Current Institutional Affiliation
Professor of Anthropology, Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University

Award Information

International Dissertation Research Fellowship 1999
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
Anthropology, University of North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Cows, Kin & Capitalism: The Cultural Ecology of Viliui Sakha in the Post-Socialist Era

In this project I incorporate both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies in a two-village study, to examine how the Vilyui Sakha, an indigenous people of north-eastern Siberia, are structuring their household-level subsistence strategies in the post-socialist context. My central questions are: 1) How are the Vilyui Sakha structuring their household food production strategies? and, 2) To what extent have the processes of sovietization and desovietization affected their subsistence strategies? My research will not only inform our understanding of the Vilyui Sakhas' and other indigenous Siberian peoples' survival, but will also help define processes of household adaptation that are generalizable beyond their original cases. Additionally, this study will identify alternatives the Vilyui Sakha have, given the limitations of their natural environment, in building sustainable localized economies.

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