“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.     

Competing to Interpret “Foot Liberation”: Mrs. Archibald Little’s Anti-Footbinding Tour in Hong Kong, 1900

Known as the wife of the famous British merchant Mr. Archibald John Little, Mrs. Archibald Little left many writings on local Chinese customs and cultures. However, more renowned is her consistent advocacy for Chinese women’s emancipation from foot binding, not only by establishing a “Natural Feet Society” in Shanghai, but also by giving numerous anti-footbinding speeches in Chinese cities. One particularly noticeable speech was given in Hong Kong in 1900. It received significant reactions from different social groups. Using Mrs. Little’s own memoir and Hong Kong media coverage, we may be able to reveal the intertwined discursive competition surrounding the anti-footbinding movement. Motivated by a sense of mission to “enlighten,” Mrs. Little was a self-aware “civilized” savior. However, local newspaper reports on her anti-footbinding tour reflected little about the clash of civilizations but their exaggerated concern on the national subjugation and genocide. These two interpretations joined a competition to explain the anti-footbinding movement in late Qing China.     

Life in a “Cathedral of Consumption’: Corporate and Personal Material Culture Recovered from a Cellar at the Robert Sayle Department Store in Cambridge, England, ca. 1913–21

An early twentieth-century assemblage dating to ca. 1913–21 associated with staff that worked for and lived in the associated hostel of the Robert Sayle department store in Cambridge, England, contained a mixture of material that was supplied by the business for communal activities and personal items. The contrast between these two types of material allows the relationship between the business and its staff to be explored. The assemblage is also considered in terms of the class, gender and age composition of the hostel population and the concept of resistance.     

Warriors from the East. Skeletal evidence of warfare from a Lombard-Avar cemetery in Central Italy (Campochiaro,Molise, 6th–8th Century AD)

The early mediaeval cemetery of Campochiaro is located in Molise (Central Italy) and dates to the 6th–8th centuries AD. It consists of two inhumation areas: one at Morrione and the other at Vicenne. This site is important because of the contemporary presence of locals, Lombards and Avars of the steppes. Campochiaro was probably an outpost against the Byzantine army settled in southern Italy. Since no signs of a stable settlement or built-up area have been found, it seems the cemetery can be attributed to a semi-nomadic group. Many graves contained a man and his horse with the harness complex and typical Avar stirrups. The military nature of this settlement is shown by ostearchaeological evidence of warfare and violence on three skeletal individuals: n. 20, n. 102 and n. 108. Two of them exhibit lesions of the cranial vault probably produced by shock weapons in the fashion of the Byzantine armies: a spiked mace and a battle-axe. The cicatrisation of the wounds and the bony neo-formation suggest that the individuals survived these injuries for a long time. The third individual suffered from leprosy. He shows a long perpendicular cut in the left section of the frontal bone. The wound is clean and, because it is without traces of bony neo-formation, was probably a peri-mortem blow landed with a sharp weapon. The wound was not mortal, because it was very slight and probably produced only a slash. As ritual or magical practises and/or damage produced during the excavation or by the action of roots in the earth can be excluded, this individual was perhaps really a leper warrior who died in combat.     

‘Would I were in an alehouse in London!’: a finds assemblage sealed by the Great Fire from Rood Lane,City of London

During the development project at 20 Fenchurch Street in the City of London, archaeological excavations were undertaken adjacent to Rood Lane. This uncovered part of a 16th- to mid 17th-century brick built cellar which had collapsed sealing in situ pottery, glass, clay tobacco pipes and a stove tile, an event interpreted as the result of the Great Fire of London in 1666. The composition of this artefact assemblage suggests it was derived from a property used to providing large-scale entertainment, with a high proportion of the material associated with drinking. This article situates this group within the context of other similarly dated victualling establishments from the City of London.