- F&M Anthropology
PO Box 3003
Lancaster, PA 17604-3003
Alexander D King
Franklin & Marshall College, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Endangered languages/cultures, Indigenous Languages, Siberian Languages, Mythology, Siberian ritual, Kamchatka, and 33 moreKoryaks, Shamanism, Myths and Symbols as carriers of unconscious content, Oral Poetry, Endangered Languages, Siberia, Chukchi, Ritual (Religion), Ritual (Anthropology), Ritual Theory, Koryak beliefs, History of Anthropology, Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), Symbology, Symbolism (Religion), Ritual, Anthropology, Victor Turner, Semiotics, Languages and Linguistics, Culture, Epistemology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Koriaks, Cultural Anthropology, Dell hymes, Cosmology (Anthropology), Anthropology of Religion, Native American Studies, Native American Anthropology, Mythology And Folklore, Applied Anthropology, and Thomas Ross Milleredit
- http://www.koryaks.net/ – I use the handle Ememqut01 to distinguish me from all the other Alex Kings on the web. You can follow me on Twitter @Ememqut01, for exampleedit
"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... more
"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."
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."
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Russian Studies, Anthropology, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, and 12 moreSocial Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, Indigenous Languages, Indigenous education, Anthropology Of Dance, Siberia, Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Anthropology, Kamchatka, Koryaks, Koriaks, and Siberian Studies
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ABSTRACT This item is a film review.
ABSTRACT This item is a book review.
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Bonnie C. Marshall has been traveling to Russia and collecting stories of many kinds for a long time. Her interest in Russia led her to Siberian peoples and their tales, which drew her into exploring the folklore of all peoples of the... more
Bonnie C. Marshall has been traveling to Russia and collecting stories of many kinds for a long time. Her interest in Russia led her to Siberian peoples and their tales, which drew her into exploring the folklore of all peoples of the circumpolar North. The resulting book has more than eighty tales presented in seven thematically defined parts. Many but not all of the stories have notes that include Marshall’s sources and other useful background. The “reteller’s” introduction provides history and general information on peoples of the North, organized by culture group: Inuit, Yupik, Northwest America, Innu, Saami, and peoples of northern Russia (including Karelians but not Russians). The remarkable thing one comes away with after the introduction is the uniformity of experiences of colonization, suffering, and cultural renewal in the last thirty to forty years. The stories in Part 1 (“Tales of Daily Life”) struck me as a grab bag of silly encounters; I found them funny and entertaini...
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This report is a description of the work and my experiences of taking my family into the field for an extended period. I also hope to share some practical advice for those interested in similar work or in traveling around Kamchatka. The... more
This report is a description of the work and my experiences of taking my family into the field for an extended period. I also hope to share some practical advice for those interested in similar work or in traveling around Kamchatka. The general goal of the project is to document spoken Koryak, especially oral narratives, primarily by speakers of less studied dialects.
Research Interests: Anthropological Linguistics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, and 15 moreIndigenous Languages, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Siberia, Fieldwork in linguistics, Indigenous Peoples, Ethnographic fieldwork, Arctic Anthropology, Language death and revival, Language Maintenance and Shift, Koryaks, Koriaks, Chukotko-Kamchatkan Languages, and Sibirica
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Research Interests: Anthropology and Folklore
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Research Interests: History, Anthropology, Art History, Horticulture, Art, and 15 moreContinental Philosophy, Biology, Gilles Deleuze, Friedrich Nietzsche, Émmanuel Lévinas, Edmund Husserl, Environmental Sustainability, Animism, Anthropology of Hunting, Archaeology of Hunting, Editing, Animals, American Ethnologist, Anthropology of Religion, and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT
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... Arrom, Silvia Marina I985 The Women of Mexico City, I790-I857. Stanford, CA: Stanford Uni-versity Press. Borah, Woodrow I983 Justice by Insurance: The General Indian Court of Colonial Mexico and the Legal Aides of the Half-Real. ...
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14318/hau7.1.033
A close reading of Whorf's writings reveals the errors of entrenched misunderstandings of his thought and demonstrates the usefulness of Whorf for anthropology writ large.
A close reading of Whorf's writings reveals the errors of entrenched misunderstandings of his thought and demonstrates the usefulness of Whorf for anthropology writ large.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Social Theory, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Anthropology, and 12 moreSocial Anthropology, Languages and Linguistics, Philosophical Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Theory, Psycholinguistics, History of Anthropology, Comparative Linguistics, Linguistics, Cultural Anthropology, and Experimental Psycholinguistics
This article is part of the series Arctic Abstractive Industry on the Cultural Anthropology website section "Fieldsites".
Research Interests: Anthropology, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Social Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and 17 moreArctic Social Science, Indigenous education, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Indigenous Knowledge, Siberia, Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Anthropology, Arctic Anthropology, Language Maintenance and Shift, Language revitalisation and shift, Language shift, Arctic and Antarctic politics, science policy, geopolitics of the polar regions, international relations, Siberian Studies, Siberian Ethnography (Anthropology), and Reversing Language Shift
All anthropologists should take to heart Dell Hymes’s frequent quip, “Language is too important to leave to linguists and linguistics is too valuable to ignore.” This century will see the disappearance of hundreds of languages and a... more
All anthropologists should take to heart Dell Hymes’s frequent quip, “Language is too important to leave to linguists and linguistics is too valuable to ignore.” This century will see the disappearance of hundreds of languages and a significant reduction in the use of thousands of others, at the very least. Documenting endangered ways of speaking (in any language) is part of producing sophisticated and ethically robust anthropology. Most indigenous communities want knowledge documented and many are enthusiastic about collaborative projects with anthropologists. Producing language documentation has never been easier with the recent proliferation of computer software and inexpensive quality audio equipment. Collaborative anthropology need not eclipse theory driven anthropology or divert junior scholars from the production of PhD dissertations and journal articles critical for professional advancement. This presentation will provide anthropologists with a six-step program to add a language documentation element to their current ethnographic research practices. Documentary linguists preach to their colleagues that people speak in a context, and this context needs attention. Anthropologists know that, of course, but they need to be reminded of the importance of form in expression and the documentation of specific, original forms leads to a richer and deeper anthropology. It is also a vital part of ethical research practices, good relations with source communities, and an easy way to make a significant impact now and forever. A small investment in time and money produces anthropology that makes a difference in people’s lives.
Research Interests: Anthropological Linguistics, Synchronic Linguistics (Or Descriptive Linguistics), Indigenous Studies, Ethnography, Linguistic Anthropology, and 12 moreQualitative methodology, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research, Ethnography of Communication, Linguistic ethnography, Indigenous Peoples, Language Maintenance and Shift, Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation, Indigenous Languages, Sociolinguistics, Field Linguistics, Language documentation and conservation, and Language Documentation and Description
This article demonstrates the value of Dell Hymes’s theory of ethnopoetics through an analysis of two Koryak stories recorded during the winter of 1900–1901. It builds upon a tradition of linguistic anthropology established by Franz Boas.... more
This article demonstrates the value of Dell Hymes’s theory of ethnopoetics through an analysis of two Koryak stories recorded during the winter of 1900–1901. It builds upon a tradition of linguistic anthropology established by Franz Boas. I provide some background to Boasian documentation of oral literature as well as Hymes’s theory of ethnopoetics and then offer a close reading of two stories in Koryak. Such close analysis uncovers the artistry of the storytellers, and I discuss aesthetic commonalities as well as differences among texts produced by Koryak narrators. Hymesian ethnopoetic analysis can uncover indices of performance in the written transcription of sound recordings. The complete texts of the two stories are formatted in Hymesian verse form and presented in appendices. A commentary to this essay by Richard Bauman appears later in this special issue.
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Research Interests: Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Identity (Culture), and 12 moreRace and Ethnicity, Cultural Landscapes, Culture, Siberia, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnicity, Kamchatka, Koryaks, Chukotko-Kamchatkan Languages, Siberian Studies, Reindeer herding, and Ethnicity and Nationality
This report is a description of the work and my experiences of taking my family into the field for an extended period. I also hope to share some practical advice for those interested in similar work or in traveling around Kamchatka. The... more
This report is a description of the work and my experiences of taking my family into the field for an extended period. I also hope to share some practical advice for those interested in similar work or in traveling around Kamchatka. The general goal of the project is to document spoken Koryak, especially oral narratives, primarily by speakers of less studied dialects.
Research Interests: Anthropological Linguistics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, and 15 moreIndigenous Languages, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Siberia, Fieldwork in linguistics, Indigenous Peoples, Ethnographic fieldwork, Arctic Anthropology, Language death and revival, Language Maintenance and Shift, Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation, Indigenous Languages, Sociolinguistics, Field Linguistics, Koryaks, Koriaks, and Chukotko-Kamchatkan Languages
Manifesto for Siberian studies to re-launch the journal with our switch to Berghahn Books as the new publisher of the journal.
Research Interests: Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Anthropology, Folklore, and 16 moreIndigenous Studies, Arctic Social Science, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Indigenous Politics, Siberia, Russian History, Indigenous Peoples, Arctic Peoples & Languages, Arctic Anthropology, Folk literature, History of Siberia, Siberian Studies, Siberian Ethnography (Anthropology), Siberian History, Epos, and Khakassian Turks
This paper proceeds from the assumption that the spiritual beliefs of native people of northern Kamchatka (Koryaks, Chukchis, Evens) are not false consciousness, nor "really" about something else. I situate beliefs about vampiric shamans... more
This paper proceeds from the assumption that the spiritual beliefs of native people of northern Kamchatka (Koryaks, Chukchis, Evens) are not false consciousness, nor "really" about something else. I situate beliefs about vampiric shamans in the larger cultural context of the spiritual world, the human soul, and the afterlife. After this description of d iscourse about shamans, the second half of the paper demonstrates how the way people talk about the spiritual world is interconnected with their social reality.
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This article presents the pragmatics of reindeer herding by Chukchi and Koryak people in northern Kamchatka, Russia, to convey a sense of the importance of herding as a symbolic resource. A detailed description of brief visits to a... more
This article presents the pragmatics of reindeer herding by Chukchi and Koryak people in northern Kamchatka, Russia, to convey a sense of the importance of herding as a symbolic resource. A detailed description of brief visits to a reindeer herd in Kamchatka uncovers the power of reindeer as a symbol for indigenous people and indigenous culture in this area. I use a first-person, subjective ethnography and include some of the challenges I met in the field and my attempts to overcome them. The title quotes a reindeer herder impressing upon me the importance of his work for his people.
Reindeer are connected to human beings in a totalizing manner. Reindeer are simultaneously index, icon, and symbol of human social organization, economic activity, spiritual practice, material culture—in short, “our culture,” as I was told by many people in Kamchatka.
Reindeer are connected to human beings in a totalizing manner. Reindeer are simultaneously index, icon, and symbol of human social organization, economic activity, spiritual practice, material culture—in short, “our culture,” as I was told by many people in Kamchatka.
Research Interests: Semiotics, Anthropology, Arctic Social Science, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Pastoralism (Social Anthropology), and 11 moreFieldwork in Anthropology, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Siberia, Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), Ethnographic fieldwork, Kamchatka, Koryaks, Koriaks, Chukchi, Arctic and Subarctic hunter-gatherers, and Reindeer herding
Culture' has become a powerful political symbol and economic resource in the information age, where the development of the service economy (including tourism) provides new opportunities to marginal groups and new challenges to dominant... more
Culture' has become a powerful political symbol and economic resource in the information age, where the development of the service economy (including tourism) provides new opportunities to marginal groups and new challenges to dominant ones. In this introduction the authors explore a number of themes that are developed further in the following articles: the way in which `culture' is produced, possessed and often transformed into a commodity for the market; the role of such reified culture in relations of power and inequality; the ownership of culture as a tool of identity and nation building. While to date such an interest has been largely limited to indigenous populations, here the discussion is taken a step further by focusing on the relevancy of owning culture in the Eurasian context. This allows us to expand our understanding of cultural property: as a tool available to any group seeking confirmation of an identity perceived to be under threat or as an instrument in the negotiation of a group's position vis-à-vis wider power structures.
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Report on my work as part of the Property Relations Group at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology 2000-2005 as a member of Siberian Research Group.
Research Interests: Russian Studies, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Heritage Tourism, Economic Anthropology, and 13 moreCultural Heritage Conservation, Post-Soviet Regimes, Post-Soviet Politics, Cultures and heritage tourism, Siberia, Post-Soviet Studies, Cultural Heritage Management, World Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Heritage, Kamchatka, Museum and Heritage Studies, and Siberian Studies
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Discussion of the creativity and play at work in the Okrug House of Culture based in Palana, Kamchatka. Research is based on material gathered in the 1990s and subsequent trips in 2001 and 2011. It finds that my conclusions about local... more
Discussion of the creativity and play at work in the Okrug House of Culture based in Palana, Kamchatka. Research is based on material gathered in the 1990s and subsequent trips in 2001 and 2011. It finds that my conclusions about local discourses of Koryak culture, the importance of dance groups, and the vitality of the house of culture as discussed in my 2011 book continue even moreso in 2011.
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Area course in anthropology focusing on Circumpolar Peoples, taught at the 200 (sophomore) level.
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Syllabus for Language & Culture. Introduction to Social Anthropology is a prerequisite.
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The undergraduate course is structured around 4 ethnographies. The two Siberian ethnographies are interspersed with articles from North America for comparison. Introduction to Anthropology is required, and the course had students year 2-4
Research Interests: Anthropology, Teaching and Learning, Ethnography, Learning and Teaching, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 8 moreAnthropology Of Dance, Shamanism, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Shamanism, Arctic Anthropology, Hunter-Gatherers (Anthropology), Undergraduate Education, and Arctic and Subarctic hunter-gatherers
Syllabus for small liberal arts college. Course capped at 30 students.
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This is my course guide for Anthropology of Myth, taught at the University of Aberdeen to fourth-year students in the spring of 2015.
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Anthropology, Mythology, Teaching and Learning, Social Anthropology, and 9 moreLinguistic Anthropology, Learning and Teaching, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Myths and Symbols as carriers of unconscious content, Ancient myth and religion, Cultural Anthropology, Comparative mythology, Myth, and Anthropology of Religion
This is a level 3 course I taught in spring 2015. At 15 credits, it was 24% of a student's total course load in a single term.
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This course worked well in many ways. I used the Thursday lecture slot to do unlectures - getting students to practice things more actively, from kinship charts, to reading and discussing a short article, to learning how to talk to Star... more
This course worked well in many ways. I used the Thursday lecture slot to do unlectures - getting students to practice things more actively, from kinship charts, to reading and discussing a short article, to learning how to talk to Star Trek aliens.
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Dedyk interviews Alexander D. King about his work and the relationship between language and culture. Published in Koryak and Russian in the Kamchatka newspaper Narodovlastie, No. 58, 21.07.2018.
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Despite Stalin's persecution of shamans in the 1930s, shamanic practices of communicating with animals and spirits are still alive and well today. Koryaks are mindful of their relationships with animals, spirits, and the land as they go... more
Despite Stalin's persecution of shamans in the 1930s, shamanic practices of communicating with animals and spirits are still alive and well today. Koryaks are mindful of their relationships with animals, spirits, and the land as they go about their everyday life. Rituals are special times for intense communication with these non-human beings, and everyone joins in.
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In the winter of 1901, Vladimir Bogoras used cutting edge audio technology to record several Koryak tales and songs. Nineteen cylinders of Koryak recordings made it back to America, and we have five stories on six cylinders and 13 songs.... more
In the winter of 1901, Vladimir Bogoras used cutting edge audio technology to record several Koryak tales and songs. Nineteen cylinders of Koryak recordings made it back to America, and we have five stories on six cylinders and 13 songs. The longest story spans two cylinders and narrates the tale of how the raven trickster Ememqut hosted a whale festival and invited all the animals. This paper discusses the reception of these recordings in Kamchatka and my process of transcribing them onto the page, as well as translating into English. I played a cassette copy of the wax cylinders to Koryak people in many villages. People were excited to hear these old recordings and many commented on their quality, power, and the ability of the singer or narrator. I represent the narratives on the page using an ethnopoetic framework with an ear for pause, intonation, and voice quality, as well. Oral narratives are best represented on the page as verses organized into larger unites of stanzas and scenes. An ethnopoetic framework takes into account qualities of the text, “paralinguistic” features of the recording, and additional insights provided by modern audiences of native speakers. My Koryak translators and commentators found this story the most hilarious of the set recorded by Bogoras. I use these insights to discuss aspects of Koryak humor and comedic performance.
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Book review published in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
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Review of Yuri Rytkheu's first and last novels, now available in English translation.
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Research Interests: Languages and Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Linguistics, and 4 moreEndangered languages/cultures, Language death and revival, Language Maintenance and Shift, and Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation, Indigenous Languages, Sociolinguistics, Field Linguistics
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Blommaert cogently argues throughout the book for a broad-based approach to language in society. Taking globalization seriously means we have to rid ourselves of assumptions about sharedness, community, functionality in speaking and make... more
Blommaert cogently argues throughout the book for a broad-based approach to language in society. Taking globalization seriously means we have to rid ourselves of assumptions about sharedness, community, functionality in speaking and make those things questions for analysis. Blommaert admits that his discussion moves far away from what is typically understood as “discourse analysis” but that is his point, and that is why I like this book so much. I find Blommaert’s book an exciting and timely publication taking vital arguments to Europe, where all too often I encounter colleagues who dismiss my attention to language use as “linguistics,” that is, not relevant to social anthropology. I can only hope that this addition to Cambridge’s catalogue will convince social scientists everywhere that sociolinguistics is more than the correlation of accent with social class and ethnicity. Understanding language use in the round is critical to understanding any and all meaningful human activity.