A Right to Remoteness? A Missing Bridge and Articulations of Indigeneity along an East Siberian Railroad

Author(s)

Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk

Abstract

The Soviet Union and its successor states have been avid supporters of a modernisation paradigm aimed at 'overcoming remoteness' and 'bringing civilisation' to the periphery and its 'backward' indigenous people. The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad, built as a much-hyped prestige project of late socialism, is a good example of that. The BAM has affected indigenous communities and reconfigured the geographic and social space of East Siberia. Our case study, an Evenki village located fairly close to the BAM, is (in)famous today for its supposed refusal to get connected via a bridge to the nearby railroad town. Some actors portray this disconnection as a sign of backwardness, while others celebrate it as the main reason for native language retention and cultural preservation. Focusing on discourses linking the notions of remoteness and cultural revitalisation, the article argues for conceptualising the story of the missing bridge not as the result of political resistance but rather as an articulation of indigeneity, which foregrounds cultural rights over more contentious political claims. Thus, the article explores constellations of remoteness and indigeneity, posing the question whether there might be a moral right to remoteness to be claimed by those who view spatial distance as a potential resource.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

Social Anthropology

Volume

27

Pages

236-252

No. of pages

17

ISSN

0964-0282

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12648

Publication date

2019

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504009 Ethnology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Anthropology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Sociology and Political Science

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/20c40668-9038-4840-aa93-e3de91539503