The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia

by Piers Vitebsky

Since the last Ice Age, the reindeer's extraordinary adaptation to cold has sustained human life over vast tracts of the earth's surface, providing meat, fur, and transport. Images carved into rocks and tattooed on the skin of mummies hint at ancient ideas about the reindeer's magical ability to carry the human soul on flights to the sun. These images pose one of the great mysteries of the "reindeer revolution," in which Siberian native peoples tamed and saddled a species they had previously hunted.

Drawing on nearly twenty years of field work among the Eveny in northeast Siberia, Piers Vitebsky shows how Eveny social relations are formed through an intense partnership with these extraordinary animals as they migrate over the swamps, ice sheets, and mountain peaks of what in winter is the coldest inhabited region in the world. He reveals how indigenous ways of knowing involve a symbiotic ecology of mood between humans and reindeer, and he opens up an unprecedented understanding of nomadic movement, place, memory, habit, and innovation.

The Soviets' attempts to settle the nomads in villages undermined their self-reliance and mutual support. In an account both harrowing and funny, Vitebsky shows the Eveny's ambivalence toward productivity plans and medals and their subversion of political meetings designed to control them. The narrative gives a detailed and tender picture of how reindeer can act out or transform a person's destiny and of how prophetic dreaming about reindeer fills a gap left by the failed assurances of the state.

Vitebsky explores the Eveny experience of the cruelty of history through the unfolding and intertwining of their personal lives. The interplay of domestic life and power politics is both intimate and epic, as the reader follows the diverging fate of three charismatic but very different herding families through dangerous political and economic reforms. The book's gallery of unforgettable personalities includes shamans, psychics, wolves, bears, dogs, Communist Party bosses, daredevil aviators, fire and river spirits, and buried ancestors. The Reindeer People is a vivid and moving testimony to a Siberian native people's endurance and humor at the ecological limits of human existence.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Russia, History, Travel, Animals, Nature

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Piers Vitebsky is an anthropologist and is the Head of Social Science at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, England.

Reviews

[Ints · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sahas republikā dzīvo Evenu tauta, radniecīgi evenkiem (tā nez kādēļ raksta daudzos uzziņas avotos), viņu nav daudz. Šīs tautas galvenais rūpals ir pieradināto ziemeļbriežu audzēšana un gaļas tirgošana. Grāmatas autors divdesmit gadu laikā ir apkopojis plašu materiālu par šo tautu, novērojot paražas un piedaloties ikdienas darbos. Nedaudz baidījos, jo lasīt 500 lapaspušu biezu antropoloģijas darbu var būt visnotaļ nogurdinoši. Taču jau pēc pirmajām lapām bija skaidrs, šis vairāk ir piedzīvojuma un ceļojuma apraksts.

Iesākumā lasītājs tiek iepazīstināts ar ziemeļbriežu pieradināšanu, mūsdienās vari čurāt uz sūnām, cik gribi, bet nekas nesanāks. Tagadējie pieradinātie ziemeļbrieži savvaļā vairs nav sastopami. Bet tie, kas ir savvaļas, tie ir kaut kādi ne tie paši. Par to, kā kādreiz ziemeļbrieži bija populāri pat Ķīnā, bet laika gaitā, klimata pārmaiņu rezultātā tie tika izspiesti uz taigas un tundras apgabaliem. Visi ziemeļbrieži nemaz nav vienādi, un no dienvidu daļas atvest briedis nosals jau pirmajā ziemeļu ziemā.

Eveni pievēršana civilizācijai bija visnotaļ asiņaina, cara laikos viņus pakļāva, bet padomju laikos iznīcināja viņu kultūru. Briežkopība pēc savas būtības ir intensīvas lopkopības rezultāts. Savulaik vietējie neganīja desmitiem tūkstošu briežu ganāmpulkus, viņi migrēja tiem līdzi, viņi valdīja tikai pār saviem pāris učakiem (brieži kurus izmanto jāšanai un nastu nešanai). Padomju vara izveidoja kolhozus, apšāva šamaņus un izveidoja ganāmpulkus pēc zinātniskiem principiem. Jāatzīmē, ka padomju varas gados tas viss strādāja pateicoties dotācijām.

Autors savus novērojumus sāka perestroikas laikā, un tad jau viss sāka iet uz leju. Nevienam vairs nebija nekādas daļas gar briežkopjiem un to apgādi. Jaunieši nevēlējās mūžu veltīt klaiņojumiem tundrā, bet īstas alternatīvas ar’ nav. Nākas vien dzert un kauties ar nažiem. Tautā, kurā ir vien divdesmit tūkstoši iedzīvotāju, ir grūti tikt pie sievas, jo neviena vairs nevēlas dzīvot taigā.

Laba bija sadaļa par sapņiem un nāvi, par to, ka slikts sapnis jāizstāsta uzreiz, bet labs – nevienam, lai neaizbaidītu veiksmi. Par to, ka esot jaunā vietā no šnabja pudeles pirmo šļuku jādod ugunij. Ja to nedara, tad mocīs slikti sapņi. To gan var no rīta labot ugunī ielejot tīru spirtu. Bet ja tev naktī sapņos rādās sieviete un dzen tevi prom, ir laiks kravāt mantas. Paši upes gari ir uz tevi apvainojušies. Arī tad, ja tev pēkšņi sāk veikties medībās un zveja, ir ziepes. Gars katram cilvēkam mūžā ir nomērījis veiksmes mēru. Ja tā pēkšņi sāk nākt katrus dienu, tad arī nāve ir tuvu. Bet reizēm tā nemaz nav, un Gars vienkārši ir nolēmis tevi apdāvināt. Zīlēšana uz brieža lāpstiņas ir nopietna futuroloģija, tikpat nopietna kā uguns vērošana. Nekas nav vienkārši, brieži var nomirt tavā vietā, vai arī signalizējot par kāda nāvi.

Grāmatai lieku 10 no 10 ballēm, ja vēlies palasīt par dzīvi vienā no zemeslodes attālākajiem nostūriem, tad droši var ņemt šo grāmatu. Mazajā briežkopju kolhozā intrigas netrūkst.

[Steve E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best non-technical ethnographies I've read, and maybe one of the best overall (and I've read quite a few!). Highly recommended even if you're not interested in anthropology - Vitebsky's portraits of native people in Siberia are sympathetic, honest, un-romantic, and incredibly powerful.

[Alexandros · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating and compelling journey through the Siberian Taiga that got me really invested from the very beginning, this one gets a 10 out of 10.

[Cassandra Hartblay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a sort of escape from my own ethnographic fieldwork. It is fantastic, in it's readability. Vitebsky holds you as reader, so you can relax into the stories, and the textures of the lives he describes. He delivers neither too much ethnographic detail to make the book formidable for a layperson reader, nor too little depth for those of us with anthropological training. At the same time, the reader comes to learn about gut-wrenching heartache of the community he describes, as well as their aspirations, their relationships with both wild and tame reindeer, and how they interpret dreams.

I will say that it's not a surprise that this book appealed to me, given that I am an ethnographer who works in Russia. But, I would recommend this to anyone who likes long form non-fiction about travel, extreme environments, or spirituality.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author spent parts of years living with the Eveny people. He describes them in intimate detail as well as their reindeer herding culture and its history. I especially enjoyed the second part in which he describes the spiritual aspects of their culture.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Above all, I cannot get over the weather in the Siberian taiga: 20 hours of darkness in winters, “warm” weather being -30 degrees Fahrenheit, and saliva solidifying before hitting the ground. The studied inhabitants of this region, the Eveny people, often sing songs on themes of mondji, or the quality of being self-reliant, able to survive in extreme situations, and never giving up. It was really inspiring to get insight on a people that have so few possessions and so few societal concerns, but seem to focus largely on bare survival in the face of many neighbors succumbing to violent and premature deaths due to the terrain.

I think it would be harder for me to understand how this lifestyle carries joy (aside from being brought up in it and not knowing other lifestyles) IF, while reading this, I had not coincidentally watched a video on ‘happiness’ musings by a Christian/Buddhist. In the video, among other things included in the 4 hour youtube vid, Anthony de Mello emphasizes that we can’t place happiness on the acquisition of things/people/jobs/statuses because we will become attached, and then be too anxious we’ll lose the object to enjoy it OR when we lose it suffer a feeling of never being happy again (like when you were a child and didn’t get a specific Barbie and thought you’d never be happy again – but that period of depression was hollow because you did become happy again, silly child). De Mello has a simple philosophy, but it helped me understand that Eveny may be happy in part due to this lack of attachment. Inspirational!

Author Piers Vitebsky is clearly in love with these people, as he followed them for decades, and it shows in his writings. It was a little hard to follow the twisting directions of the book, and I often had no idea chronologically what was happening – although chron was not the point here, it usually makes non-fic reading easier. The end was a bit heartbreaking because Vitebsky paints a picture of an inevitable demise (“At the 2002 spring festival…., where 30,000 reindeer – more than have ever existed in Sebyan – had been reduced to a mere 6,000, the younger people danced away the night in a disco, while the older herders sat and wept.”). I need to visit Russia.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is interesting because I knew nothing of the people of Siberia that follow the reindeer. I did not even know that the Soviets had reindeer farms or that reindeer was cultivated for its' meat, fur and being a pack animal. This book is written in diary form by an anthropologist. It jumps around a bit and and it is a lot of detail. A lot of detail. Not an entertaining read but I am glad that I read it.

[Andrew Rothstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grabbed the book because I thought it might be interesting to learn about people living lifestyles that are so different from modern life. The lifestyle of the Eveny people of Siberia and the reindeer they herd is certainly that. Unfortunately, it also pretty boring and so is the book.

Unless you are an anthropologist, I would move to something else.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating information about a rapidly declining culture.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Siberian reindeer herders’ camp is a fairly intimate collection of perhaps a dozen people and a few small tents, surrounded by thousands of square miles of space. One might mistakenly describe the space as empty, but in fact it is manifestly full. Stands of larch, lichen, grasses, bogs and lakes adorn the mountain ranges and river systems that feed into the Arctic Ocean. Bears, wolves, marmots, and other fur-bearing mammals, as well as birds, fish and spirits live here. Graves are carefully placed in the landscape, many on platforms or stilts in an older style. Their inhabitants require offerings from passersby, and they have stories, as do many of the mountain passes and other landmarks.

There are blueberries here, and even in a dry year Emmie knows exactly where to find them. There are mushrooms here, and when the reindeer flock to them in a late-summer feeding frenzy, Kostya can retrieve his animals, spread over many miles of territory, with amazing ease. The inconceivably large Siberian taiga, though austere and even deadly, especially during the bitter winter and the treacherous spring thaw, is portrayed in this book as well-ordered and peaceful. Each herding “brigade” (to use the Soviet term) knows the land as it knows its own mother.

Within the camp all is orderly and calm, too, which is nothing short of miraculous, considering that these people pack up their things and move every few days as they shepherd their reindeer through a yearly migration cycle, making use of the best grazing land while, as much as possible, avoiding stinging, parasitic insects and hungry wolves. (These two categories of creatures seem to be the bad guys of the taiga.) Every few days the herders pack tents, gear, books, journals, clothing and bedding, as well as kitchen items from utensils and pots to provisions and even the stove itself. These items are loaded into saddlebags carried by specially trained reindeer. All that remains behind is a stack of wooden poles (for the tents) and perhaps a platform with appropriate supplies neatly tied down under a reindeer skin or tarp, ready for use when the brigade returns to this spot in a year’s time. When the herders arrive several hours later at their next location, everything must be unpacked and reassembled for immediate occupation and use.

The village of Sebyan, around which the herds in their Soviet incarnation revolve, is the foil to the open, spacious, calm, orderly taiga. It is crowded and noisy with gossip, bureaucratic paper rustling, and wheeling and dealing. The government-run village and its mandatory state school rob men of their families, women of their traditional role as partners in a family enterprise, and children of their culture, replacing them with vodka, sugar and phony folkloric performances. The State Farm bureaucracy is a purveyor of revenge on successful families and an instigator of rage, despair, murder and suicide.

If space is telling in The Reindeer People, so, too, is time, underpinning the entire story. There are the thousands of years during which, in symbiosis with the reindeer, the Eveny culture was crafted; the scant generations since the Soviets tortured it into a mundane system of post-capitalist production; and the relatively few years since perestroika introduced its own set of difficulties. There is also the time spent by Dr. Vitebsky and his Eveny hosts: quiet time, hour upon hour invested in building the personal relationships that give this study its depth. Also described here is the elegant yearly cycle of migration, traced over and over on the vast landscape of the Russian Arctic, which lies underneath the multitude of stomping, crunching reindeer hooves like a living, calendrical carpet. In this way of life, the movement through space is a concrete representation of the movement through time.

Since the retreat of the glaciers after the last Ice Age, reindeer have lived in the northernmost reaches of Siberia, moving through the river systems and mountain ranges. The Eveny are just one group among several who live with these partly wild, partly domesticated animals, managing them with techniques taken from psychology as well as animal husbandry. Over thousands of years the Eveny and their kin created a home in the coldest place on earth—a culture that is physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and socially sustaining. In The Reindeer People, Dr. Vitebsky’s experiences illuminate for us the interrelated beliefs, habits, dreams, and turns of tongue that deepen the many meetings and farewells, arrivals and departures of this still (for the herders) essentially nomadic life. Dr. Vitebsky provides fascinating background and history, and, I think, to his credit, he acknowledges his place as a participant on the ground (his wife and children even join him and Brigade 7 one summer) and as an anthropologist trying to make sense of it all, but to a large extent he lets the herders tell their own stories.

Before the Soviets, the yearly migration cycles were apparently augmented by other, longer travels over thousands of miles, made possible by the reindeer who, when winter snow and ice blanket uneven or boggy terrain, can virtually fly. There is also reference to a traditional midsummer ritual which symbolized the flight of each person to the sun on the back of a winged reindeer. Before the Soviets exterminated them, Eveny shamans also flew to the realm of spirits on missions of healing. (And the platform graves, are these a form of flight as well?) The centralized Soviet system disallowed these earlier forms of flying; its introduction of helicopters to move people and supplies, ironically but predictably, fostered dependence rather than healing or transcendence. This condition has been exacerbated by the post-Soviet reduction of transportation and other support.

Change is inevitable, both in natural systems (how will climate change impact this land and its inhabitants?) and in human affairs. There will always be a conquering people, a natural disaster, political discord, religious missions or schisms, new technologies or some other eventuality to catalyze cultural change, whether gradual or abrupt, violent or peaceful. The unrecoverable loss that results is acute and painful—in this case it is traumatic. Certainly, as I read this book, I mourned the loss of self-determination and freedom, the destruction of culture and tradition, the irradiation of the environment and its people, the breakup of families, and the impersonal cruelty of a morally bankrupt system that encourages treachery and death.

As Lidia, one of the herder’s wives, explains to Dr. Vitebsky, it is difficult for a herder to adjust to the village, because his soul is open from living in the taiga. I hope that the thousands of years of Eveny culture can ultimately transcend the destruction of the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, and that the people can, in some fashion, metaphorically or actually, return to the well-ordered space which they created and which is rightfully theirs. Dr. Vitebsky’s friend Tolya (Anatoly Alekseyev), an Eveny anthropologist, is perhaps the pivotal person in this story, if not in the book itself. As Dr. Vitebsky points out, Tolya, in his use of aviation to contact otherworldly beings, is like a modern shaman, flying from the taiga to the world of scholars and activists on a mission of healing for his people. I wish him all the best on his journey.

The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia is a winner of the Kiriyama Prize for Nonfiction and a recipient of the Victor Turner Prize Honorable Mention.

Piers Vitebsky is the head of anthropology and Russian northern studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He was the first Westerner to live with Siberian reindeer people since the Russian Revolution.

[Sovatha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another classic example of how the work of an anthropologist could contribute to preserving the culture being studied. This book is a result of knowledge accumulated throughout years of fieldwork, participating in the life of the people, called the Eveny in Northern Russia, whose life and culture have for generations depended on the domesticated reindeer and hunting animal. They were the people of the land on the edge of modern civilization, but their daily life has also been, for better or for worse, touched by the Russian Revolution. Through all the years the author spent with the Eveny, we learn a great deal about their life: migration, hunting, child rearing, female/male roles, family relations, their belief in spirit and greater being or the shamanism which the later part of the book concentrated on.

The Eveny live their life partly in the village and partly in the camps depending on different times of the year. Away from the village, the camps are where they hunt wild animals whose meat, bone, and skin sustain the Eveny. Women who have been educated do not want to be in the camps and when asked why, they said the camps are not civilized or cultured (pg. 193). This is interesting in itself because this is their local people talking about the ways of life of their own people. This point also illustrates how the modernity at the center has affected the periphery. Commenting on the 'civilized' and 'cultured' notion among these women, the author said “these two words lay at the heart of the Soviet ideal of how one should live, and persist into post-Soviet consciousness. The continuum from wild to civilized, from wilderness to village to city, is reflected in all aspects of conduct, dress, and comfort“ (pg. 193). If the life at the periphery needs to conform to the center's definition of culture, then everything will fit in the grid of high modernity that Jame Scott talked about in "Seeing Like a State". Unfortunately, by the end of the book, we learn that globalization and modernity have reached them, and have indeed changed the life of the Eveny towards one commonly found in other places. The family and social institutions passed on from generations of hunters and herders among the Eveny can do very little in resisting the allure of capitalism that slowly seeps into the Russia's periphery.

Before all these global forces change the Eveny forever, we have this book as a record of what it was like to be an Eveny in the early 90s. The most important feature that author concentrated heavily on in the third part of the book is the belief on shamanism and spirit. There are greater beings everywhere in the landscape, from trees to rivers, to animals. Everything even humans is connected in this system which needs to be balance. The imbalance of this spirit could lead to death of animal or human. This is how they explain phenomena surrounding their daily life, ranging from somebody committing suicide to hunters catching an animal. They also have dreams that they believe are the manifestation of the greater beings in different forms trying to communicate or to send message to the humans. The Eveny take these dreams seriously. They interpret things and events in the dreams to mean different things. For example, “a woman in a dream means a river, it’s the spirit of the place.” (304) The landscape communicated with people directly when they offend the spirit. There was an Eveny man described in the book who had dreams that the spirit did not want him in the land, and thus he had to keep moving or traveling to other places. In a way, the dreams excluding him from the landscape of the people was a result of what he did wrong to the landscape.

Reading this section, I could relate to the view of dreams to in Cambodia where I grew up. Growing up in Cambodia, I have learned that people believe dreams could tell the on-coming of, for example, good or bad omen, babies coming, or somebody’s dying. There were even experts of ‘dream interpreting’ who people would go to for their assistance in interpreting dreams. Sometimes people even use the interpretation of their dreams to bet in a local system of ‘lottery number’. Twitching one’s eyelid could either be a sign bad or good thing coming depending on which side it is. Similarly, the author wrote about one of his informants, Granny, who twitch her left cheek the day before a wild wolf coming into their camp to kill a reindeer. The system of universe that the Eveny believes in could connect and explain phenomena that happen hundred miles away. For example, the unexplained death of a reindeer in one camp could be interpreted as an exchange for saving a life of the reindeer's relative somewhere in a different camp. Similarly in Cambodia, people believe that when away from home, biting your own lip while eating indicates somebody at home is thinking or talking about you. Some people believe so much in their dreams that if they found out bad things are about to happen from their dreams, they would ask for blessing from the monks.

Despite the great deal of knowledge we learn about the Eveny, the book definitely has some shortcomings as well. Spanning out almost four hundred pages, we would assume that the big chunk of the book would be dedicated to the animals and spirits among the Eveny. Instead, we only get to know about it toward the last one third of the book. The author spent too much time and pages talking about other things like the education, the politics in the farm, or even about the author’s family spending time in the camp with the people he studied. Although this knowledge might be related to the main topic, it feels like the author is somehow distracted by these things and diverted his attention from focusing on the issue of shamanism and spirits. Nevertheless, the book is a good read for anthropologists or people interested in the life at the periphery.

[Peter Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful and important piece of writing. Wonderful, because of its evocative use of prose; and important, because he conjures up a whiff of a way of life, a relationship between humanity and the world we live in: that has already largely disappeared.

There are lots of books that are well written, and I shan't dwell on that beyond observing that I wish I could write as well as Vitebsky does. I'm amused at the odd review elsewhere in this web site, chastising him for not writing the kind of erudite post-doctoral academic treatise that the reader expected. But then again, Vitebsky never said he was writing an academic treatise, he set out to write a book. And he did so triumphantly. Read it just for the low key, carefully understated - but ominipresent - condemnation of the Soviet destruction of a habitat and a way of life.

In that sense, the book is a long, gentle moan of affectionate yearning and pain on behalf of a lost world, the world of a people whose entire rhythm of existence is defined by swirling herds of reindeer, wandering not-quite-at-random across the wastes of Siberia. It's more or less impossible to imagine what the impact on your own psyche might be, of spending a lifetime wandering across the wastes to herd nomadic animals. But he gives it a pretty good shot. The relationship between the living and the dead, the everyday communion with the spirits of the land, the obvious importance of dreams as a manifestation of something deeper than the rest of us, the total centrality of the reindeer to their lives: he treats all of this with careful and sympathetic care. The reader can take it or leave it as he likes - but there is no denying that it tells us something at least about the world and the way of thinking and surviving that we have evolved from.

That world had changed massively already, by the time he entered it in the 1980s. Two generations of callous and dogmatic centralism by the Soviet authorities had already hacked huge slices off a millennia-old way of life by the time he began studying the Eveny people. For example, Moscow says to cut up the herds in such and such a way, because the bureaucracy demands it - and balances developed over centuries, in response to a living landscape that can only sustain so many reindeer, get swept away. Moscow says the children must become model Soviet citizens (i.e. sedentary) - and families and an ancient way of life gets torn away in the process.

For all that, Vitebsky rarely allows himself even a veiled criticism of the authorities. Indeed, peeping round the edge of his account is the thought that such erosion of the way of life has occurred everywhere, in Canada and Greenland too for example. You don't have to be Soviet to mess up other people's cultures, it's perfectly possible to be capitalist and do a pretty good job of it too.

And I suppose that if that precarious way of life could have evolved as a direct result of the encounter between humanity and that harsh environment, then there's not all that much to stop it evolving again, now that the Soviet Union has gone. True, there remains a voracious Russian oil industry, and the Soviets did manage to irradiate large tracts of Siberia too. But Siberia does represent almost a third of the planet's land mass, and there are only a couple of hundred thousand Eveny on it, willing to live and die in that impossible environment. Good luck to them (in every sense) - may they regroup and prosper!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthropologist's personal account of his time living with and studying the indigenous Eveny people of northeastern Siberia whose lives and livelihoods are interdependent with the wild reindeer herds they live among. Vitebsky's stays began in the mid-to-late 1980's--he was the first Westerner to live among them since the 1930's. Because of that, he was in a unique position to see both the effect that Soviet collectivization had on the traditional practices of the nomadic Eveny--which broke up the family as a herding unit, put children into abusive state-run schools, and outlawed their spiritual practices, putting their shamans/shamanesses to death--and then the state they were left in with the demise of the Soviet Union, which despite the extreme negatives had provided them with infrastructure and accessible markets to sell their reindeer meat. With the collapse of the state-run Farm, they no longer were paid for their work and many descended into alcoholism, since the product made most readily available to them in their remote locations was vodka.

Vitebsky's depictions of their lives on the taiga, guiding and managing the reindeer herds, were fascinating. One of my favorite lines from the book came during a wintertime hunting trip he took with two of the men: "Today was warm: -30 degrees F." I guess that is a matter of perspective....

The best part of the book was learning about the herding families who were his hosts and other people he met along the way, and how he developed close friendships with many of them. The tales of their lives, and the sadness of many of their outcomes, was what gave the book its heart. One family herding brigade even invited Vitebsky's own wife and two kids come with him to stay on the taiga while they followed the herd, which they did. I defy any other English child to have a more unique summer "vacation".

[Lee Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't what I expected it to be. The English language ethnographic literature on Altaic people remains sparse, so when I saw a 500 page book by an anthropologist, presenting primary data, I was relatively excited. The prospect of fresh insights into herding practices and cosmologies to compare to my own research was too good an opportunity to pass up.

What the book actually focuses on though, is the author's very personal impressions of life in Siberia - throughout, the book is written in the first person and is perhaps more accurately fitted into the genre of travel than anthropological writing. The author is an anthropologist, and the book encompasses around twelve years of on/off fieldwork in a single village north of Yakutsk. It's very well written and highly entertaining, but those seeking an academic insight will be disappointed.

This is a highly personal view of the effects of Soviet Imperialism, and collapse, on Siberian natives, explored through extended stays with several families.

Though it may be short on detail on herding practices, it does contain two chapters, towards the end of the book, outlining cosmologies. Since the author previously conducted research into belief systems in India, this is an area of research which he describes with some authority.

One note of caution - earlier this year I read another book by an anthropologist which, like this one, was very well written and entertaining. That book was not an anthropological account, however, and I bemoaned its inaccuracies. There are some in the prologue of this book too - notably when discussing archaeology, but they were not so many or so grievous as to affect my enjoyment.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that the author, although an anthrologist, is open about his romantic view of the lives he is watching. At the end when his wife and children come with him, it's nice to see her view as a psychologist, and the way his daughter sees animals as pets, not working animals. Some cultural clarity.

This is a really sad book in a lot of ways because of the heavy USSR oppression these people have to live their lives around. I had to skip some of those parts, as it just put a grey shadow across these people's lives and freedoms. The USSR created such a "resigned to fate" depression. My journalist friends watching the "revolution roadshow" as Communism ended in nation after nation had the hardest time finding anyone willing to do any work. Film friends still say Eastern Europe is that way. No incentive.

So, yeah, the book is depressing. But it is human. It also explains a lot about the spiritual beliefs in a really clear, beautiful way. The people themselves say it in fairy tale style or ghost story style, but you learn. What I personally liked was that most of the shamans they discussed in their families or history were "shamanesses". The longing for past times, for other possible futures when one person laments that he could not become a shaman due to modern USSR life is truly heartwrenching.

He's a beautiful writer and there is a maturity in this book. Plus I think I found a design for a tattoo if I choose one.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. I saw this book by chance and am so glad I was able to read it. It contains a thorough discussion of how reindeer are farmed with interesting details on how the ecology of a wide ranging ungulate is integrated into the operations of ranching/harvesting/managing nearly wild animals while retaining the essential evolutionary traits of a finely adapted species. On top of that, you get a fascinating description of an ancient culture with details on how they relate to nature and spirits and how they approach life in a harsh, pristine, and massive wilderness. Finally, you get a feel for how traumatic the changes in the Soviet Union were in the 20th century, from the despicable destruction of the Eveny culture to achieve Soviet style control to the pain inflicted by the evils of western cultural influences (vodka) and the continued destruction from the current failure of infrastructure and the faltering Russian economic system. Fascinating stuff written by an anthropologist that seems to me to be the kind of guy I would love to spend a week with in the Siberian wilderness.

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piers Vitebsky writes beautifully. His love for a people he describes in this ethnography in no way interferes with the narrative. What an amazing people, whose way of life is at the extreme edge of conditions that allow for survival. They still a semi-nomadic life that goes back millennia, to a time before our species became aliens on this planet. The Reindeer People still follow the annual migration with their domestic herds. They have also survived a century of Russian/Soviet, as the title of one chapter suggests: "Landscape with Gulag; brushed by White Man's Madness." This book is also a magnificent resources for those who are into "palaeo-anthropological fiction." This book is a superb foundation for imagining what people from an unimaginably distant past faced in their day to day lives. It also makes you wonder what will become of a people for who reindeer are central to their cultural survival, given that the reindeer is so perfectly adapted to a cold, arctic environment.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

That rarity. An anthropology book that can be recommended to the general public. Fascinating and readable account of life among the Eveny reindeer herders of northeast Siberia under and after Soviet control. Organized on state farms, Eveny men follow their herds through the coldest regions on earth, providing reindeer meat airlifted to miners and oil and gas workers across the mountains. Resettled in villages, the men work the herds on shifts, paid by the state. Women remain in villages, children are taken to boarding schools, shamans were taken decades ago to parts unknown never to return, nuclear fallout pollutes the land. Death comes by accidents and suicide, gunshots and temperatures below -40F, these deaths often fueled by alcohol. Soviet treatment of minorities has many parallels with US treatment of native Americans. All this changes, for better and worse, when the Soviet Union collapses, the market for reindeer meat disappears, air support is gone, and the young no longer know how to live off the land.

[Stefan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a FANTASTIC and fascinating work of nonfiction-and very informative for the vast majority of those in the West who have never heard of the Evens (Eveny), or for that matter any of the other reindeer peoples of Siberia. I was fascinated to learn about the relationship between these people and their reindeer (perhaps the only domestic animal that is essential to maintaining human life anywhere in the world). Reading this book also led me to read and learn about the conquest and even genocide of Siberian peoples by the Russian empire, as well as teaching me about the oppression of the Evens under the Soviet empire. Reading this book also taught me that these people are still under threat today, this time form economic stagnation, the actions of multinational oil companies, and a plague of alcoholism. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in animals or ethnographies.

[Tyler Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I asked for this book for Christmas of 2007, having seen it on Amazon or maybe in a store and being curious. I'm not certain what I expected, but this wasn't exactly it. I think I was maybe looking for more about cosmology and religion in Arctic societies.

What I got was a very personal book about the transition from Soviet industrialization of an indigenous people's way of life, back a certain distance now toward older ways, as seen and understood by an anthropologist. Not what I was expecting, no, but a really interesting and affecting read nonetheless.

Along the way, there is a lot of information that keyed into my always curious, layman scientist's mind, whether about weather, reindeer physiology, and human adaptation to extreme climates.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Eveny are a footprint in the snow, & when the snow melts they will disappear." (Tolya, p.432)Wonderful bk for armchair anthropologists. We learn, from a most accomplished authority who lived with these indigenous peoples of Siberia, the geopolitical, sociological & economic factors that led to the upheaval in their family structure, culture, and religion (shamanism) as well as to their centuries-old practices of reindeer migration & herding. This is not a quick read, but rather 400+ pp that you'll want to take slowly to visualize the stark geography & to follow the lives of those impacted upon by these changes.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to learn about Shamanism. It took the whole book for me to realise what Shamanism was as I, myself, felt I was on a long journey in the Arctic circle with the Reindeer people. The whole Reindeer culture and the differences between the towns, cities and nomads was very revealing. The stories of the people are sometimes quaint, humorous, and sometimes sad or tragic. The author spent a long time living with a family of nomads. Even though they were a totally different culture to my own, I often felt they were very similar to me in their way of thinking. It took me a long time to read but it was well worth it.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting look at the lives of native reindeer herders in Siberia. There is a good history of the fall of the soviet block and how that effected the reindeer herder villages. There are a lot of depressing aspects to life in the north such as alcohol abuse, suicides, and early deaths - but the author does a great job of following the success stories and preserving at least a bit of the history of these people. Definitely worth reading if you are as into reindeer/caribou as I am!

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply fascinating. No idea that this type of culture existed at all, let alone during modern times. The author does a fantastic job of combining scholarly material with personal narrative to create a very readable book about the colorful characters of the taiga and their evolution. To think that in the 21st century there lives a group of people who are completely reliant on an a single animal for survival is a very romantic idea...especially when this group lives in one of the most remote and unforgiving outposts left on the planet.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit, I have given up on finishing this book. It is a fascinating picture of life in rural Siberia & the changes that have taken place over the last two decades. It is well and thoroughly written with the exception of a too-long introductory chapter covering the geopolitical background of the region. I'm not sure why I can't seem to latch onto this - perhaps the lack of a linking narrative, or character lines through the chapters. I may come back to it later, but two months in and only two thirds of the way through, it is time to move on.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although serious anthropological work; I found this a delight to read and a wonderful look at a native reindeer-based culture through 25 years of dynamic change at the end of the Soviet Union and beginning of Post-Soviet self-sufficiency in a remote area. Filled with heart and personal experience, the author even took up the invitation to make a trip bringing along his psychologist wife, 10 yr old daughter and 19 year old son for a summer migration; and able to include even more knowledge and insight with their help and added experiences. Definitely recommended!

[Paulcbry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book of one particular indigenous people of the Republic of Sakha in Russia. The author (an anthropologist) spends several years with the Eveny tribe in the Verkhoyansk Mountains. He describes the challenges these reindeer herders face in the harsh conditions often separated from their families. Shamanism is very prevalent among the tribe and from a western perspective lends itself to superstition which to the author's credit no presumption is made. A very good book regarding a part of the world I know little about.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthropologist-written tale about the Siberian native people who are still living a sort of constrained version of the traditional lifestyle, nomadic and intertwined with the reindeer.

This book will be beautifully comforting and wonderful like taking a holiday into a distant way of living. And it might also break your heart because, well, the way that the Australians and Americans have treated their native people... this is its own story, but still sadly similar to ours.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable insight into the life and culture of the Eveny, Vitebsky is not only a scholar but also a gifted writer, who is able to vividly bring to life the people, the land and animals he met during various trips to the Russian Far East. Not only does he write eminently on the Eveny, he also describes in detail the anthropological history of human interaction with reindeer. Overall, a fascinating book which is highly recommended.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. The author spent many years living among the Eveny people and experienced first hand their trials, tribulations, and the politics of post-USSR. It shows the beauty and complex lives of the Eveny, as well as the tragedy that most indigenous people experience today. I truly love this book and will put it on my shelf to re-read it again later. It is a beautiful book and I encourage everyone to read it.