“We are Reindeer People,We Come from Reindeer.” Reindeer Herding in Representations of the Sami in Russia

Abstract

Reindeer herding, a tourism emblem of the European North, is also part of a long-lasting tradition of objectification of Sami culture in Russia. Sustained in the popular imagination by Russian ethnography, the dominant order's agent for legitimization of Soviet ethnic policies, in the 1990s the tradition of exoticization and “othering” was strengthened by Western anthropological and political engagement with the indigenous debate in Russia, transposing on the Sami the imagery and ideals of the global indigenous movement. Business aspirations to utilize the persistent imagery of exotic otherness gave birth to ethnographic tourism in the Kola Peninsula, Northwest Russia, which markets indigenous culture as an attraction. In this paper, I analyze how these diverse discourses equally reify and exploit the concept of Sami reindeer herding and the effects that such representational economy has on the community.     

Are We “Ensnared in the System of Heritage” Because We Don’t Want to Escape?

This paper explores why heritage practitioners continue to embrace the objective security of positivism, building on Sharon Veale’s (cited in Sullivan 2015:114) observation that we are “ensnared in the system of heritage, rather than in understanding and unravelling the social processes of its making.” Specifically, built heritage conservation/CRM practice is too standardized and motivated primarily by speed, efficiency, and compliance; the field is not innovative or flexible; and heritage/CRM practitioners and scholars do not engage with each other. The field needs to recognize that the regulatory environment is a fundamental barrier in bridging theory and practice and in integrating tangible and intangible approaches. Lastly, understanding heritage requires a transdisciplinary approach that is altogether absent in most aspects of theory and practice. Possible solutions to these issues will be offered, including the idea of reenvisioning the nature of “heritage conservation.”     

Do We Need a GCC Bank to Facilitate the Economic Turnaround of the GCC Region?

Amidst the ongoing crisis of plummeting oil prices, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) terrain has become a haunt of economists and financial analysts to tackle the ongoing challenges in the region. GCC constituents are gearing themselves with a robust political will that they hope could result in a turnaround of their economy by adopting a policy of economic diversification in nonoil‐based sectors. With this background supported by extensive qualitative scan of literature pertaining to the reforms proposed by the six members of the GCC to drive the economy forward amidst ongoing economic crisis, this article seeks to underscore the prospect of a shared initiative by the GCC constituents in institutionalizing a GCC bank as a potent innovative solution which may serve to provide an edifice for pushing forth the region's economy in nonhydrocarbon segments contingent upon the individual needs of the GCC constituents. As an exploratory study, this paper sheds light on these issues besides discussing the fundamental functions of the GCC bank.     

How well are Europe's rural businesses connected to the digital economy?

As economic activity becomes increasingly globalized, partly by means of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), one of the key expectations of European policy-makers was that businesses in rural regions, and particularly in peripheral rural regions, would overcome some of the disadvantages of their locational contexts, and become more effective participants in larger market areas. This paper examines the reality of ICT exploitation by rural business across Europe, based on a survey of 600 enterprises in 12 regions located in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Greece and Finland. Not surprisingly, a range of outcomes has been identified in terms of telecommunications infrastructure and ICT usage, which reflect considerable differences in access to reasonably priced broadband telecommunications, awareness of how the technologies can be exploited, and in levels of skills to translate that exploitation into a means of competitiveness.     

Who are the yakut khorolors? (a contribution to the issue of ethnic identification)

The origins of the Khoro ethnic group which represents a major component in the ethnic structure of the Yakut people is an ongoing issue in the context of Yakut ethnography. Buryat scholars believe that prior to the 13th century, the ancestors of the Khorolors (pl. of “the Khoro”) lived on the western side of Lake Baikal. Here they are said to have formed a single community with the Khori people whose descendants now make up part of the Buryat people and inhabit the Trans-Baikal region. The basis for the identifi cation of both groups was limited only to the similarity between the selfidentifying names “Khoro” and “Khori,” which is hardly suffi cient. In the meantime, the analysis of specifi c folklore and ethnographic materials, in particular, the themes of “Raven” and “Eagle” leave no doubt of the Paleo-Asiatic origins of the Yakut Khorolors.     

‘We are of the connections’: migration,methodological nationalism,and ‘militant research’

Abstract

If there were no borders, there would be no migrants – only mobility. The persistent reification of migrants and migration – even in critical migration studies –(re-)fetishizes and (re-)naturalizes the epistemological stability attributed to the (‘national’) state as a modular fixture of geopolitical space. In this regard, migration scholarship (however critical) is implicated in a continuous (re-)reification of ‘migrants’ as a distinct category of human mobility. Thus, the methodological nationalism that rationalizes the whole conjuncture of borders-making-migrants supplies a kind of defining horizon for migration studies as such. The dilemma of methodological nationalism has never been merely a problem of thought, however. It is indeed a manifestation of the veritable participation of researchers and scholars – whether consciously or unwittingly – in the very same sociopolitical processes and struggles through which the ‘national’ configuration of ‘society’ (or, the social field) is reified and actualized as the territorial expression of state power. Therefore, the questions of methodological nationalism and what might be called ‘militant research’ are deeply interconnected, indeed, mutually constitutive. As scholars of ‘migration’ – and above all, as practitioners of ‘militant research’ – we must attend to a self-reflexive critique of our own complicities with the ongoing nationalization of ‘society’. Hence, as researchers or scholars of migration, we are indeed ‘of the connections’ between migrants’ transnational mobilities and the political, legal, and border-policing regimes that seek to orchestrate, regiment, and manage their energies. We are ‘of’ these connections because there is no ‘outside’ or analytical position beyond them. The larger juridical regimes of citizenship, denizenship, and alienage configure us to be always-already located within the nexus of inequalities that are at stake in these conflicts.     

We Were Sitting Around the Table…

Alejandro comments on the sense of indeterminacy that pervaded our discussions, notably over what “archaeology” even consists of and over the dilemmas created when the principle of respect for the local community contradicts ethical principles that the archaeologist feels are universal in scale. He tells the story of Carlos Bruch, an early archaeologist in the Catamarca Region, recounting how Bruch portrayed local people and discounted their conceptions of the past, then constructed his own version, contributing to the official version in archaeological discourse. This continues to have ramifications today in the disenfranchisement of local voices in global colonialist projects. Alejandro saw our indeterminancy and quandaries over dilemmas faced by archaeologists as a positive development—a symptom of archaeology changing its pre-theoretical pre-understandings. He emphasizes the importance of local people enacting their own techniques of social memory and their own vocality.     

‘We do have space in Lausanne. We have a large cemetery’: the non-controversy of a non-existent Muslim burial ground

In the context of the administration of spaces assigned by municipalities for the burial of the dead, this article provides a critical analysis of the techniques for the governance of political collectives of citizens implemented by public authorities. More broadly, this article shows how funerary practices (i.e. the social practices surrounding death—the rituals, the legislation, etc.) can be used to develop a critical reading of the social relations that structure the social production of space. To this end, the authors use the conceptual tools provided by critical legal geography to explore the controversy surrounding the development of a ‘carré confessionnel’ (denominational area) within the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here, a focus on the techniques that allow ‘nomosphere’ technicians to convene a subset of the citizens within the public space reveals the administration of cemeteries as a means of governance, a method for mobilising bodies and a paradoxical means of managing flux.     

Temp to Perm: Stacking the Electoral Deck Through U.S. Senate Appointments?

One concern with allowing governors to appoint replacements for U.S. Senate vacancies is that appointees may have an advantage over their competition in seeking election. Another is that governors may use their power to further their own political ambitions. This investigation explores whether an electoral benefit is conferred through receiving or making an appointment. The analysis provides insight into how gubernatorial appointments shape electoral outcomes for quasi-incumbents and the Senate's membership. Notably, the results reveal an electoral boost for representatives who are appointed prior to making a run for the Senate. Although the results demonstrate that some appointees gain an advantage by receiving appointments, governors who run for Senate do not experience an electoral benefit from making an appointment.     

A Companion to Ancient History,Blackwell Companions to the Ancient Worm （Yan Shaoxiang）.

I am wondering if we should have more Companions in ancient history in the 21^st century since we already have numerous companions from the Cambridge Companions and Brill Companions, both series very focused and up to date. The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome （2006） contains a variety of information about the classical world which makes it a useful handbook, and also in Blackwell＇s Companions, quite a few Companions have appeared since the new century, covering ancient history. So far as this paper is concerned, we may list the Companions to the Ancient Near East, Archaic Greece, the Classical Greek World, the Hellenistic World, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Late Antiquity, the Roman Army, and Julius Caesar, all of which combined together cover almost every historical stage of ancient history chronologically. Is there any further space left for a Comnanion to Ancient History？     

Are We Postcolonial Yet? Tales from the Battlefield

This paper questions whether archaeological thinking and practice have become post-colonial and ethically and politically aware and sophisticated, and comments on a number of instances (militarization of archaeology, sponsorship by ethically tainted global corporations, global publishing practices, the declaration of western metropolitan museums as ??universal??) where neo-colonial regimes of truth and practice are present, even amongst groups and organisations that advocate de-colonisation. It proposes that new theoretical insights are generated at the moments of inevitable and at times necessary confrontations with these neo-colonial regimes. Finally, it conjures up the figure of new global immigrant in order to not only highlight their plight and the need for archaeologists to fight racism and xenophobia, but also to point out that the exilic position, the on-going questioning of our deep-left attachments to nation-states, institutions and structures, provides the space for radical critique and for new ontological possibilities to emerge.     

Renewable Electricity in the EU: Are We Meeting the Targets?

This paper analyses differences in the degree to which European Union countries have achieved the renewable electricity (RES-E) targets set by the European Commission for each Member State for 2010. After defining an RES-E target achievement (TA) indicator, both conventional and novel techniques are used to examine the main features of its distribution, including the degree of inequality, external shape and intra-distribution dynamics, for the 1996–2006 time period. The analysis demonstrates that disparities in TA have been strongly reduced and that intra-distribution mobility was very high.