The Reindeer People
Living With Animals and Spirits in Siberia
By Piers Vitebsky
(Mariner Books, Paperback, 9780618773572, 496pp.)
Publication Date: December 2006
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover
Categories: Anthropology - Cultural
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In this acclaimed work, the anthropologist Piers Vitebsky offers a unique account of the Eveny, nomads who live in intimate partnership with an extraordinary animal. For centuries reindeer have provided the Eveny with food, fur, transport, and spiritual sustenance, enabling them to survive in the world's coldest inhabited region, the Siberian taiga, where winter ice freezes six feet thick and the temperature drops to ninety-six degrees below zero.
The book presents a gallery of unforgettable personalities, including shamans, psychics, wolves, bears, dogs, Communist Party bosses, daredevil aviators, and the spirits of fires and rivers. Based on nearly two decades of fieldwork, The Reindeer People is an enthralling and moving testimony to a Siberian native people's humor and endurance at the ecological limits of human existence.
PIERS VITEBSKY is the head of anthropology and Russian northern studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. His previous books include Shamanism and Dialogues with the Dead: The Discussion of Mortality Among the Sora of Eastern India. The Reindeer People has been selected as a finalist for the 2006 Kiriyama Prize in nonfiction.
"This immersion in the lives of some of the world's toughest and most resilient people is a powerfully lovely book." --Bill McKibben
"Remarkable." The Financial Times of London
"Like all the finest anthropology, this book entertains readers with descriptions of an alien culture, only to imbue them with a deeper sense of common humanity." The Times of London
"A wild and vividly described journey to Siberia." -- New Scientist
"Extraordinary fieldnotes from the remotest fringes of the reindeer economy . . . A Worthy companion to Arctic Dreams and other landmark books." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"With grace, courage and sensitivity, Vitebsky reveals an extraordinary world, spinning a tale to warm any winter's night." Publishers Weekly, Starred
"Rewarding...Vitebsky is sensitive to every sight and sound in the Siberian wilderness." The New York Times
"A captivating look at a part of the world most people will never see." People Magazine
"It's not hard to be fascinated...[Vitebsky is] a compassionate, perceptive narrator." Christian Science Monitor
"Vitebsky renders both people and landscape vividly...a remarkable book." --Seattle Times Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer
Recipient of the Victor Turner Prize Honorable Mention
"So intimate, so revealing, and so moving...This book is required reading." --Moscow Times
"The best book of the year...witty and poignant." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
"The work of an acutely observant and unusually dedicated field-worker at the height of his powers...a masterpiece of anthropological writing." --Jean Briggs, author of Inuit Morality Play
"A warm and lucid tribute to Eveny...gorgeously observed and evocative." --Spectator.
"A personable, knowledgeable, and passionate guide...Vitebsky's generous study elucidates Siberian reindeer culture to a depth never attained before." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
"Extraordinary fieldnotes from the remotest fringes...A worthy companion to V.K. Arseniev's Dersu the Trapper, Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams, and other landmark books of the Far North." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"As richly detailed and compelling as it is instructive." Library Journal
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