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Evenki Microcosm: Visual Analysis of Hunter-Gatherers Lifestyles in Eastern Siberia. Safonova T. and I. Santha. 2019. Fürstenberg/Havel: Verlag der Kulturstiftung Sibirien SEC Publications. 173 p, softcover. ISBN 978-3-942883-36-8. €48.00.
Tatyana Safonova and Istvan Santa’s book is a kind of remake of a classic book written by the American anthropologists, Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, where they studied Balinese character through the method of photo analysis (Bateson & Mead, 1942). Safonova and Santa applied this method to the three Evenki local communities from the Baunt district of the Buryat Republic of the Russian Federation, among whom they conducted their fieldwork in 2000s. The authors use the word ‘microcosm’ as a metaphor in order to show the openness and ever-changing character of the Evenki world (p. 8).
This case of the anthropological mimesis, expanded by the author’s creativity, gave a very good result. From the huge amount of visual material gathered, including 14 thousand negatives, 3 thousand slides and 100 h of video records, the authors selected 577 photos, structuring them into 6 sections. Each section reflects special features of the modern Evenki culture, namely shaman tree, hunting, gathering, reindeer herding, new technologies and the nephrite road. All these themes correlate with a discourse in anthropological research today. Apart from these basic themes, many other questions are touched upon: the anthropology of human–animal relationships, anthropology of emotions, anthropology of materiality and some others. Such a wide range of themes became possible due to the publication format selected. Every book spread, excluding the preface, contains a series of 5–9 colour photographs, selected according to a specific theme, with short comments on the opposite page. One would not come across such photos on the pages of illustrated books, as they do not illustrate the text, but on the contrary, the text is written for the photo’s comments. Many interpretations are based on the actor-network theory.
The Evenki communities under consideration have a long-term history of relationships with the Russian state. Way back in 1822, the “Codex on inorodtsy [alien] management” divided Siberian indigenous people into three categories: wandering, nomadic and settled. Most present-day Evenki live settled lives, and many are the descendants of mixed marriages. Many Evenki work or live on social payments and pensions. The question remains,...