Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book traverses socio-cultural diversity and human-environment systems across Siberia along six major research themes. Language endangerment and revival, a highly relevant issue and phenomenon worldwide, is considered in light of social and political shifts in Siberian history as well as contemporary phenomena such as globalization. The book examines how religious revival intersects with broader sociopolitical concerns as well as the precarities of everyday life, creating another kind of “infrastructure” for living. It provides more “archaeological” approaches to spiritual persistence and changes over time; Brandišauskas's paper on changing interpretations of ancient rock reveal how ostensibly spiritual objects created hundreds or thousands of years ago remain cosmologically and ritually relevant. Ethnographic studies in Siberia are shifting to incorporate multiple perspectives and Indigenous voices following trends across the field of Anthropology.