On the run in Siberia / Rane Willerslev ; translated by Coilín ÓhAiseadha.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willerslev, Rane, 1971-

Standardized Title:

På flugt i Siberien. English

Language:

Danish

English

Subjects (All):

Willerslev, Rane, 1971-.

Yukaghir--Hunting.

Yukaghir.

Yukaghir--Social life and customs.

Willerslev, Rane, 1971---Travel--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Willerslev, Rane.

Refugees--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--Biography.

Refugees.

Anthropologists--Denmark--Biography.

Anthropologists.

Sable trapping--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Sable trapping.

Fur trade--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Fur trade.

Mafia--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Mafia.

Travel.

Manners and customs.

Hunting.

Siberia (Russia)--Description and travel.

Siberia (Russia).

Siberia (Russia)--Social life and customs.

Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Denmark.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 207 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2012]

Summary:

If I had let myself be ruled by reason alone, I would surely be lying dead somewhere or another in the Siberian frost.

For the Yukaghir, an indigenous people of the Siberian taiga, hunting sable is both and economic necessity and a spiritual experience. Since the fall of Communism, a corrupt regional corporation has monopolized the fur trade, forcing the Yukaghir hunters into impoverished servitude.

Enter Rane Willerslev, a young Danish anthropologist who arrives on an idealistic mission to organize a fair-trade fur cooperative with the hunters. But the regional fur company proves it will stop at nothing to maintain its monopoly: one of Willerslev's Yukaghir business partners is arrested; another drowns mysteriously. When police are sent to arrest him, Willerslev fears for his life, and he and a local hunter flee to a remote hunting lodge. Thus begins an extraordinary, chilling account of one year living in exile among Yukaghir hunters in the stark Siberian taiga region. On the Run in Siberia is a pulse-pounding tale of political corruption, starvation, and survival (with a timely assist from Vladimir Putin), as well as a striking portrait of the Yukaghirs' shamanistic tradition and their threatened way of life, a drama unfolding daily in one of the world's coldest, most enthralling landscapes. Book jacket.

Contents:

One last, feeble attempt

The fur project. Shalugin, leader of the Yukaghirs ; A post-Soviet nightmare ; Sable furs for sale

On the run in the wilderness. Out of range ; Soft gold ; Starvation and desperation ; In the Yukaghirs' camp ; A long-awaited friend

Back to the village. The curse ; Land of shadows ; Screwed ; The way back

A leap in time

Appendixes : surviving in Siberia. A. Using the leghold trap ; B. Yukaghir idols ; C. Netting fish in Siberia ; D. Finding your way in the taiga ; E. How to track and shoot a moose.

Notes:

"Originally published in Danish as På flugt i Sibirien : Zobeljagt, russisk mafia og 65 minusgrader (Copenhagen : Gyldendal, 2009)"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780816676262

0816676267

9780816676279

0816676275

OCLC:

759910067