This study provides a concrete example of how foraging societies enculturate and transform the natural environment and, through the use of material objects, create sacred spaces and sites. Using ethnographic and ethnohistorical information about the Khanty of Siberia, Jordan shows the shortcomings of both interpretive and materialist anthropological theorizing about hunters and gatherers. He focuses on the rich and complex relationship between the symbolism of the Khanty, their material culture, and the bringing of meaning to physical places. His examination looks at the topic in both historical and contemporary contexts, and in scales from the core-periphery model of Russian colonialism to the portrait of a single yurt community. Jordan's work will be of importance to those studying cultural anthropology, archaeology, and comparative religion.

About the Author
Peter Jordan is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen .

Reviews
Aside from from bringing an important and ill-understood contemporary hunter-gatherer-fisher culture to the fore, Jordan's book offers new and exciting insights into how people perceive and give meaning to the natural landscape and their place within it. * Oxbow Book News, Vol. 57, Autumn 2003 *
A valuable contribution to the study of hunter-gatherer culture and survival. -- from the Foreword by Robert Layton, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham
Peter Jordan's book explores the complex symbolism of Siberian Khanty ritual landscapes and material culture. It offers fresh insights into the ways in which small-scale hunting and gathering communities inhabit what we might otherwise assume to be unaltered natural terrain. The ethnography presented in this book should inspire fresh considerations about the past and invite a welcome change from the bleak abstraction that can make the interpretation of much of earlier prehistory so dull. This book deserves to have considerable influence, and we must be grateful to the author for writing it. -- from the Foreword by Richard Bradley, Department of Archaeology, Reading University
The book is a superb achivement, and should become essential reading for students of mind and culture alike. * Anthropos *
The first detailed and authoritative study of Khanty material culture to appear in English... photos of Khanty people, objects, and locations enhance the clearly written and well-organized text, helping to make this book a useful resource for both the ethnologically curious and the professional anthropologist or historian. -- E. J. Vajda, Western Washington University * CHOICE *
Peter Jordan significantly enriches the enthnographic literature on the Khanty of Western Siberia in this ambitious monograph. * Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute *
This study, based on the author's doctoral thesis, is an ambitious attempt to bring together the burgeoning literature on space and place with recent studies of landscape archaeology and material culture in order to analyze the historical and contemporary 'landscape enculturation' of Siberian Khanty hunter-gatherers....this book represents a significant contribution to Khanty ethnography, hunter-gatherer studies, and the anthropology of landscape, space, and place. -- Thomas F. Thornton, (Trinity College) * Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 60, 2004 *
Material Cultural and Sacred Landscape has gained a considerable word-of-mouth reputation among circumpolar scholars, which is more than borne out on closer inspection. . . . Peter Jordan's book makes a fundamental contribution to the literature on Siberian peoples. It provides a deep anthropology that belies its modest trappings (at first glance it looks a rather unassuming book), and I have little doubt that in the future it will be counted alongside other insightful works such as Shirokogoroff's Psychomental Complex of the Tungus (1935) as a classic of northern spirituality. More importantly from a broader perspective, this volume presents a challenging meditation on the archaeology of belief and its role in society. -- Neil Price * Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Vol. 14.1, April 2004 *
This is a sorely needed addition to a few English ethnographies on Siberia. It provides fascinating new information and insights. * Canadian Journal of Archaeology *
Offers a fascinating and theoretically rich examination of the Malyi Iugan Khanty's appropriation of, engagement with, and ongoing reproduction of the landscapes in which they dwell. * Slavic Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780759102774
Author Peter Jordan
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint AltaMira Press,U.S.
Publisher AltaMira Press,U.S.
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 145mm * 21mm