Books by Alex Oehler
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border, 2019
I Can’t Leave my Erens: Living in a Spirited Geography with Reindeer
Responding to recent scholarship, this book examines animal domestication and offers a Soiot appr... more Responding to recent scholarship, this book examines animal domestication and offers a Soiot approach to animals and landscapes, which transcends the wild-tame dichotomy. Following herder-hunters of the Eastern Saian Mountains in southern Siberia, the author examines how Soiot and Tofa households embrace unpredictability, recognize sentience, and encourage autonomy in all their relations with animals, spirits, and land features. It is an ethnography intended to help us reinvent our relations with the earth in unpredictable times.
Edited Books by Alex Oehler
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the... more Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. It examines Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, the book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Going beyond reindeer, the authors explore the less known role of yak, horses, wolves, spirits, fish, and many other sentient beings, all of which co-constitute local notions of ‘home places.’ In their contributions, the authors reach beyond conventional categories of wild and tame in a region that is increasingly hostile toward its own inhabitants as the result of global efforts to create protected nature reserves. Through its ethnographic nuance, the reader comes to appreciate many connections existing between human and other households — networks of relationships that transcends idioms of dominance or mutualism.
Journal Articles by Alex Oehler
Inner Asia, 2020
This paper explores the relationship between herding and hunting practices in the mountainous env... more This paper explores the relationship between herding and hunting practices in the mountainous environment of Indigenous Soyots of Okinskii Raion (Oka), Buryatia. It traces an animistic approach to the concept of balance among sentient entities, including landscapes, identifying it as an underlying ethic governing the relationships of domestic and non-domestic animals with humans. Drawing on this ethic of care, the paper identifies practices directed at achieving balance as a form of resistance to assertions of outright control over living beings. The author begins by problematising the concept of care, pointing to basic ontological differences identified in anthropological literature, before addressing how care and balance are related. Here care is understood as a matter of attentiveness: a skill that links herding and hunting practices. The paper then delves into three concrete areas of care: the care of creating life in living and calving spaces; the care of holding life together through material implements and invoca-tion of intangible protective forces; and, finally, care for species diversity in local yak and hybrid breeding practices. Keywords care-relational ontology-herding-hunting-reindeer-yak This paper focuses on a small group of transhumant Oka-Soyot herder-hunters who, with their multispecies households, migrate between summer and winter pastures in the Eastern Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia. The data analysed here come from 13 months of ethnographic and archival fieldwork conducted AQ INAS_022_02_06-Oehler.indd 236 INAS_022_02_06-Oehler.indd 236 18/
J of Ancient Tech Lab, 2018
In this paper I draw on Oka-Soiot reindeer herders' diaries (1995-1997) as an inspiration for the... more In this paper I draw on Oka-Soiot reindeer herders' diaries (1995-1997) as an inspiration for the sustained commitment of the small-numbered peoples of the Russian North and Far East to revive aspects of their ancestral cultures, and as a recent historical source that helps illuminate the rebirth of an ancient herding occupation in the mid-1990s. To do so, I rely on historical data for pre-revolutionary reindeer herding in Oka, which consists primarily of the account of Swiss-Russian anthropologist B.E. Petri (1927). From an anthropological perspective, the herders' diaries are significant because they illustrate how reindeer herding constitutes a symbolic marker of Oka-Soiot identity, fulfilling a role similar to that of ancestral language re-acquisition in indigenous minority contexts which have been subject to extensive colonial and assimilative processes. The diaries also shed light on the costliness of re-learning "lost" ancestral skills, while providing an account of the efforts made by a group of novice herders. The paper concludes with a call to reassess early reindeer domestication in the Altai-Saian region in light of recent 're-learning' experiences. For citation. Oehler A.C. Social memory and oka-soiot reindeer herders: on the challenges of reindeer in multi-species mountain households.
Аннотация. Статья посвящена дневникам окинских сойотов оленеводов (1995-1997) как вдохновения для неустанной приверженности многих малочисленных народов Северного и Дальнего Востока России возродить аспекты собственной традиционной культуры, а также как источник недавней истории, иллюстрирующий процесс возрождения древней оленеводческой отрасли в постсоветские годы. Автор опирается на данные российского этнографа швейцарского про-исхождения Б. Э. Петри (1927) о дореволюционном хозяйстве окинских сойотов. С точки зрения антропологии дневники оленеводов представляют особый интерес, поскольку иллюстрируют как оленеводство выступало в роли символиче-ского маркера идентичности окинских сойотов, выполняя роль, аналогичную той, которую играет восстановление пред-ковых языков коренных малочисленных народов, подвергшихся экстенсивным колониальным и ассимилирующим про-цессам. Дневники также проливают свет на трудности процесса повторного обучения «утерянным» умениям предков, и рассказывают об усилиях, предпринятых группой начинающих оленеводов. Автор призывает в итоге пересмотреть ран-нее одомашнивание оленей в Алтай-Саянском регионе в свете недавнего опыта переобучения пастухов. Ключевые слова: северный олень, южная Сибирь, одомашнивание, Окинские Сойоты, культурное возрождение, идентичность, традиция, символические маркеры, этнография.
Book Chapters by Alex Oehler
Dogs in the North: Stories of Cooperation and Co-Domestication, 2018
This chapter is concerned with the ways in which Oka-Soiot herder-hunters of South Central Siberi... more This chapter is concerned with the ways in which Oka-Soiot herder-hunters of South Central Siberia collaborate with their dogs in the hunt for sable and other fur-bearing animals. It contributes to the anthropological literature of dog-human relations in collaborative hunting contexts within and beyond the North. The chapter illuminates how dogs and humans in Oka were seen not only to live side by side, but how they actively engaged in each other's embodied perspectives of the landscape. It illustrates Soiot human-dog relations in terms of communication and collaboration. With a rise in the importance of cattle and other livestock for Soiot households, it is reasonable to assume that the role of dogs had to shift as well. Yet, even where dogs spent the majority of time on a chain, intermittent releases enabled some to join the hunting activities of other households on their own accord, further affirming their status as hunters in their own right.
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border, 2019
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border Chapter Six On the Role of the Horse in Tofa Households, 2019
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border, 2019
Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border Chapter Twelve Falling In and Out of Rhythm, 2019
Book Reviews by Alex Oehler
Hunter Gatherer Studies, 2018
Conference Papers by Alex Oehler
AAA Meetings Vancouver, Canada, 2019
In an attempt to make sense of increasing wildfires in British Columbia, this paper looks to a fo... more In an attempt to make sense of increasing wildfires in British Columbia, this paper looks to a forestry legacy of reduced fire fuel diversity and increasing fuel connectivity-a tendency that suggests more frequent, larger, and more severe wildfires in future. Little anthropological research has been conducted on the human-forest-wildfire interface. This paper examines the relationship between ontologically diverse conceptions of 'care' relating to forests and their structural and species composition in Western Canada. It looks at forests as 'home places', both in settler terms as compartmentalized resource sectors and in Indigenous terms as regionally specific networks of interspecies belonging. We are interested in how wildfires are perceived in either contexts of care. Focusing on commercially managed tree plantations in British Columbia, we identify signs of structural uniformity in tree level growth, traceable to mandated standardized reforestation practices (1,200-1,600 trees per hectare), which affect structural diversity and stand dynamics. This 'domestication' of trees secures financial forecast-ability, but it also questions environmental and societal articulations of 'care', including definitions of sustainability and response-ability. For government and industry, care secures sustainable yield by reducing ambiguity and restoring predictability in erratic ecosystems. Indigenous models of care seem less standardized and more attentive to locally specific dynamics, identifying adaptive capacity through tree life histories, including previous wildfire experience.
Canada-Russia Research Initiative, 2019
Drawing on three ethnographic vignettes, this paper critically examines the differences between s... more Drawing on three ethnographic vignettes, this paper critically examines the differences between state-ratified Indigenous status and lived experiences of Indigenous identity in Russia. The main lesson is that Indigenous identities take many shapes and forms today. The author takes a critical stance on clear-cut definitions of Indigenous identity, pointing instead to differences that exist between ethnic affiliation and cultural belonging, while casting light on the role of hybridity in contemporary Indigenous communities of South Siberia and the Far East. The paper presents the importance of one's being recognized by place (rather than by the state) as the litmus test for actual and lasting belonging. Rooted in a relational ethos that is shared by many Circumpolar contexts, we find that place-based identities can weather demographic changes, even where they risk ruptures in the state's recognition of Indigenous status.
Distance and Speed: Rethinking the Imaginative Potential of Space and Velocity in Inner Asia , 2019
The importance of pace can differ vastly from one cultural context to another. Much of this may h... more The importance of pace can differ vastly from one cultural context to another. Much of this may have to do with the physical environment that co-shapes the daily actions of specific groups of people. In the Eastern Saian Mountains, hunter-herder households are as much subject to the seasonal rhythms of alpine and sub-alpine environments, as they are to the pace and patterns of movement of the diverse species with which they interact. As an integral part of Inner Asia, and with connections into Mongolia and the Republic of Tyva, these mountain dwellers reside far from the steppe. Steep mountain slopes limit visibility while providing unique altitudinal fluctuations in animal feed. In this paper I attempt to focus on the challenges of reconciling divergent species' life-paces within the household, as well as on the ruptures that occur where households are no longer able to bridge the different requirements for pace and range in certain species, especially in contexts where cultural blending has introduced new species, dictating changes in the speed, frequency, and altitude of household movements. The paper touches on reindeer, yak, dairy cattle, wolves, fish and horses to illustrate the interrelationship between occupation, feed availability and migrational distance and speed of movement. It follows the changing practices of Tofa and Soiot herder-hunters, relying on historical sources and recent ethnographic fieldwork.
IUAES Inter-Congress “World Solidarities”, 2019
Across the circumpolar north, women of diverse Indigenous communities have been keepers of the he... more Across the circumpolar north, women of diverse Indigenous communities have been keepers of the hearth-in many cultural contexts a deeply symbolic center piece, in which fire represents a communicative nexus between human aims and the intentions of a sentient environment. In this context, sustainable land subsistence is unthinkable without maintaining balanced reciprocity with landscape spirits understood to govern the life and movement of all animals. Syncretic reconciliation of Indigenous and ethnic Russian cosmologies has been problematized in the literature as dvoeverie (dual faith), a phenomenon well known from Slavic settler communities dating as far back as the Ancient Rus' of the 9th century. As part of a larger research proposal, the author attempts in this paper to revisit the role of hybridized Settler-Indigenous cosmologies in the formation of ongoing and newly emerging self-defined métis identities of the Russian Far East. The aim is to suggest an alternative approach to Métis Studies at large-one in which historical and contemporary animal-human encounters are taken seriously as a basis for cultural and ethnic identity formation.
The Sixth International Conference of Young Scholars of Siberia, 2018
Based on recent ethnographic and archival doctoral research with Soiots and Oka-Buriats in Okinsk... more Based on recent ethnographic and archival doctoral research with Soiots and Oka-Buriats in Okinskii Raion of westernmost Buriatiia, this contribution examines local perceptions of imperial, Soviet, and contemporary roadways in the sentient landscapes of the Eastern Saian Mountains. Soiot and Oka-Buriats share a heritage of hunting and pastoral practices, which are intimately interwoven with the perception of a sacred landscape. From this perspective, specific land features represent local spirit masters (Rus. khoziaieva mestnosti) who govern the lifeforms within designated areas, much in the way human masters are seen to govern the affairs of their own households, including livestock. At the heart of this perception lies a deep commitment to balance in the reciprocal relationships between human and other than human masters, maintained not solely through mutual gift giving, but also by heeding each others' spacial autonomy. Road planners of imperial and Soviet periods did not abide by this ethos, and were thus seen as angering prominent spirit entities by constructing roads in violation of their spaces.
Short Abstract This panel invites papers concerned with the ways in which movement entangles huma... more Short Abstract This panel invites papers concerned with the ways in which movement entangles humans, animals and materials in northern landscapes. It focuses on land features and material implements as nexuses between humans and animals in motion. Long Abstract This panel invites papers exploring human-animal relations through contexts of movement that transcend conventional wild-tame dichotomies. Based on the key premise that inter-species relations do not have to be collaborative or affectionate to be social, our emphasis lies on ethnographic accounts in which land features and/or material implements form communicative nexuses between beings in motion. Instead of approaching human-made implements and environmental modi fications (e., etc.) as manifestations of human exploitation or control, we seek more nuanced interpretations that take into account animal autonomy and intentional use of the material world. We inquire how animals are known to engage modi fied environments, and how people interpret, accommodate, or encourage animal utilization of the human-made. In this context, we ask how objects of joint movement (e.g. sleds, saddles, reins) become implements of inter-species communication rather than of control only, and how dynamic aspects of the environment (e.g. water currents, tides, winds) are enlisted in inter-species movement. Given the emplacement of joint and opposed movements in shared landscapes, we seek to gain a better understanding of how diverse beings draw bene fit from material or perceptive advantages they identify in others. We ask, how does relational movement encourage the embodiment and accommodation of an other's perspective (i.e. hunter vs. prey), and in situations of intentional congruence (e.g. falconer and falcon), what are examples of multi-sensorial sharing? Finally, where joint or opposed movement do not apply, what can we learn from other contexts, such as affection, competition, or aloofness?
Abstract for 11th Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies 7-11 September 2015, Vienna. For ... more Abstract for 11th Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies 7-11 September 2015, Vienna. For panel '34. Relationships of no small significance: Invisibility, animals, and the Domus.'
Abstract for the PG 2015 conference "Creatures & the Ethics of Consumption" at University of Edin... more Abstract for the PG 2015 conference "Creatures & the Ethics of Consumption" at University of Edinburgh, March 16-17, 2015
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Books by Alex Oehler
Edited Books by Alex Oehler
Journal Articles by Alex Oehler
Аннотация. Статья посвящена дневникам окинских сойотов оленеводов (1995-1997) как вдохновения для неустанной приверженности многих малочисленных народов Северного и Дальнего Востока России возродить аспекты собственной традиционной культуры, а также как источник недавней истории, иллюстрирующий процесс возрождения древней оленеводческой отрасли в постсоветские годы. Автор опирается на данные российского этнографа швейцарского про-исхождения Б. Э. Петри (1927) о дореволюционном хозяйстве окинских сойотов. С точки зрения антропологии дневники оленеводов представляют особый интерес, поскольку иллюстрируют как оленеводство выступало в роли символиче-ского маркера идентичности окинских сойотов, выполняя роль, аналогичную той, которую играет восстановление пред-ковых языков коренных малочисленных народов, подвергшихся экстенсивным колониальным и ассимилирующим про-цессам. Дневники также проливают свет на трудности процесса повторного обучения «утерянным» умениям предков, и рассказывают об усилиях, предпринятых группой начинающих оленеводов. Автор призывает в итоге пересмотреть ран-нее одомашнивание оленей в Алтай-Саянском регионе в свете недавнего опыта переобучения пастухов. Ключевые слова: северный олень, южная Сибирь, одомашнивание, Окинские Сойоты, культурное возрождение, идентичность, традиция, символические маркеры, этнография.
Book Chapters by Alex Oehler
Book Reviews by Alex Oehler
Conference Papers by Alex Oehler
Аннотация. Статья посвящена дневникам окинских сойотов оленеводов (1995-1997) как вдохновения для неустанной приверженности многих малочисленных народов Северного и Дальнего Востока России возродить аспекты собственной традиционной культуры, а также как источник недавней истории, иллюстрирующий процесс возрождения древней оленеводческой отрасли в постсоветские годы. Автор опирается на данные российского этнографа швейцарского про-исхождения Б. Э. Петри (1927) о дореволюционном хозяйстве окинских сойотов. С точки зрения антропологии дневники оленеводов представляют особый интерес, поскольку иллюстрируют как оленеводство выступало в роли символиче-ского маркера идентичности окинских сойотов, выполняя роль, аналогичную той, которую играет восстановление пред-ковых языков коренных малочисленных народов, подвергшихся экстенсивным колониальным и ассимилирующим про-цессам. Дневники также проливают свет на трудности процесса повторного обучения «утерянным» умениям предков, и рассказывают об усилиях, предпринятых группой начинающих оленеводов. Автор призывает в итоге пересмотреть ран-нее одомашнивание оленей в Алтай-Саянском регионе в свете недавнего опыта переобучения пастухов. Ключевые слова: северный олень, южная Сибирь, одомашнивание, Окинские Сойоты, культурное возрождение, идентичность, традиция, символические маркеры, этнография.