Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer's Books

The Tenacity of Ethnicity

A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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The Tenacity of Ethnicity

A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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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Page Count

343

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691228116

ISBN 13

9780691228112

The Tenacity of Ethnicity

A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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The Tenacity of Ethnicity

A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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343

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Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691228116

ISBN 13

9780691228112

Shamanic Worlds

Rituals and Lore of Siberia and Central Asia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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Shamanic Worlds

Rituals and Lore of Siberia and Central Asia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

The ancient heartland of shamanism is no longer forbidden territory - to travelers or to the spirits. But the spirits never left the vastnesses of Siberia and Central Asia, as these writings reveal. Russian and native experts, and an American cultural anthropologist who has done fieldwork in the region, introduce us to shamans as the poets, therapists, healers, and even leaders of their communities. Among the special features of this collection are remarkable transcriptions of shamanic exhortations and a pathbreaking study of shamanic tales and rituals.

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Page Count

260

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315487314

ISBN 13

9781315487311

Religion and Politics in Russia: A Reader

A Reader

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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Religion and Politics in Russia: A Reader

A Reader

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

Russia is not only vast, it is also culturally diverse, the core of an empire that spanned Eurasia. In addition to the majority Russian Orthodox and various other Christian groups, the Russian Federation includes large communities of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and members of other religious groups, some with ancient historical roots. All are in a state of ferment, and securing formal state recognition for specific communities is often daunting. This collection provides entry into the diversity of Russia's religious communities. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer's introduction to the volume illuminates major political, social, and cultural-anthropological trends. The book is organized by religious tradition or identity, with further thematic perspectives on each set of readings. The authors include ethnologists, sociologists, political analysts, and religious leaders from many regions of the Federation. They analyze the changing dynamics of religion and politics within each community and in the context of the current drive to recentralize both political and religious authority in Moscow. Topical coverage extends from reassertions of Russian Orthodoxy to activities of Christian and Muslim missionaries to the revival of many other religions, including indigenous shamanic ones.

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Page Count

353

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317461126

ISBN 13

9781317461128

Culture Incarnate: Native Anthropology from Russia

Native Anthropology from Russia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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Culture Incarnate: Native Anthropology from Russia

Native Anthropology from Russia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

This collection of studies uses the processes of analysis and self-analysis to examine the social, political and spiritual forces at work in the post-Soviet world. The text includes discussions of ethnohistory, political anthropology and ethnic conflict, and symbolic anthropology.

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Page Count

370

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315482231

ISBN 13

9781315482231

Shamanism

Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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Shamanism

Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

Addresses the most important theoretical and practical problems underlying public budgeting. This anthology is organized topically rather than historically, with an effort to delineate the issues needed to understand some of the controversies in the field. It describes what public budgeting is, where it comes from, and what it is for.

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Page Count

257

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315487233

ISBN 13

9781315487236

Russian Traditional Culture

Religion, Gender and Customary Law

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer,Ronald Radzai

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Russian Traditional Culture

Religion, Gender and Customary Law

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer,Ronald Radzai

The resurgence of national and historical awareness among the people of what was once the USSR has been nowhere stronger than among the Russians themselves. Some of the larger projects of rediscovery amount to a reinterpretation of traditional culture. This carefully annotated collection of recent studies of Russian folk religion, village organization and family life, including the rituals associated with childbirth, special attention to women's roles and to the specificity of Siberia in Russian culture, will be a revelation to a wide array of readers. It is intended for use not only in anthropology departments but more widely interdisciplinary courses in Russian studies, peasant studies and women's studies.

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Page Count

402

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315288435

ISBN 13

9781315288437

Galvanizing Nostalgia?

Indigeneity and Sovereignty in Siberia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

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Galvanizing Nostalgia?

Indigeneity and Sovereignty in Siberia

By: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

Galvanizing Nostalgia? explores critical questions for the survival of Russia in its nominally federal form. Will Russia fall apart along the lines of its internal republics, as did the Soviet Union? Based on cultural anthropology field and historical research in major republics of Eastern Siberia—Sakha (Yakutia), Buryatia, and Tyva (Tuva)—this book highlights Indigenous concerns about self-determination. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer suggests that a fragile and disorganized dynamic of nested sovereignties has developed within Russia. Ecology activism has grown, given new threats to the environment and accelerating climate challenges, especially in the Arctic. Focus on strategically chosen republics enables comparing and contrasting interethnic relations, language politics, and the salience of gender, demography, resource competition, environmental degradation, and increased spirituality. Republics vary in their neocolonial relationships to Moscow authorities. Some local leaders, such as a politicized shaman, use nostalgia for cultural achievements to galvanize citizens. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, cultural and political revitalization have been relatively more viable, although still difficult, in areas where Siberians have their own republics.

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