Habeck is an anthropologist who received his PhD from Cambridge University and is now working at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology. His book is a revised version of his dissertation that adds to the growing body of literature on native peoples of Siberia. He has researched the Komi, a small tribe that has largely been left untouched in previous anthropological monographs, and therefore Habeck's contribution will satisfy anthropologist of Siberia in search of new insights on the way in which Komis manage their daily lives in the twenty-first century.
The Komi, formerly known as Zyrian (or Zyryan), are perhaps one of the few tribes still practicing reindeer husbandry throughout the four seasons. As we learn, however, this is not an ancient profession: they learned animal husbandry from others living to the north, particularly the Nenets. Thus, the Komi live in close proximity of the Nenets. Komi herders migrate with their herds: during the spring and summer, they move the reindeer northward, for cooler pastures ö finding ample food for does calving as well as to avoid insect harassment ö and during autumn slowly make their way south for their winter camps allowing bucks to mate. The author skillfully describes these movements as he also had a chance to travel with a work tent, actually a remnant of work brigades of the former Soviet state farms. The majority of the Komi do live in villages, however, and daily living varies between that of the migratory work-groups and those of settled villages. The younger generations today are opting for work in industry that provides cash, education and modernity to some.
At times, the author switches between the "ethnographic present" he encountered, and the time before. For example in the following sentence he describes the driving of animals to the winter pastures: "Nowadays the animals are never taken into the village, whereas 40 years ago a reindeer sledge in front of the village bakery was still a common thing" (p. 34). Could be. Yet, one must be clear that this information has been integrated into the anthropological present by the author based on Komi informants' narratives of what was before, or at least how they remember those by-gone days.
The book is accompanied by 28 black-and-white photos allowing the reader to visualize some aspects of Komi life both in the villages as well as during migration. An excellent map provides a nice view of the entire region with villages, herding camps and pastures marked with different color. In comparison to this great aid, the quality of some of the pictures (pp. 12, 28, 92, 112, 116) does not serve the book's detailed description, a possibility resulting from conversion of color shots to black-and-white or the quality of paper used in printing. In this, Habeck's book is in stark contrast to A. Golovnev and G. Osherenko's fascinating Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story (1999), a useful ethnography with numerous excellent color photographs on the Komi's neighbors.
Throughout the chapters, the author provides detailed information on animals, movements of tents, historical processes, and offers extra information in the appendices. For instance, there is a short biography of Sergei Vasil'evich Kertselli, a vetenarian of Italian extraction, who wrote the first monograph on reindeer husbandry in 1911. I found all this information to be a bit chaotic, and I would have preferred some of these facts integrated into the main body of text, others left for the notes, and some simply put aside for a later, more practical use. Nevertheless, these materials are real treasure for those whose interests lie in Komi history and reindeer husbandry. In fact, for comparative purposes, Habeck's appendices may remain one of the few hard-core anthropological data-bases to be utilized in similar studies but will, no doubt, leave others untouched. Instead of these figures, more comparison could have been offered; for instance, when the arrangements and living in the Komi tent during migration are discussed, the Nenets and Khanty material known from other studies could have been utilized. Similarly, there is no discussion of Komi religiosity, mythology, or the symbolic aspects of Komi life at all. For these, I am sure, inquiring minds will have to wait until Habeck produces another study detailing all that he observed during the years he spent among the Komi. The author also could have placed the Komi material within the expanding and exciting body of post-Soviet Siberian anthropology. The lack of reference to P. Jordan's masterful book, Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty (2003), has kept popping up in mind reading through this book. Since both Habeck and Jordan worked with Tim Ingold, a scholar and mentor whom both authors acknowledge, this is especially noticeable.
Perhaps the weakest part of the book is the anthropological theorising, as Habeck intends to frame his Komi subjects. By utilizing Giddens' notion of agency and structure, together with tradition taken from Hobsbawm and Shils, Habeck has attempted to build a theoretical frame which, in the end, leads to no real insights. This, I am sure, could have been usefully reorganized to make more sense in a separate article. As it is, however, juxtaposing his Siberian material with these theoretical categories gives the impression of a PhD dissertation rather than a masterful monograph.
The saddest and most distressing part of the book is the epilogue in which the author describes the last time he visited his fieldwork site. Here we learn that brigade 9, the reindeer work-unit he worked with, fell to pieces as many of the workers left or retired. Moreover, that the ever-expanding oil and gas industry is continuing to take able young men into this quick-cash economy proving that the future of animal husbandry among the Komi is bleak.
All in all, Habeck's material is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Siberian "indigenous" peoples, or the "Peoples of the North" as the Nenets, Komi and Khanty are known. Combined with Jordan's rich texture on Khanty spirituality, and Golovnev and Osherenko's fantastic visual testimony of the Nenets, Habeck's detailed description will provide excellent reading material for an anthropological course on the lives of Siberian tribes after the fall of Communism.