Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer combines extensive field research
with historical inquiry to produce a dramatic study of a minority
people in Russia, the Khanty (Ostiak) of Northwest Siberia.
Although First Nations, indigenous peoples, have often been victims
of expansionist state-building, Balzer shows that processes of
acquiring ethnic identity can involve transcending victimhood. She
brings Khanty views of their history and current life into focus,
revealing multiple levels of cultural activism. She argues that
anthropological theory and practice can derive from indigenous
insights, and should help indigenous peoples.
Balzer brings to life the saga of the Khanty over several
centuries. She analyzes trends in Siberian ethnic interaction that
strongly affected minority lives: colonization, Christianization,
revitalization, Sovietization, and regionalization. These processes
incorporate suprastate and state politics, including recent
devastations stemming from the energy industry's land thefts.
Balzer documents changes that might seem to foreshadow the demise
of indigenous ethnicity. Yet the final chapters reveal ways some
Khanty have preserved cultural values and dignity in crisis. Khanty
identity has varied with the politics of individuals, groups, and
generations. It has been shaped by recent grass-roots mobilization,
ecological activism, and religious revival, as well as older
historical memory, language-based solidarity, and loyalty to a
homeland. "The Tenacity of Ethnicity" demonstrates how at each
historical turn, Siberian experiences shed new light on old debates
concerning colonialism, conversion, revitalization, ethnicity, and
nationalism. This volume will be important for political
scientists, historians, and regional specialists, as well as
anthropologists and sociologists.
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