East of Dreams - by Nastassja Martin (Paperback)

About the Book

"After working in Alaska with the Gwich'in people, Nastassja Martin crossed the Bering Strait to begin comparative research in Kamchatka. During the Soviet era, the Even, a nomadic reindeer herding people, were settled on collective farms. After the fall of the regime, many continued to herd reindeer that no longer belonged to them, the herds being in the hands of private companies. Since the opening of the region in 1991, the former kolkhozes of Kamchatka have been transformed into tourist platforms. In 1989, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, an Even family reportedly decided to return to the forest, to recreate an autonomous way of life based on hunting, fishing and gathering. Was it a legend? How did a small collective, abused, dispossessed, and enslaved by the colonists before being forgotten by the great history, seize the systemic crisis to regain its autonomy? How did it manage to reconnect the tenuous threads of the daily dialogue that linked it to animals and elements, without the help of the shamans eliminated by the colonial process? What ways of life did the Even of Icha reinvent, to continue to exist in a world rapidly transformed by the battering rams of extractivism and climate change? In this book, where performative dreams and mythical stories respond to assimilation policies as well as to the disruption of ecosystems, the author brings colonial history and indigenous cosmologies into dialogue by restoring their power to the multiple voices that give the world its vitality"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Displaced after the fall of the Soviet Union, an indigenous family works to reclaim their former self-sufficient way of life in this lyrical work of anthropology and colonial Russian history.

After her work in Alaska among the Gwich'in people, French anthropologist Nastassja Martin crossed the Bering Strait to continue her research on the effects of colonialism and climate change on indigenous communities, this time in the Russian far east. East of Dreams is Martin's powerfully vibrant account of her seven years living with the Even people of Kamchatka. During the Soviet era, the Even people were dispossessed of their reindeer herds and settled on collective farms. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, one family, led by their matriarch Daria, decided to leave their enforced urban existences behind them and return to the Icha forest to lead a self-sufficient life based on hunting, fishing, and gathering.

How did this small collective, violated and despoiled by the colonists before being forgotten by history, reclaim its autonomy? How did they restore their relationships with animals and nature and learn to dream again? Generous, lyrical, and audacious, East of Dreams brings colonial history and indigenous cosmologies into dialogue to highlight the many voices that give the world its vitality.

About the Author

Nastassja Martin is a French author and anthropologist who has studied the Gwich-in people of Alaska and the Even people of the Kamchatka Peninsula. She is the author of the memoir In the Eye of the Wild and is the recipient of the Prix Louis Castex from the French Academy.