scientists in this. The introduction of Soviet traditions in Latvia did not begin immediately after the Second World War when the communist occupation regime was restored. The occupation regime in the framework of an anti-religious campaign turned to the transformation of traditions that affect individual’s private sphere and relate to church rituals – baptism, confirmation, weddings, funerals, Latvian cemetery festivities – in the second half of 1950s, along with the implementation of revolutionary and labour traditions. In order to achieve the goals set by the Communist Party, a new structure of institutions was formed and specialists from many fields were involved, including ethnographers from the Institute of History at the LSSR Academy of Sciences (hereinafter – LSSR AS). Ethnographers offered recommendations, as well as observed and analysed the process, discussing it in meetings of official commissions and sharing the conclusions in scientific publications, presentations, etc.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {33–47}, url = {https://jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/319} }

@article{JEF, author = {Benjamin Gatling}, title = { Sufis, Shrines, and the State in Tajikistan}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {}, abstract = {}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {128–130}, url = {https://jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/341} }

@article{JEF, author = {Terje Toomistu}, title = { Between Abjection and World-Making: Spatial Dynamics in the Lives of Indonesian Waria}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {waria; transgender; Indonesia; space; abjection; subjectivity}, abstract = {The lives of Indonesian waria (transgender women) are substantially shaped by spatial dynamics. As a result of social and spatial exclusion, subsequent migration and economic needs, a lifestyle pattern around daily work in beauty salons and street nightlife tied to transactional sex has evolved in many parts of urban Indonesia. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Indonesian regions of Java and West Papua, I demonstrate that despite tremendous spatial abjection, salons and street nightlife are also productive, transformative and conjoining spatialities that foster waria subjectivity in affective relations with their intimate partners, the community, the phantasmic promise of the transnational mediascape and Indonesia as a nation. The places that waria occupy may spark moral prejudice and targeted violence, but simultaneously they are sites of agency at which waria experience self-affirmation and a sense of belonging while embodying through gendered performance the envisioned mobility at both national and transnational scales. The paper thus foregrounds how spaces and subjectivities are mutually constitutive, forging one another, as well as how certain spatialities hold potential to disrupt the sense of marginality.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {90–107}, url = {https://jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/335} }

@article{JEF, author = {Olga Povoroznyuk}, title = { Belonging to the Land in Tura: Reforms, Migrations, and Indentity Politics in Evenkia}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {8}, number = {2}, year = {2014}, keywords = {belonging to land; migration; reforms; identity politics; Evenks}, abstract = {Tura is a mixed community where Evenks live alongside other indigenous groups and Russians. The establishment of Evenk autonomy, with the centre in Tura, in 1930 strengthened Evenk ethnic identity and unity through increased political and cultural representation, as well as through the integration of migrants from other regions. In the post-Soviet period, the community witnessed a population loss, a declining socio-economic situation, and the abolition of autonomy. In the long course of reforms and identity construction, the indigenous intelligentsia has manipulated the concept of belonging to the land either to stress or to erase cultural differences, and thus, to secure the access of the local elite to valuable resources. currently, the most hotly debated boundaries are those dividing Evenks into local and migrant, authentic and unauthentic, urban and rural. The paper illustrates the intricate interrelations between ethnic, indigenous, and territorial identities from an identity politics perspective.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {33–51}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/159} }

@article{JEF, author = {Johannes Müske}, title = { Constructing Sonic Heritage: The Accumulation of Knowledge in the Context of Sound Archives}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {4}, number = {1}, year = {2011}, keywords = {}, abstract = {This paper argues that sonic heritage does not exist per se, but is socially constructed. rather it arises from various measures of accumulating knowledge with respect to the collected sounds. a variety of actors, for example, scholars, or foundations, participate in this process by editing parts of the collections, publishing ethnographic or historic studies, and conducting digitisation projects. In this context, sound collections are identified as ‘cultural heritage’ as a consequence and result of archival practices. The processes that are linked to cultural heritage will be outlined and discussed in the present research in line with the model of the social construction of technology (SCOT). More specifically, the social construction of sonic heritage will be illustrated with a case study on the Edison-cylinders collection in the Berlin Phonogramm-archiv, UNESCo Memory of the world since 2000.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {37–47}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/4} }

The aim of the present article is to outline some of the basic characteristics of the post-Soviet ‘renaissance’ of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (under jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), for example the conversion from Lutheranism to Orthodox Christianity and the processes of rediscovery, reinvention and ‘Estonianisation’ of Orthodox Christianity. The restoration of the autonomous Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, beginning in the 1990s, is due to the historic presence of Orthodoxy in Estonia, but also has the particularities of a new project that seeks contemporary horizons and copes with specific postsocialist problems. The paper takes a closer look at the specific dimensions of these processes through a study of a small Orthodox community: the parish of St. Alexander Nevsky church in Tartu. The author strives to demonstrate the living process of reinvention of Orthodox Christianity in Estonia and more generally the ‘making’, creation, of religion. The small religious community in Tartu dealt with in the paper, shares a number of features of the transforming religiosity of Europe: emphasis on spirituality, openness to the impacts of globalisation, the hybrid character of certain religious practices. It is likewise an example of the fact that Orthodox Christianity may also be the free choice of people looking for moral perfection. This is one of the answers to the main research question about the reasons and character of a contemporary conversion to Orthodox Christianity.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.

@article{JEF, author = {Nikolai Vakhtin}, title = { The Concept of Work in Yupik Eskimo Society Before and After the Russian Influx: A Linguist’s Perspective}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {11}, number = {1}, year = {2017}, keywords = {concept of work; Yupik language; linguistic relativism; Soviet}, abstract = {The Yupik language has a word to signify ‘work’ derived from the stem qepgha(gh)- (qepghaq ‘work’ [noun], qepghaghtuq ‘he works’, qepghaghta ‘worker’, etc.) The scope of the meaning of this word changed drastically after the Russians came to Chukotka to stay in the 1930s. While in the pre-(intensive) contact times the word mainly meant ‘house work’ or ‘processing the carcass of a killed animal’, in mid-20th century it acquired new meanings, borrowing them from Russian. The usage of the word also became a replica of Russian usage: the concept acquired new dependent words, like evaluative adverbs and adjectives, or inanimate agents. This change of meaning reflected social changes that took place in the Yupik world as a result of the modernisation process of the 1950s and 1960s, and is an indicator of the deep transformation the society underwent under Russian (Soviet) influence. The paper analyses this process using two sources from two different epochs: Yupik texts recorded by Yekaterina Rubtsova in the 1940s, that is, in the pre-(intensive) contact period, and a modern Russian-Yupik dictionary compiled by Natalia Rodionova, a teacher of Yupik Eskimo at the Anadyr college, and published 70 years later, in 2014. }, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {170–177}, doi = {10.1515/jef-2017-0010}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/266} }