Narratives of Social Change in Rural Buryatia, Russia

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Narratives of Social Change in Rural Buryatia, Russia Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Anthropology Theses Department of Anthropology 4-20-2010 Narratives of Social Change in Rural Buryatia, Russia Luis Ortiz-Echevarria Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/anthro_theses Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Ortiz-Echevarria, Luis, "Narratives of Social Change in Rural Buryatia, Russia." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/anthro_theses/36 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Anthropology at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NARRATIVES OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN RURAL BURYATIA, RUSSIA by LUIS RAIMUNDO JESÚS ORTIZ ECHEVARRÍA Under the Direction of Jennifer Patico ABSTRACT This study explores postsocialist representations of modernity and identity through narratives of social change collected from individuals in rural communities of Buryatia, Russia. I begin with an examination of local conceptualizations of the past, present, and future and how they are imagined in places and spaces. Drawing on 65 days of fieldwork, in-depth interviews, informal discussion, and participant-observation, I elaborate on what I am calling a confrontation with physical triggers of self in connection to place, including imaginations of the countryside and village, sacred and ritual spaces, landscapes, and the environment. I also explore how the anxie- ties embedded in narratives of change are connected to aspiration for the future and nostalgia for the past. INDEX WORDS: Modernity, Identity, Social change, Rural, Urban, Buryatia, Buryat, Russia, Siberia, Post-socialism NARRATIVES OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN RURAL BURYATIA, RUSSIA by LUIS RAIMUNDO JESÚS ORTIZ ECHEVARRÍA A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2010 Copyright by Luis Raimundo Jesús Ortiz Echevarría 2010 NARRATIVES OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN RURAL BURYATIA, RUSSIA by LUIS RAIMUNDO JESÚS ORTIZ ECHEVARRÍA Committee Chair: Jennifer Patico Committee: Kathryn Kozaitis Emanuela Guano Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2010 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all the people who made this journey possible. To my committee members, Dr. Jennifer Patico, Dr. Kathryn Kozaitis, and Dr. Emanuela Guano and everyone at the Department of Anthropology at Georgia State University who supported me in this adven- ture. You offered me the academic vigor and personal guidance that made this an unforgettably meaningful two years in many ways. I will remember your support, trust, and encouragement. A special thank you to Dr. Patico for your intellectual insights, attention to detail, and humor. Спасибо! Thank you to my many friends in Russia and especially in Buryatia that made this study possible. Thank you to Darima Amogolonova for hosting me and engaging me in challenging conversations. To all of my friends in Ulan-Ude and the Kurumkan and Barguzin regions for your invaluable hospitality, forthrightness, and support—without you this project would not have been possible. Thank you to my Russian tutor Maria and my Russian transcriber Irina, who helped me to improve my Russian language skills to conduct this study. Thank you to my team at CARE for your support, guidance, and patience for two years of not always being around. Thank you to my family and friends across the world for your emotional support and trust. A special thank you to my mother, father, and sister, for your endless encouragements. Thank you to Gillian and Veronica for your friendship from the very beginning and for almost two years of losing at trivia! And of course, thank you to my graduating cohort for being a great cohort—may you all thrive in your life endeavors! Thank you to the institutions that provided financial support for my continued education. These include the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Constellation Federal Credit Union Graduate Scholarship Programs, the Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute, and CARE. Your support was in- valuable. Thank you. Lastly, I would like to recognize William Mueller for his creative endeavors to protect the environment around Lake Baikal, which ultimately brought me to Buryatia in the first place. May he rest in peace. And lastly, за зиму! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ v LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................viii PREFACE........................................................................................................................... 1 I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Constructing (Soviet) Nations............................................................................. 5 1.2 Constructing (Modern) Capital Cities.............................................................. 10 1.3 Background....................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Kurumkan Region ............................................................................................. 18 1.5 Methods and Methodology................................................................................ 19 1.6 In Search of Teachers ....................................................................................... 21 1.7 Methods in Practice .......................................................................................... 22 II. NARRATIVES OF SOCIAL CHANGE.................................................................. 28 2.1 Introduction...................................................................................................... 28 2.2 Thinking About the City and Remembering the Countryside........................... 31 2.3 Reflections on the City and the Village............................................................ 55 III. GENDER, PROGRESS, AND PLACE IN BURYATIA........................................ 56 3.1 Gender in Post-Socialist Perspective................................................................ 56 3.2 Narratives of Place and Gender ...................................................................... 57 vii 3.3. Narratives of Progress and Gender................................................................. 64 3.4 Reflecting on Gender ....................................................................................... 68 IV. THE MIKRIK JOURNEY........................................................................................ 69 4.1 Riding the Mikrik............................................................................................. 69 4.2 Introducing Urbanization ................................................................................ 69 4.3 The Mikrik Journey.......................................................................................... 74 4.4 Приехали: Arriving, Ending, Beginning ......................................................... 82 V. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................... 83 5.1 Reflecting on Narratives .................................................................................. 83 5.2 Locating an Ending.......................................................................................... 85 VI. REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 87 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of Russian Federation and Buryatia ........................................................................ ix ix Figure 1: Map of Russian Federation and Buryatia 1 PREFACE Locating the Beginning In my childhood, I spent countless hours looking over my family’s atlas staring into the pages of distant lands with unfamiliar names and in the most remote corners of the world. I was particularly mesmerized by the geographic enormity that was the Soviet Union. Territory names like Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and Kamchatka not only evoked awe by their foreignness, but also evoked memories of playing RISK in Puerto Rico with my grandmother and sister until the wee hours of the night. So when the Soviet Union collapsed in August 1991, this mysterious place of personal intrigue was suddenly the center of global attention. Many years later, I took my first look at the Buryat landscape from a slow moving Trans- Siberian train from Irkutsk headed to Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia. From that day on, all things “Russia” whether its language, position on a map, or board game, or simply in conversa- tion were no longer about a mysterious place, but were indexed by a defined place, Buryatia. Going to Buryatia for the first time in 2000, was of course, a seminal moment in my life, in that it built upon years of Russian language and area studies and Soviet and post-communist course- work, research, and reading. The experiences I lived through, the stories that I heard and later told and retold, the sacred practices that evoked curiosities, and the wilderness I came to revere all became a significant part of my own personal
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