Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia
What does it mean to be a traditional Koryak in the modern world? How do indigenous Siberians express a culture that entails distinctive customs and traditions? For decades these people, who live on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Siberia, have been in the middle of contradictory Soviet/Russian colonial policies that celebrate cultural and ethnic difference across Russia yet seek to erase those differences. Government institutions both impose state ideologies of culture and civilization and are sites of community revitalization for indigenous Siberians.

In Living with Koryak Traditions, Alexander D. King reveals that, rather than having a single model of Koryak culture, Koryaks themselves are engaged in deep debates and conversations about what "culture" and "tradition" mean and how they are represented for native peoples, both locally and globally. To most Koryaks, tradition does not function simply as an identity marker but also helps to maintain moral communities and support vulnerable youth in dire times. Debunking an immutable view of tradition and culture, King presents a dynamic one that validates contemporary indigenous peoples' lived experience.

Alexander D. King is a lecturer of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and managing editor of the journal Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies.
1102799279
Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia
What does it mean to be a traditional Koryak in the modern world? How do indigenous Siberians express a culture that entails distinctive customs and traditions? For decades these people, who live on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Siberia, have been in the middle of contradictory Soviet/Russian colonial policies that celebrate cultural and ethnic difference across Russia yet seek to erase those differences. Government institutions both impose state ideologies of culture and civilization and are sites of community revitalization for indigenous Siberians.

In Living with Koryak Traditions, Alexander D. King reveals that, rather than having a single model of Koryak culture, Koryaks themselves are engaged in deep debates and conversations about what "culture" and "tradition" mean and how they are represented for native peoples, both locally and globally. To most Koryaks, tradition does not function simply as an identity marker but also helps to maintain moral communities and support vulnerable youth in dire times. Debunking an immutable view of tradition and culture, King presents a dynamic one that validates contemporary indigenous peoples' lived experience.

Alexander D. King is a lecturer of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and managing editor of the journal Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies.
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Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia

Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia

by Alexander D. King
Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia
Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia

Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia

by Alexander D. King

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Overview

What does it mean to be a traditional Koryak in the modern world? How do indigenous Siberians express a culture that entails distinctive customs and traditions? For decades these people, who live on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Siberia, have been in the middle of contradictory Soviet/Russian colonial policies that celebrate cultural and ethnic difference across Russia yet seek to erase those differences. Government institutions both impose state ideologies of culture and civilization and are sites of community revitalization for indigenous Siberians.

In Living with Koryak Traditions, Alexander D. King reveals that, rather than having a single model of Koryak culture, Koryaks themselves are engaged in deep debates and conversations about what "culture" and "tradition" mean and how they are represented for native peoples, both locally and globally. To most Koryaks, tradition does not function simply as an identity marker but also helps to maintain moral communities and support vulnerable youth in dire times. Debunking an immutable view of tradition and culture, King presents a dynamic one that validates contemporary indigenous peoples' lived experience.

Alexander D. King is a lecturer of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and managing editor of the journal Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803236011
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Publication date: 06/01/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author


Alexander D. King is a senior lecturer of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and managing editor of the journal Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations viii

Preface xi

Introduction: A Semiotics of Koryak Culture 1

1 Discovering Koryak Culture through History 41

2 Genuine and Spurious Culture in Kamchatka 82

3 Dancing in the Koryak House of Culture 111

4 The Culture of Schools and Museums 148

5 "This Is Not My Language! " Koryak Language in Schools 194

Conclusion: Koryak Culture and the Future of Tradition 234

Notes 263

Glossary 285

References 289

Index 321

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