Böcker i Northern Hunter-Gatherers Research Series-serien

This is the third site monograph published as part of the Baikal Archaeology Project's Northern Hunter-Gatherers Series. It presents both archaeological and human osteological data from fieldwork conducted by the project at the mortuary site Kurma XI, in the extensively researched Little Sea area of Lake Baikal, Siberia. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as a Major Collaborative Research Initiative, and supported by a partnership with Irkutsk State University, the Baikal Project has focused on identifying and understanding the processes associated with culture change and continuity among prehistoric boreal forest hunter-gatherers in Siberia's Cis-Baikal region. Mortuary sites have provided the primary data that inform several analytical modules designed by the project. The Kurma XI cemetery comprises 26 graves, excavated jointly by Russian and Canadian teams in 1994, 2002, and 2003. Many of the grave inclusions found in these graves were of a very rare category, with a bronze medallion and a silver ring being unique finds in the entire Cis-Baikal region. Introduction by A.W. Weber. Chapters by: A.W. Weber and O.I. Goriunova; A.W. Weber, M. Metcalf, O.I. Goriunova, A.P. Sekerin, and N.D. Ovodov; A.R. Lieverse, S.U. Stratton, and S.G. Ardley; A.W. Weber; A.R. Lieverse; O.I. Goriunova and L.A. Pavlova; and H.G. McKenzie.

Extensively illustrated with contemporary and archival photographs, detailed diagrams, and original artistic renderings, this work documents the history and present lives of a group of Evenki hunters and reindeer herders living at the headwaters of the Lower Tunguska River in Eastern Siberia. According to Sirina, Katanga Evenkis are best described by the flexible and creative way they use the land around them. They have exercised a strong presence in their environment despite sever pressure by Soviet-era ethnic and industrial development policies, and by recent economic privatization. The author further argue that today Katanga Evenkis continue to 'make a home for themselves in the taiga' using a variety of adaptive strategies an intuitions in a way that reflects what she calls the 'outlook of a mobile people.' Based on Sirina's extensive fieldwork, this book includes numerous first-person accounts as well as a multi-season hunter's diary, and is also supported by an excellent command of the published and archival material on the region.