Narrating the Future in Siberia: Childhood, Adolescence and Autobiography among the Eveny

Acknowledgements Introduction * Narrating the future * My own return * The Eveny and the village of Topolinoye * Previous literature on the Eveny and other indigenous communities of Siberia * Summary of the book Chapter 1. Future autobiographies and their spaces * Research in the field: introducing case studies * Contact for case studies and sampling * Gender and kinship * Age cohorts * Oral and written * Narrative and 'future autobiography' Chapter 2. Eveny childhood and adolescence * Djuluchen: the composition of child and adolescent personhood * Childhood and narrative * Coming of age Chapter 3. Forest and village * Forest and village in local cosmologies of movement * The social world of the forest * The village: social context today * Complexities of engagement with antagonistic spaces Chapter 4. Three future autobiographies * The story of Tonya, a forest girl * The stories of village adolescents: Vera and Grisha * Vera * Grisha Chapter 5. Reindeer and child in the forest chronotope * Reindeer as a nonhuman component of child personhood * Reindeer as child: Tonya on learning and teaching * The forest chronotope in narrative Chapter 6. The village as domain of unhappiness: broken families and the curse of the GULAG * Wandering spirits of the dead and the curse of the GULAG * Unhappy families: children's futures and parents' pasts Chapter 7. Cosmologies of the future in the shadow of djuluchen * Personhood: hero and shaman * Time: cycles with and without destination * 'Future autobiography' as an activator of djuluchen Conclusion References Notes Glossary Index