Summary

Summary

The Russian colonization of Siberia gave birth to numerous mixed communities, most of which are referred to as “Old Settlers” (starozhily). The territory of these communities stretches from the western borders of the Republic of Sakha to Kamchatka in the East, and to the Angara River and Lake Baikal in the South. In this book, an international team of authors focuses mainly on three case studies within this huge region: Russkoe Ust'e (on the Indigirka River), Pokhodsk (Kolyma River), and Markovo (Anadyr' River). Data on the Kamchadals of Kamchatka Peninsula and the Creoles of Russian America are also taken into account. The book is based on field material collected by the authors in 1998 and 1999 and deals with the ways in which Old Settler populations establish and maintain their ethnic identity.

Mixed origins haves always been at the core of Old Settler identity: there is a sharp line between the Old Settlers and the Natives, on the one hand, and between the Old Settlers and the newcomer Russians, on the other hand. Through interviews and talks with insiders and outsiders, the ethnocultural markers considered representative of Old Settler culture are elicited. Not surprisingly, many of these markers are more virtual than real, that is, they function as cultural symbols and elements of discourse and should not be misunderstood as descriptions of cultural reality. The authors are primarily interested in the complicated pattern of interaction between internal elements of self-identification and external categorizations which led to the current state of ethnic boundaries. The authors consider it crucial to view stasis as a temporary phenomenon in a long process of negotiations in which the groups in question made creative use of internal and external definitions of their culture.

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