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Abstract

This paper examines landscape perception by Eveny, indigenous hunters, and reindeer herders of Northern Yakutia. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork conducted in Yakutia, it explores how Eveny relate to the landscape through mobility, subsistence practices, and local knowledge.

I argue that for Eveny, the landscape is not a neutral physical terrain but a vibrant, relational space animated by sentient beings - animals, ancestral beings, and master-spirits. Within this animistic ontology, the taiga is perceived through multiple signs and the embodied practices of dwelling, such as hunting, herding, and daily movements. Knowledge of the landscape, therefore, is enacted through lived engagement and the practical skills necessary for dwelling in it.

These perceptual and ontological relations coexist with, and have been reshaped by, the profound historical transformations introduced by Soviet modernization policy in the Arctic. Collectivization, sedentarization, and new territorial-administrative regimes altered mobility patterns, economic activities, and the social organization of Eveny people. Despite these transformations, Eveny relations with the land remain grounded in animistic perceptions and multispecies interactions, particularly with reindeer and predators such as wolves, bears, and eagles.

I further argue that Eveny identity is multilayered and dynamic, shaped by the interplay between indigenous landscape practices, the legacies of Soviet governance, and the political-economic conditions of the contemporary Russian state. Landscape acts as a vital domain through which knowledge, belonging, and moral relations are produced, negotiated, and transmitted. By analyzing the entanglement of environment, history, and identity, the paper contributes to broader debates on space, power, and indigenous knowledge in Northern Siberia. It shows how indigenous dwelling practices challenge the notion of landscape as a passive, purely material setting.

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Abstract

This paper explores the technological production and symbolic significance of red deer (Cervus elaphus) vestigial canine pendants during the Upper Paleolithic. While these ornaments are widespread across Eurasia, this study focuses on the comparative analysis of assemblages from the Southern Caucasus (Dzudzuana and Satsurblia caves) with other Eurasian assemblages. Using the chaîne opératoire approach, this research identifies pendant manufacturing and use wear signatures shared between the Caucasian and Levantine sites: dominance of scraping method as preparation of the root surface, bifacial gouging for perforation, and circular perforation shape, as well as polish from wear, and the evidence of ochre.

To test whether this similarity resulted from shared cultural traditions (H1) or independent technological invention (H0), the core sample is compared against a dataset of European sites. The results demonstrate that European assemblages typically rely on scraping as surface preparation as well, but use different technical solutions, such as biconical drilling and rotation, and lack the consistent use of ochre found in the Caucasus and Levant.

Furthermore, the presence of bone skeuomorphs (imitations) at Dzudzuana cave suggests that the symbolic value of the red deer canine was high enough to warrant the production of replicas when biological raw materials were scarce. This study concludes that the Southern Caucasus and the Levant likely functioned as a stable social network at the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum, where specific technological choices potentially served as costly signals of shared identity and social connectivity within a trans-regional information network.

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Abstract

This paper studies how canals in Qaraqalpaqstan, an autonomous republic of western Uzbekistan, function as a form of environmental memory to preserve pre-colonial knowledge of water management, while being simultaneously reinterpreted by state narratives of heritage and modernization.

The lower Amu Darya is a highly dynamic floodplain, whose shifting course has led to frequent shifts in the distribution of arable land. As a result of efforts to optimize agricultural production, the basin has undergone particular desiccation over the last 70 years.

I refer to the basin through the framework of hydro-heritage, denoting the cultural meanings connected to a water body, which carry importance for a community’s past, present and future. In Qaraqalpaqstan heritage has been used to understand how communities manage water in a deltaic landscape facing rapid desertification.

My research reflects on 6-month fieldwork under the Arts and Culture Development Fund (ACDF). I examine how canal heritage is constructed through institutional narratives “from above” and compare these with local experiences of hydro-heritage “from below”. Locally, canals are described in four ways: jap (main/secondary canals), salma (tertiary canals), qaryq (field furrows) and zeykash (drainage). This system, described in pre-Russian sources and still in use today, stores and transmits pre-colonial understandings of water management.

The region was annexed by the Russian empire in 1873. By combining contemporary ethnographic data with Russian ethnographic and archaeological sources from 1873–1936 and Khivan historical accounts, the paper shows how imperial scholarship, Soviet modernization, and present-day heritage initiatives have reshaped interpretations of irrigation history. I likewise study the contribution of artists like Taras Shevchenko and Igor Savitsky, participating in the Butakov and Tolstov expeditions, on interpretations of the basin. As such, my analysis highlights how competing interpretations of canals continue to influence how communities remember their local hydraulic histories.