KNOWLEDGE AND AUTHORITY IN SHIFT: A LINGUISTIC ETHNOGRAPHY OF MULTILINGUAL NEWS MEDIA IN THE BURYAT TERRITORIES OF RUSSIA by Kathryn Elizabeth Graber A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Alaina M. Lemon, Chair Professor Judith T. Irvine Professor Sarah G. Thomason Associate Professor Barbra A. Meek © Kathryn Elizabeth Graber ______________________________ All rights reserved 2012 Acknowledgments Over the years this project has been in progress, I have relied on the friendship, intelligence, collegiality, and goodwill of a great many remarkable people in the Russian Federation and the United States. In the Republic of Buryatia, Aga, and Ust’-Orda, I am indebted to the many individuals who made this project possible and added much beauty, wit, and joy to my life in the process. First and foremost, thanks are due to the journalists and research participants who gave of their limited time, and to the many wonderful people who have invited me into their homes and lives over the course of this project. While I cannot acknowledge research participants by name, I am especially grateful to those editors and department heads who distributed questionnaires and opened the doors of their institutions to me. Thanks to Alla Savelyeva and the Takhanov and Dugarzhapov families for their hospitality, especially to Samira for introducing me to Buryatia and to Darima for her brandy and good humor. Special thanks are due to my teacher of Buryat of many years, Tsymzhit Badmazhapovna Bazarova, for her unfailing patience with my endless questions. Talented archivists and librarians made my forays into historical research a genuine delight. I am especially grateful to Zina Fëdorovna and Tat’iana Vankeeva at NARB, Liudmila Leonidovna Kushnarëva at BGU, Marina and Kolya at IMBiT/BNTs, and Norzhima Garmaevna Lubsanova at the National Library of the Republic of Buryatia. Ivan Timofeevich Afanas’ev was always ready with a smile and a stern ii reminder to eat a full, hearty lunch. Valentina Gruzintseva in Moscow, Erzhen Khamaganova in Ulan-Ude, and Jargalma in Aginskoe made things happen when the gears of bureaucracy appeared stuck. Boris Zolkhoev made my 2009 research trip to Aga possible and went out of his way to give me the widest possible opportunities and best views of Lake Baikal, always with friendship and humor. Traveling between academic worlds can be daunting, and I am very grateful to the dedicated scholars and colleagues who have always made me feel welcome in Ulan-Ude: Galina Aleksandrovna Dyrkheeva, Polina Purbuevna Dashinimaeva, Margarita Maksimovna Boronova, Irina Sergeevna Boldonova, Darima Dashievna Amogolonova, Tat’iana Dmitrievna Skrynnikova, Zhargal Ayakova, and Babasan Dorzhievich Tsyrenov, among others. I thank the late Jargal Namtarov, a gifted linguist and my first bagsha of the Buryat language, and Viktor Dashanimaev, photographer, ornithologist, and friend, whose enthusiasm for this project spurred me on but who did not live to see its completion. Andrei Bazarov kindly invited me on his Russian Academy of Sciences expedition in 2009 to study Buddhist textual practices in the eastern steppe districts. Nikolai Tsyrempilov has always been a consummate colleague and dear friend, and I continue to be inspired by Inga, Agvan, and Karina. I am deeply indebted to Jargal Badagarov for his transcription assistance and all-around phenomenal linguistic expertise, and to Natasha, Dugar, Rinchin, and Damdin for their friendship, laughter, and trips all hither and yon in the ill-fated Land Rover. For support during research and writing in Russia and the U.S., I owe thanks to several institutions. Primary field research for this dissertation in 2008–09 was made possible by the International Dissertation Research Fellowship Program of the Social iii Science Research Council (SSRC) with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program of the U.S. Department of Education, and by a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 0819031. Additional field research in 2005 and 2011 was funded by Predissertation Training and Dissertation Support Fellowships from the Eurasia Program of the SSRC with funds provided by the U.S. Department of State under the Program for Research and Training on Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (Title VIII), and in 2007 by a Fulbright-Hays scholarship through the Eurasian Regional Language Program of the American Councils for International Education. Write-up was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and an SSRC Eurasia Program Dissertation Support Fellowship. At the University of Michigan, I would like to thank the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and the Department of Anthropology for providing additional research and write-up funding, as well as other forms of support. My interests in Russia and in linguistic anthropology began at the University of Chicago, an institution that happily indulged me in all manner of bizarre intellectual fancies. I thank Susan Gal, John Comaroff, and the late Kostas Kazazis for asking many of the questions that sparked my interest in this research, and for encouraging me to pursue graduate study. Noel Taylor introduced me to the Semeiskii music that first brought me to Buryatia a decade ago, and I have appreciated being part of the ever- amazing Golosa community over the years. iv My committee members at the University of Michigan have taught me more than I can say, not only about analyzing linguistic and social practice, but about being a model teacher and colleague as well. I could not have asked for a more encouraging, insightful, and empowering advisor than Alaina Lemon. She has inspired me to be braver in both my fieldwork and my arguments, and impressed upon me the value of a solid pair of winter boots. I am grateful to Judy Irvine for pushing me to see the forest as well as the very bark of the trees, and to take nothing for granted. Sally Thomason’s dauntingly capacious view has helped me find productive spaces in the interstices between linguistics and anthropology. Barb Meek always reads sensitively, introduces new angles and provocations, and manages to say whatever I was trying to say better. This project also benefited greatly from seminars and conversations with Webb Keane, Susan Philips, Stuart Kirsch, Matt Hull, Conrad Kottak, and Zeynep Gürsel. I owe many “aha!” moments of discovery to Bruce Mannheim. Bill Rosenberg was a wonderful mentor in Russian and East European Studies. I thank Bill and Doug Northrop for guidance on working with Soviet historical documents and negotiating the contradictory disciplinary conventions of anthropology and history. Mark Sicoli, Jonathan Larson, and Josh Reno went out of their way to provide mentorship early in my graduate adventures, for which I was most grateful. Brook Hefright and Jeremy Johnson were treasured long- distance colleagues during fieldwork. I was fortunate to be part of the supportive and collegial cohort of 2004 at Michigan, among whom I would especially like to thank my constant classmates, Anna Babel, Elizabeth Falconi, Jennifer Hall, and Sarah Hillewaert, for many good discussions. v I have also been fortunate to find a circle of colleagues outside the University of Michigan who share my interest in Buryatia and with whom I have traded many insights reflected in these pages, including Eleanor Peers, Joe Long, Sayana Namsaraeva, Tatiana Tchoudakova, Anya Bernstein, Kathy Metzo, Elizabeth Sweet, and Luis Ortiz- Echevarria. Justine Buck Quijada was a generous and supportive fellow fieldworker during my preliminary research in 2005. I am grateful to Jesse Murray for her friendship, guidance on archival research, and assistance in helping to maintain perspective during fieldwork in 2008–09. Carolyn Kremers was an inspiring travel partner and friend. At Indiana University, Melissa and Janis Chakars, Tristra Newyear Yeager, and Brooke Swafford provided an unbelievable Buryatist community. I am grateful to the Department of Anthropology at IU for visiting status and to György Kara, Dick Bauman, Ilana Gershon, and Dan Suslak for making IU a welcoming place to write up. At different stages, grant proposals, research plans, and draft chapters for this dissertation benefited from the careful attention of Laura Brown, Emily Hein, Perry Sherouse, Jesse Murray, Jessica Robbins, Zhanara Nauruzbayeva, Conrad Kottak and participants in his 2007 methods seminar, participants in the 2010–11 SSRC Eurasia Dissertation Support fellowship workshops, and participants in the spring 2010 and spring 2011 Linguistic Anthropology Laboratory at the University of Michigan. I thank Alex Golub, Susanne Unger, Suzanne Wertheim, and Charles Briggs for insightful comments on conference papers that became early drafts of Chapters 2, 3, and 7. Part of Chapter 3 is forthcoming in Language & Communication (Graber in press). Karl Swinehart, Robert Moore, and two anonymous reviewers provided comments on this manuscript that proved useful for the dissertation as a whole. Throughout the writing vi process, I have been profoundly grateful to my fellow comrades for the radical acquisition and circulation of knowledge, Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar and Emily McKee, who have fueled me with friendship, moral encouragement, and ice cream treats from the Chocolate Moose—not to mention consistently excellent editorial advice. Behind any long project is a lot of heartache and love, and I thank everyone who ameliorated the former and heaped on the latter. Laurie Marx made grad school more enjoyable. Laura, Jeremy, Lizzy, Em and Tim, Jess and Mateusz, the Lowen family, and Susanne and Joanne the rabbit all hosted me at one point or another on trips back to Ann Arbor. Jess, Jonathan, Dan, and Lori got me through the final months of Life in a Chair. And I could not have asked for a more supportive family.