RELIGIOUS CONVERSION AND NENETS BRICOLAGE: MAKING MODERNITY IN THE POLAR URAL TUNDRA TATIANA A. VAGRAMENKO Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by: Dr Patty A. Gray National University of Ireland, Maynnooth Department of Anthropology Head of the Department Dr Mark Maguire February 2014 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................... 7 NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION .......................................................................................... 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER ONE THE RELENTLESS RETURN OF CONVERSION ................................................ 13 1.1 CONVERSION SAGA: THE STORY OF BELOYARSK COMMUNITY ................................ 17 A Russian ‘Pop’ ................................................................................................ 17 The Brotherhood ............................................................................................... 20 Conversion as a ‘Native Affair’ ........................................................................ 23 A Note on Continuity: Orthodox and Protestant Christianity .......................... 24 1.2 NADIA’S CHURCH: MISSIONARY GUIDES .................................................................... 25 Nadia ................................................................................................................. 26 Marina ............................................................................................................... 28 Valia .................................................................................................................. 31 1.3 MODERNITY TENSIONS AND NENETS BRICOLAGE ...................................................... 32 Tradition versus Modernity ............................................................................... 35 1.4 NOT TRUE NENETS: AUTHENTICITY LOST ................................................................ 36 ‘Yonei’ ter’ – Living in the Middle: the Polar Ural Nenets .............................. 36 The Polar Ural Nenets: Social Background ..................................................... 40 ‘Eluding’ Culture and Authenticity Lost ........................................................... 48 1.5 CHRISTIANITY AND ‘TRADITIONAL CULTURE’ .......................................................... 51 The Dynamic of Conversion .............................................................................. 52 1.6 ETHNOGRAPHER’S PATH ........................................................................................... 57 1.7 DISSERTATION OUTLINE ........................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER TWO ‘I CAME NOT TO BRING PEACE, BUT A SWORD’: THE COMPETITIVE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE IN THE ARCTIC ......................................................... 68 Religious Persecutions that Never Ended? The Precariousness of Religious Life in Russia ..................................................................................................... 68 2.1 FOREIGN MISSION CRUSADES AND INTERNAL PRECONDITIONS ................................ 73 Religion-State Relations .................................................................................... 76 2.2 ARCTIC RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY: DIALOGUE, COMPETITION, CONFLICT ..................... 81 In Search of the Last Pagans: Church Planting at the End of the Earth .......... 81 Religious ‘Warfare’ .......................................................................................... 88 2.3 THE CONSTRUCTION OF ‘NENETS INDIGENOUS RELIGION’ ....................................... 90 Nenets Shamanism ............................................................................................ 92 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 98 2 CHAPTER THREE MODERNITY: RUSSIAN, UNEQUAL, CONTAMINATING .............................. 100 Modernity-thinking ......................................................................................... 100 3.1 LIVING ON THE PERIPHERY OF SPACE AND TIME ..................................................... 104 Dreams of Modernity ...................................................................................... 104 ‘You Lutsa are Higher than We are’ ............................................................... 106 The Islands of ‘Civilization’ in the Sea of ‘Backwardness’ ............................ 110 Native Ideologies of Space .............................................................................. 112 Multilayeredness of Tundra Space .................................................................. 113 Soviet Chronotope ........................................................................................... 115 3.2 CONVERSION TO SOVIET MODERNITY ..................................................................... 118 The Missionary Project of Soviet Modernity .................................................. 118 Accelerated Pace of Modernity ....................................................................... 120 Religious Persecutions and Soviet Counter-faith ........................................... 123 3.3 UNMAKING MODERNITY ......................................................................................... 125 Domination and Resistance ............................................................................ 125 Failed Attempts to Be ‘Modern’ ..................................................................... 128 ‘Obrusevshyi’ Nenets ...................................................................................... 130 Moral Dimension of Modernity ...................................................................... 131 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 133 CHAPTER FOUR NENETS BRICOLAGE ............................................................................................... 135 Nenets Bricolage and Resistance .................................................................... 135 4.1 THE GREAT SUCCESS OF THE ‘NARROW PATH’ ....................................................... 138 The Local Failure of a Global Movement ....................................................... 138 The Resistance Movement ............................................................................... 140 Prosperity Gospel or: Max Weber is Not Alive and Well in the Nenets Tundra ......................................................................................................................... 143 4.2 BEING IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD: ‘WORLD-BREAKING’ AND ‘WORLD- MAKING’ PRINCIPLES IN PENTECOSTALISM AND BAPTISM ............................... 145 Pentecostal Spatial Orientation ...................................................................... 145 Baptist Spatial Orientation ............................................................................. 148 Pentecostal Temporality ................................................................................. 151 Baptist Temporality ......................................................................................... 152 4.3 ‘HAUTE COUTURE’ MODERNITY VS. ‘OLD-FASHIONED’ MODERNITY ...................... 155 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 158 CHAPTER FIVE BLOOD KINSHIP AND KINSHIP IN CHRIST’S BLOOD .................................. 160 5.1 KINSHIP AS SUBSTANCE AND CODE ........................................................................ 162 Christian Kinship as Substance and Code ...................................................... 162 3 Nenets Kinship as Substance and Code .......................................................... 164 ‘The Dark Side of Kinship’ ............................................................................. 168 5.2 PARTICIPANT CONVERSION ..................................................................................... 172 ‘Clan Churches’ .............................................................................................. 173 Missionaries as Mediators and Marriage Matchmakers ................................ 177 Christian Weddings in the Tundra .................................................................. 181 More about Love ............................................................................................. 182 Love and the Brotherhood .............................................................................. 184 Ideal Baptist Family ........................................................................................ 186 Ideal Nenets family ......................................................................................... 189 Renewed Marriage Alliances .......................................................................... 192 Conclusion: Tundra Web ................................................................................ 194 CHAPTER SIX JUSTIFICATION OF CULTURE AND HISTORY: RADICAL CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CONTINUITY ................................................................................. 196 6.1 AGAINST CULTURE: TO MOURN THE PAST AND TO FOLLOW THE LORD… ............