Paper short abstract:

By analysing Siberian idols, focusing on non-human souls in combination with digital imaging methods we suggest that a reanimation is possible which makes the idols a curriculum for rethinking their definition and consider their former animist contexts and not viewing them as passive objects of art.

Paper long abstract:

Animism(s) and shamanism(s) along with its material culture have since the early days of Siberian ethnography been one of the ethnographers’ main focuses. In 1878 professor Nordenskiöld collected a number of Nenets idols from the now abandoned missionary village of Chabarova and the sacred island of Vaygach in north-western Siberia. These idols were brought out of their animist context to the ethnographic museum in Stockholm, Sweden, where they have ever since have been regarded as static objects of art. By analysing these idols based on a new animist theoretical framework, focusing on personhood and non-human souls, in combination with digital imaging methods we suggest that a form of reanimation is possible which makes the idols a curriculum for rethinking their definition and consider their former animist contexts and to learn from them rather than viewing them as passive objects of art.

Keywords: Material culture, Nenets culture and religion, Siberia ethnography, new animism.