‘Do You Respect Me?’ Drinking as a Social Catalyst in the Reindeer Herding Communities of European Russia and Western Siberia

Abstract

This paper 1 analyses alcohol consumption amongst the indigenous communities of reindeer herders in the Russian North. It introduces the metaphor of the social catalyst to interpret a broad range of effects and motivations linked with drinking practices and discourses associated with alcohol. An anthropological fieldwork methodology allows entry into the sphere of cultural intimacy in order to understand morally suspicious practices usually hidden from the outside world. A non-normative approach is suggested to escape the moral trap of the 'social problem' discourse. Two main patterns of drinking practices, the 'losing face together' and the 'competitive drinking' spree are identified. Whereas the first can be associated with local traditions, the second is linked with male interaction with and within the settler communities. Transgressive practices causing loss of control are examined for their social function and the different notions of 'strength' associated with drinking practices. All of them serve either to confirm, to transcend or to abandon social boundaries, status roles and relationships, which allows us to speak about alcohol as a social catalyst.

Language rights and education of the small numbered indigenous peoples of the European North of Russia: from the Soviet period to modern time

“…However, very often our informants related the reasons of the conflicts to bad tempers of its parties, regardless of their ethnicity. The stories about the alcohol addiction of the Nenets form the special group in the narratives about conflicts (on stereotypes of this kind see Leete [35]; Dudeck [36]). But still in these cases the boarder of the collision lay to a greater extent between settled group of people (the Nenets and the Pomors both) and the nomads (toundroviki) (FN 2006: 11, 13-14).…”

Alcohol and its functions in the culture of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob region

“…Место алкоголя в традиционных культурах Западной Сибири, проблемы, связанные с употреблением спиртного коренными жителями, неоднократно рассматривались современными исследователями [Новикова, 1995;Вигет, 2002;Главацкая, 2005;Пивнева, 2005;Lеете, 2005, Wiget, Balalaeva, 2007Истомин, 2011;Вигет, Балалаева, 2014;Dudeck, 2015;Соколова, 2015. Если расширить территориальные рамки в границах Севера России и Сибири, та же тема поднимались как представителями медицины [Козлов, 2007, Тальянова, 2011], так и антропологами и этнологами [Истомин, 2011; Дмитриенко, Чухрова, 2012; Хаховская, 2015; Ярзуткина, 2017].…”

Boire l’opium

“…L'excès n'entraîne pas l'ivresse et le contrôle de soi reste au centre du rituel. Comme pour certaines pratiques impliquant le partage d'alcool, par exemple chez les éleveurs russes (Dudeck 2015), montrer sa bravoure se mesure à la maîtrise de soi. L'excès de consommation d'opium ne doit pas engendrer une modification visible de comportement.…”

“…La boisson d'opium peut être analysée comme un catalyseur social, au sens où l'emploie Stephan Dudeck (2015), ou comme un « conducteur rhétorique », selon Maurice Bloch (2010). La nocivité du breuvage et les effets potentiels sur le corps font partie intégrante de ce rituel social.…”