Bøker av Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

Combines field research with historical inquiry to produce a study of a minority people in Russia, the Khanty (Ostiak) of Northwest Siberia. This book shows that processes of acquiring ethnic identity can involve transcending victimhood. It brings Khanty views of their history and life into focus, revealing multiple levels of cultural activism.

The ancient heartland of shamanism is no longer forbidden territory - to travelers or to the spirits. But the spirits never left the vastnesses of Siberia and Central Asia, as these writings reveal. Russian and native experts, and an American cultural anthropologist who has done fieldwork in the region, introduce us to shamans as the poets, therapists, healers, and even leaders of their communities. Among the special features of this collection are remarkable transcriptions of shamanic exhortations and a pathbreaking study of shamanic tales and rituals.

Addresses the most important theoretical and practical problems underlying public budgeting

Addresses the most important theoretical and practical problems underlying public budgeting

Russia is not only vast, it is also culturally diverse, the core of an empire that spanned Eurasia. This collection provides entry into the diversity of Russia's religious communities. It also includes an introduction that illuminates the political, social, and cultural-anthropological dimensions of the subject.

This work introduces traditional Siberian shamans as the poets, therapists and even leaders of their communities. Among the special features of this collection are transcriptions of shamanic exhortations and a study of shamanic tales and rituals.

This collection of studies uses the processes of analysis and self-analysis to examine the social, political and spiritual forces at work in the post-Soviet world. The text includes discussions of ethnohistory, political anthropology and ethnic conflict, and symbolic anthropology.

This is an annotated collection of recent studies of Russian folk religion, village organization and family life, including the rituals associated with childbirth, and paying special attention to women's roles and to the specificity of Siberia in Russian culture.