K V Istomin
Biographic Data
| ID | 39729 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K V Istomin |
| GIVEN NAMES | K V |
| FAMILY NAME | Istomin |
| SIGNATURE | ISTOMIN K V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6599-4945 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 65 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Between the Emics and the Etics
In ethnographic fieldwork, one often encounters situations when emic concepts picked up by an anthropologists from his/her informants do not coincide with the etic concepts he/she used when formulated his/her research project. Since any ethnography should aim at describing emic reality, situations like these can create significant difficulties. This is particularly true if the very object of research either does not exist in the emic reality at a…
From a Cut to a Tag
Taking the practices of reindeer ear- and fur-marking in northern European Russia and Western Siberia as its primary focus, this article analyses modifications of informal “traditional” practices as a part of their appropriation by state institutions and highly bureaucratized state-owned enterprises. The practice of making and reading ear- and fur-marks is highly situated and workable only when embedded in a wider web of social communication. Ana…
Amoral Wolves and Cultured Reindeer
Ethical evaluation and ethical judgments about animals are traditionally regarded as hopelessly anthropomorphic and even anthropocentric: it is believed that they are based on attributing, without sufficient grounds, human qualities such as free will as well as human values to the animals. This belief, however, is based on an implicit assumption that the logic of ethical judgments about animals is the same as that used in the case of humans. In t…
Between Freedom and Necessity of Movement
Между свободой и необходимостью движения: типы оленеводческих миграций в крупностадном оленеводстве севера европейской части России и Западной Сибири
When the connectivity is lost
The present paper contributes to the study of 'infrastructural failures' as one of the rapidly developing in re-cent times areas of the anthropology of infrastructure. In the focus of the research is a 'failure' of the satellite tele-phone communications in Russian Arctic, which occurred as a result of the decision of one of the providers, Globalstar inc., to withdraw from the Russian market in March 2022. This provider was particularly popular a…
Why (not) Marry a Reindeer Herder? Gender Displacement and Gender Replacement among Izhma-Komi Reindeer Herders of Bol ́shezemel ́skaia Tundra
Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia - Volume 11, Number 1, January 2022
Who would want to lay down into the permafrost?”
The macro-level explanations for the massive outflux of the population from the Russian Arctic after 1991 mostly do not account for local differences in out-migration rates. At the same time, these differences can be exceptionally large. This paper uses ethnographic methods to explain significant differences in the rates of population outflux between the cities of Vorkuta and Ukhta, Komi Republic, Russia, which exist despite the very similar hist…
Historical Realities and Historical Myths of the Colonization of the “Russian North”
This article uses the ideas put forth by Hill and Gaddy in their book “Siberian Curse” to discuss the stages of colonization of the European north of Russia. Discussing different components of the colonization process, the authors argue that the initial colonization of this region could not have been carried out earlier than the Neolithic, because in their understanding settlement is the economic development of the territory, and therefore the fi…
Post-Soviet Reindeer Herders
Reindeer herding constitutes the basis of the traditional economy and culture of many indigenous peoples of Eurasia. This paper discusses the diverse trajectories reindeer herding in Russia has taken in different areas of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is shown that three regional trajectories of reindeer-herding development can be distinguished: (1) the northeastern/taiga trajectory, characterized by a collapse of Soviet-era s…
Introduction
IntroductionBeyond the Sayable: Informal Economic Precursors of the Post-Soviet Semiotic Crisis Yulian Konstantinov (bio) and Kirill V. Istomin (bio) In the third decade since the demise of the Soviet Union, the meaning the Soviet way of life had for millions of people in the Union itself and its satellite countries remains a far from fully answered question. This sense of inscrutability keeps being enhanced rather than dismissed as the years rol…
Roads versus Rivers
In northwestern Siberia, rivers historically played an essential role in structuring economic, cultural, and administrative space. The rivers’ role in spatial perception is reflected in vocabulary of some local languages. With the recent development of roads and railroads, a new way has emerged to structure socioeconomic and political space. The two systems of spatial structuring contradict each other, and their relative importance for different …
Book Essays
Soils of the Cryolithozone and the Traditional Land Use of the Indigenous Populations of North-Eastern European Russia and Western Siberia
. , . - -
Beads and Trinkets? Stakeholder Perspectives on Benefit-sharing and Corporate Responsibility in a Russian Oil Province
Residents of the Komi Republic have enjoyed some benefits from the oil industry, through taxation, jobs and business opportunities. They have also suffered repeated oil spills, including one of the world's largest in 1994. Since most petroleum taxes go to Moscow for redistribution, the economic benefits are limited, and are focused in urban centres. Rural populations, who suffer most from oil spills, experience benefits primarily through companie…
Culture-Specific Mechanisms of Maintaining Life Satisfaction Among the Indigenous Population of the Russian Arctic
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“Only Cowards Get Lost”
( ) . , , . : . , , , , . , , GPS
Uncontrolled sovkhoism”
Sovkhoism is a world-view extolling the virtues of the Soviet Farm (sovkhoz) as the foundation of a grassroots-friendly socio-economy. We discuss the post-Soviet “uncontrolled” state of sovkhoism in Murmansk Region reindeer husbandry. We argue that the key descriptor of the state of reindeer husbandry: the head-count (pogolovye) is often an arbitrary figure in a subsidy-producing narrative. In it, overall head-count numbers tend to be inflated, w…
Izhma-Komi Reindeer Herding
This article raises a problem of reindeer herding types. On the basis of ethnographic flieldwork data the authors compare technological traits and herding techniques of the «classical» Izhma-Komi reindeer herding of Bolshezemelskaya tundra to those observed in the easternmost and the westernmost local groups of Komi herders. This comparison shows significant differences in reindeer herding technology between the groups. This raises questions abou…
Snowmobile Revolution, Market Restoration, and Ecological Sustainability of Reindeer Herding
Like all other groups living in Russia, nomadic reindeer herders of the Russian north had to adapt to the tremendous social changes of the 1990s. This paper draws on data from extensive fieldwork among the Izhma Komi reindeer herders of the northeasternmost part of European Russia to analyze the changes in their economy and way of life that occurred in the last decade of the former and the first decade of the current century. Izhma Komi reindeer …
Izhma Komi and Komi-Permiak
Projects constructing ethnicity on the basis of territorial identity have been common in Europe but rather rare in Russia. This paper analyzes two such projects that have been undertaken in the northeast of the European part of Russia: the successful construction of the Komi-Permiak ethnic identity in the late 1920s–30s, and the unsuccessful project of constructing the Iz’vatas (Izhma-Komi) ethnic identity in the first decade of the twentieth cen…
Samburg Group of Komi
In this paper, the authors attempt to reconstruct the history of the Eastern most compact group of the Izhma Komi currently known — the one living in the village of Samburg, Purovski District, Yamal-Nenets Autonomus Okrug, Russia. The authors also describe ethno-cultural processes (changes in material and spiritual culture) which have been going in the group as well as the distinct ways its members maintain, re-create and transform their ethnic i…
Suddenly a Binge Drinking Episode Has Happened to Him
Although the notion of responsibility is often invoked by mass-media reports, activists and lay people when discussing alcoholism and suicides, anthropological discussions of this topic seem to deliberately avoid the notion. Based on the example of the Taz Nenets of western Sibera, this paper* explores how cross-cultural differences in the notion of responsibility, if approached in a non-moralising way, can enrich our understanding of several asp…
The Sooner You Drink It All, the More Time You Will Have Thereafter
Many reindeer herders of the Taz tundra have problems with excessive alcohol consumption and most of them are fully aware of these problems and the risks associated with them.In order to mitigate these risks, the reindeer herders have built up a range of strategies for alcohol consumption, which aim to limit this consumption to periods and circumstances when the damage (in economic and social terms) it produces is likely to be less significant, t…
Once again on the Problem of Alcoholism and Suicide among the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North
Author: Istomin, Kirill; Genre: Journal Article; Issued: 2012; Title: Once again on the problem of alcoholism and suicide among the indigenous peoples of the Russian North: can attribution style be a factor
Dynamic Mutual Adaptation
Theories of Nomadic Movement
It is known that the relationship between humans and their animals is important for understanding many aspects of nomadic pastoralist systems, including nomadic movement. However, to date, these complex human-animal relations have not been analyzed in a way that has led to an explanatory model of nomadic movement capable of producing testable hypotheses. Based on ethnographic material collected amongst Komi and Nenets nomadic reindeer herders of …
Finding the Way
In anthropology, research on human spatial orientation (wayfinding) has centered on two conflicting theories: the "mental map," whereby humans build abstract cognitive representations of the spatial relations between objects, and "practical mastery," which rejects the idea that such abstract representations exist and, in its most developed form, suggests that wayfinding is a process of moving from one recognized visual perspective (vista) to anot…
Dynamic Mutual Adaptation
Beads and Trinkets? Stakeholder Perspectives on Benefit-sharing and Corporate Responsibility in a Russian Oil Province
Residents of the Komi Republic have enjoyed some benefits from the oil industry, through taxation, jobs and business opportunities. They have also suffered repeated oil spills, including one of the world's largest in 1994. Since most petroleum taxes go to Moscow for redistribution, the economic benefits are limited, and are focused in urban centres. Rural populations, who suffer most from oil spills, experience benefits primarily through companie…
Mobility and Technology
Between the nineteenth and early twentieth century reindeer mortality, particularly that caused by outbreaks of Siberian anthrax (sibirka), was proportionately higher among Komi herds than amongst those of the Nenets, despite both groups pasturing animals in close proximity to one another, principally within the Bol'shezemel'skaya tundra. Intriguingly, to escape infected land caused by these outbreaks, the Komi emigrated to new regions whereas th…
Roads versus Rivers
In northwestern Siberia, rivers historically played an essential role in structuring economic, cultural, and administrative space. The rivers’ role in spatial perception is reflected in vocabulary of some local languages. With the recent development of roads and railroads, a new way has emerged to structure socioeconomic and political space. The two systems of spatial structuring contradict each other, and their relative importance for different …
Once again on the Problem of Alcoholism and Suicide among the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North
Author: Istomin, Kirill; Genre: Journal Article; Issued: 2012; Title: Once again on the problem of alcoholism and suicide among the indigenous peoples of the Russian North: can attribution style be a factor
Who would want to lay down into the permafrost?”
The macro-level explanations for the massive outflux of the population from the Russian Arctic after 1991 mostly do not account for local differences in out-migration rates. At the same time, these differences can be exceptionally large. This paper uses ethnographic methods to explain significant differences in the rates of population outflux between the cities of Vorkuta and Ukhta, Komi Republic, Russia, which exist despite the very similar hist…
Book Essays
Snowmobile Revolution, Market Restoration, and Ecological Sustainability of Reindeer Herding
Like all other groups living in Russia, nomadic reindeer herders of the Russian north had to adapt to the tremendous social changes of the 1990s. This paper draws on data from extensive fieldwork among the Izhma Komi reindeer herders of the northeasternmost part of European Russia to analyze the changes in their economy and way of life that occurred in the last decade of the former and the first decade of the current century. Izhma Komi reindeer …
Izhma Komi and Komi-Permiak
Projects constructing ethnicity on the basis of territorial identity have been common in Europe but rather rare in Russia. This paper analyzes two such projects that have been undertaken in the northeast of the European part of Russia: the successful construction of the Komi-Permiak ethnic identity in the late 1920s–30s, and the unsuccessful project of constructing the Iz’vatas (Izhma-Komi) ethnic identity in the first decade of the twentieth cen…
Suddenly a Binge Drinking Episode Has Happened to Him
Although the notion of responsibility is often invoked by mass-media reports, activists and lay people when discussing alcoholism and suicides, anthropological discussions of this topic seem to deliberately avoid the notion. Based on the example of the Taz Nenets of western Sibera, this paper* explores how cross-cultural differences in the notion of responsibility, if approached in a non-moralising way, can enrich our understanding of several asp…
Mobility and Technology
Between the nineteenth and early twentieth century reindeer mortality, particularly that caused by outbreaks of Siberian anthrax (sibirka), was proportionately higher among Komi herds than amongst those of the Nenets, despite both groups pasturing animals in close proximity to one another, principally within the Bol'shezemel'skaya tundra. Intriguingly, to escape infected land caused by these outbreaks, the Komi emigrated to new regions whereas th…
Theories of Nomadic Movement
It is known that the relationship between humans and their animals is important for understanding many aspects of nomadic pastoralist systems, including nomadic movement. However, to date, these complex human-animal relations have not been analyzed in a way that has led to an explanatory model of nomadic movement capable of producing testable hypotheses. Based on ethnographic material collected amongst Komi and Nenets nomadic reindeer herders of …
Finding the Way
In anthropology, research on human spatial orientation (wayfinding) has centered on two conflicting theories: the "mental map," whereby humans build abstract cognitive representations of the spatial relations between objects, and "practical mastery," which rejects the idea that such abstract representations exist and, in its most developed form, suggests that wayfinding is a process of moving from one recognized visual perspective (vista) to anot…
Dynamic Mutual Adaptation
Once again on the Problem of Alcoholism and Suicide among the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North
Author: Istomin, Kirill; Genre: Journal Article; Issued: 2012; Title: Once again on the problem of alcoholism and suicide among the indigenous peoples of the Russian North: can attribution style be a factor
The Sooner You Drink It All, the More Time You Will Have Thereafter
Many reindeer herders of the Taz tundra have problems with excessive alcohol consumption and most of them are fully aware of these problems and the risks associated with them.In order to mitigate these risks, the reindeer herders have built up a range of strategies for alcohol consumption, which aim to limit this consumption to periods and circumstances when the damage (in economic and social terms) it produces is likely to be less significant, t…
Izhma Komi and Komi-Permiak
Projects constructing ethnicity on the basis of territorial identity have been common in Europe but rather rare in Russia. This paper analyzes two such projects that have been undertaken in the northeast of the European part of Russia: the successful construction of the Komi-Permiak ethnic identity in the late 1920s–30s, and the unsuccessful project of constructing the Iz’vatas (Izhma-Komi) ethnic identity in the first decade of the twentieth cen…
Samburg Group of Komi
In this paper, the authors attempt to reconstruct the history of the Eastern most compact group of the Izhma Komi currently known — the one living in the village of Samburg, Purovski District, Yamal-Nenets Autonomus Okrug, Russia. The authors also describe ethno-cultural processes (changes in material and spiritual culture) which have been going in the group as well as the distinct ways its members maintain, re-create and transform their ethnic i…
Suddenly a Binge Drinking Episode Has Happened to Him
Although the notion of responsibility is often invoked by mass-media reports, activists and lay people when discussing alcoholism and suicides, anthropological discussions of this topic seem to deliberately avoid the notion. Based on the example of the Taz Nenets of western Sibera, this paper* explores how cross-cultural differences in the notion of responsibility, if approached in a non-moralising way, can enrich our understanding of several asp…
Izhma-Komi Reindeer Herding
This article raises a problem of reindeer herding types. On the basis of ethnographic flieldwork data the authors compare technological traits and herding techniques of the «classical» Izhma-Komi reindeer herding of Bolshezemelskaya tundra to those observed in the easternmost and the westernmost local groups of Komi herders. This comparison shows significant differences in reindeer herding technology between the groups. This raises questions abou…
Snowmobile Revolution, Market Restoration, and Ecological Sustainability of Reindeer Herding
Like all other groups living in Russia, nomadic reindeer herders of the Russian north had to adapt to the tremendous social changes of the 1990s. This paper draws on data from extensive fieldwork among the Izhma Komi reindeer herders of the northeasternmost part of European Russia to analyze the changes in their economy and way of life that occurred in the last decade of the former and the first decade of the current century. Izhma Komi reindeer …
“Only Cowards Get Lost”
( ) . , , . : . , , , , . , , GPS
Uncontrolled sovkhoism”
Sovkhoism is a world-view extolling the virtues of the Soviet Farm (sovkhoz) as the foundation of a grassroots-friendly socio-economy. We discuss the post-Soviet “uncontrolled” state of sovkhoism in Murmansk Region reindeer husbandry. We argue that the key descriptor of the state of reindeer husbandry: the head-count (pogolovye) is often an arbitrary figure in a subsidy-producing narrative. In it, overall head-count numbers tend to be inflated, w…
Soils of the Cryolithozone and the Traditional Land Use of the Indigenous Populations of North-Eastern European Russia and Western Siberia
. , . - -
Beads and Trinkets? Stakeholder Perspectives on Benefit-sharing and Corporate Responsibility in a Russian Oil Province
Residents of the Komi Republic have enjoyed some benefits from the oil industry, through taxation, jobs and business opportunities. They have also suffered repeated oil spills, including one of the world's largest in 1994. Since most petroleum taxes go to Moscow for redistribution, the economic benefits are limited, and are focused in urban centres. Rural populations, who suffer most from oil spills, experience benefits primarily through companie…
Culture-Specific Mechanisms of Maintaining Life Satisfaction Among the Indigenous Population of the Russian Arctic
, , ,
Historical Realities and Historical Myths of the Colonization of the “Russian North”
This article uses the ideas put forth by Hill and Gaddy in their book “Siberian Curse” to discuss the stages of colonization of the European north of Russia. Discussing different components of the colonization process, the authors argue that the initial colonization of this region could not have been carried out earlier than the Neolithic, because in their understanding settlement is the economic development of the territory, and therefore the fi…
Post-Soviet Reindeer Herders
Reindeer herding constitutes the basis of the traditional economy and culture of many indigenous peoples of Eurasia. This paper discusses the diverse trajectories reindeer herding in Russia has taken in different areas of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is shown that three regional trajectories of reindeer-herding development can be distinguished: (1) the northeastern/taiga trajectory, characterized by a collapse of Soviet-era s…
Introduction
IntroductionBeyond the Sayable: Informal Economic Precursors of the Post-Soviet Semiotic Crisis Yulian Konstantinov (bio) and Kirill V. Istomin (bio) In the third decade since the demise of the Soviet Union, the meaning the Soviet way of life had for millions of people in the Union itself and its satellite countries remains a far from fully answered question. This sense of inscrutability keeps being enhanced rather than dismissed as the years rol…
Roads versus Rivers
In northwestern Siberia, rivers historically played an essential role in structuring economic, cultural, and administrative space. The rivers’ role in spatial perception is reflected in vocabulary of some local languages. With the recent development of roads and railroads, a new way has emerged to structure socioeconomic and political space. The two systems of spatial structuring contradict each other, and their relative importance for different …
Book Essays
Who would want to lay down into the permafrost?”
The macro-level explanations for the massive outflux of the population from the Russian Arctic after 1991 mostly do not account for local differences in out-migration rates. At the same time, these differences can be exceptionally large. This paper uses ethnographic methods to explain significant differences in the rates of population outflux between the cities of Vorkuta and Ukhta, Komi Republic, Russia, which exist despite the very similar hist…
Why (not) Marry a Reindeer Herder? Gender Displacement and Gender Replacement among Izhma-Komi Reindeer Herders of Bol ́shezemel ́skaia Tundra
Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia - Volume 11, Number 1, January 2022
Between Freedom and Necessity of Movement
Между свободой и необходимостью движения: типы оленеводческих миграций в крупностадном оленеводстве севера европейской части России и Западной Сибири
When the connectivity is lost
The present paper contributes to the study of 'infrastructural failures' as one of the rapidly developing in re-cent times areas of the anthropology of infrastructure. In the focus of the research is a 'failure' of the satellite tele-phone communications in Russian Arctic, which occurred as a result of the decision of one of the providers, Globalstar inc., to withdraw from the Russian market in March 2022. This provider was particularly popular a…
Geography (22 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (20 works) · Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies (12 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Herding (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (8 works)