Red Ties and Residential Schools: Indigenous Siberians in a Post-Soviet State [Hardcover]

Alexia Bloch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2003

In this book Alexia Bloch examines the experiences of a community of Evenki, an indigenous group in central Siberia, to consider the place of residential schooling inidentity politics in contemporary Russia. Residential schools established in the 1920s brought Siberians under the purview of the Soviet state, and Bloch demonstrates how in the post-Soviet era, a time of jarring social change, these schools continue to embody the salience of Soviet cultural practices and the spirit of belonging to a collective. She explores how Evenk intellectuals are endowing residential schools with new symbolic power and turning them into a locus for political mobilization.

In contrast to the binary model of oppressed/oppressor underlying many accounts of state/indigenous relations, Bloch's work provides a complex picture of the experiences of Siberians in Soviet and post-Soviet society. Bloch's research, conducted in a central Siberian town during the 1990s, is ethnographically grounded in life stories recorded with Evenk women; surveys of households navigating histories of collectivization and recent, rampant privatization; and in residential schools and in museums, both central to Evenk identity politics.

While considering how residential schools once targeted marginalized reindeer herders, especially young girls, for socialization and assimilation, Bloch reveals how class, region, and gendered experience currently influence perspectives on residential schooling. The analysis centers on the ways vehicles of the Soviet state have been reworked and still sometimes embraced by members of an indigenous community as they forge new identities and allegiances in the post-Soviet era.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This thoughtful study should interest anyone concerned with social and political life at the periphery of today's Russian Federation."—Choice

About the Author

Alexia Bloch teaches anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (December 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812237595
• ISBN-13: 978-0812237597
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,318,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A long and twisting road, January 28, 2004

By 

John Bloch (Montpelier, VT. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Ties and Residential Schools: Indigenous Siberians in a Post-Soviet State (Hardcover)

ok so I am her dad and I have conflicts in writing this review, but here goes anyway. The index is excellant, and there are more foot notes than anybody has a right to wish for. The story is wonderful as it digs into the social structure of post wwII familes caught is wildly changing times in this not often visited part of Sibereia. In fact, when the author as a undergraduate first went I had deep concerns as a parent, I should not have. Now back to the book. If you really want to gain a feel for the impact on the lives of both parents and their childern in this region, then read this book. Also to get some prespective of just how sheltered our everyday lives here iare read this book. Given all that is and is about to take place in the world,this book could help one get a grasp on some of the issues facing us all.