multicultural Archives - Page 2 of 5 -

12 Jun

Trans Siberian Stories

Jesup North Pacific Expedition: Vladimir Jochelson, Norman G. Buxton, and Vladimir Bogoras

Part of my research texts for my Isobel the Bear-Eater Project have been the writings of Waldemar Bogoras, who spent some time hanging out with the Chukchi in the Russian Far East. His work was part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, and was published through the the American Museum of Natural History. Other authors in the same twelve volume series included Franz Boas and John Swanton. Bogoras recorded folk stories and daily practices, trying to get the whole culture down on paper. An impossible task, if you ask me, but I appreciate what he recorded.

Two of the stories Bogoras included particularly interested me. Both are listed as “Told by Qo’tirgin, a Maritime Chukchee man, in the village of Mi’sqAn, November, 1900.”* Read More →

28 May

Research reading: Hopping

I discovered recently, to my great joy, that I can still use my grad school credentials to log in to Project Muse and access a wide variety of academic publications. I spent a happy evening going down the rabbit holes of different search queries – ‘salmon anthropology’, ‘mongol horde history’, ‘transvestite shaman’.

The last, of course, is when my taller half looked over my shoulder. His query: What are you doing?

Research. I’m doing research for Isobel the Bear-Eater, because her story is set in a place not so different from Siberia and the Russian Far East, although I am adding in a healthy dose of my own knowledge and experiences from Alaska, and taking a great many liberties in mixing my own imagination in with true cultures described in historical and anthropological accounts. The more I know about these places, the richer my writing will be. Read More →

13 May

Etymological geekout: БОГАТЫРЬ [bogatyr’]

Bogatyrs (1898) by Viktor Vasnetsov

If you’ve spent any time on Russian history, you’ve probably seen this painting before. It shows a classic view of the epic heroes Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, and Alyosha Popovich. If you’ve got the language skills, the Три богатыря [tri bogatyria] or Three Heros have recently been reincarnated as animated children’s films, available on the youtubes. Even if not, humor me and watch this brief trailer for the latest: “Три богатыря на дальних берегах” after the jump. Read More →

19 Apr

A Golden Vase Filled with Serpents and Scorpions

In 2003, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Russia through the School for International Training. The focus of the program was anthropological, and we had a mix of lectures and experiential education.

One of the meetings which was arranged for our student group was with a local leader of the Chechen diaspora in St. Petersburg. I’m not going to pretend I have a complete understanding of the political situation of the Chechens today, or that I had much of a clue in 2003, either, other than knowing that Chechnya was an area of predominantly Muslim peoples who wished to be independent from the Russians. Read More →

17 Apr

Arabian Tales

You may remember that last summer I was pretty excited about G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel, Alif the Unseen. You can read my earlier thoughts on Alif, or just read the book – it’s out in paperback now. Briefly, it is genre-bending urban political fantasy magical realism which presaged the various recent revolutions of the Middle East.

Part of the plot of Alif involves a book called the 1001 Days, which may or may not be a fake written by a European. Last year I got a copy of another such book – a little younger, a little less magic involved in the plot, but an excellent read. The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan was written by James Morier, who was of Swiss-Dutch extraction. Read More →

28 Jan

Marie Chouinard’s modern dance interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

Sometimes I convince my husband to come along with me to cultural events. Not just the sort of trendy plays acted in by people whose day job is barista, but the sort of Cultural Event where we are the youngest people in the audience. It’s possible this is because my mother did things like read me the Odyssey aloud when I was 5, or retold me stories from the Ramayana, or played classical music in the house pretty much always. I listen to lots of musical genres, but I have always like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (maybe because I have watched this cat video about seven million times). Read More →