On Thin Ice

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_8787
dc.title	On Thin Ice. Nenets Reindeer Herders’ Changing Perception of their Environment After Conversion to Evangelical Christianity
dc.contributor.author	Vallikivi Laur
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/the-venice-journal-of-environmental-humanities/2022/1/on-thin-ice/
dc.description.abstract	In this paper, I will focus on Nenets reindeer herders’ changing perception of their environment after conversion to evangelical Christianity. Until recently they regarded the landscape to be populated by numerous sentient beings with their own differing agendas. I suggest that conversion of Nenets families has led them to reinterpret much of the earlier intricate forms of agency into largely one kind of demonic agency in which more or less respectful reciprocity with spirits is discontinued. This shift informs directly how people navigate on the land and water, perceive their environment and talk about their relationship with it. I discuss these issues using a pair of notions, i.e. the practical mastery of one’s surroundings and the mental map-reading. My central argument is that conversion creates a certain shift in these perceptions and practices related to the environment and the spirit world.
dc.relation.ispartof	Lagoonscapes
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 2 \| Issue 1 \| June 2022
dc.issued	2022-07-27
dc.dateAccepted	2022-06-14
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-03-23
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2785-2709
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2022/01/003
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Animism
dc.subject	Conversion
dc.subject	Ethics
dc.subject	Evangelical Christianity
dc.subject	Navigation
dc.subject	Nenets
dc.subject	Ontology

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

On Thin Ice

Nenets Reindeer Herders’ Changing Perception of their Environment After Conversion to Evangelical Christianity

Laur Vallikivi University of Tartu, Estonia

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abstract

In this paper, I will focus on Nenets reindeer herders’ changing perception of their environment after conversion to evangelical Christianity. Until recently they regarded the landscape to be populated by numerous sentient beings with their own differing agendas. I suggest that conversion of Nenets families has led them to reinterpret much of the earlier intricate forms of agency into largely one kind of demonic agency in which more or less respectful reciprocity with spirits is discontinued. This shift informs directly how people navigate on the land and water, perceive their environment and talk about their relationship with it. I discuss these issues using a pair of notions, i.e. the practical mastery of one’s surroundings and the mental map-reading. My central argument is that conversion creates a certain shift in these perceptions and practices related to the environment and the spirit world.

Published

July 27, 2022

Accepted

June 14, 2022

Submitted

March 23, 2022

Language

Keywords: Ethics • Ontology • Evangelical Christianity • Nenets • Conversion • Navigation • Animism

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2022/01/003

Copyright: © 2022 Laur Vallikivi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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