Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty

A valuable contribution to the study of hunter-gatherer culture and survival. — from the Foreword by Robert Layton, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham

Peter Jordan’s book explores the complex symbolism of Siberian Khanty ritual landscapes and material culture. It offers fresh insights into the ways in which small-scale hunting and gathering communities inhabit what we might otherwise assume to be unaltered natural terrain. The ethnography presented in this book should inspire fresh considerations about the past and invite a welcome change from the bleak abstraction that can make the interpretation of much of earlier prehistory so dull. This book deserves to have considerable influence, and we must be grateful to the author for writing it. — from the Foreword by Richard Bradley, Department of Archaeology, Reading University

The book is a superb achivement, and should become essential reading for students of mind and culture alike. ― Anthropos

The first detailed and authoritative study of Khanty material culture to appear in English… photos of Khanty people, objects, and locations enhance the clearly written and well-organized text, helping to make this book a useful resource for both the ethnologically curious and the professional anthropologist or historian. — E. J. Vajda, Western Washington University ― CHOICE

Peter Jordan significantly enriches the enthnographic literature on the Khanty of Western Siberia in this ambitious monograph. ― Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute

This study, based on the author’s doctoral thesis, is an ambitious attempt to bring together the burgeoning literature on space and place with recent studies of landscape archaeology and material culture in order to analyze the historical and contemporary ‘landscape enculturation’ of Siberian Khanty hunter-gatherers….this book represents a significant contribution to Khanty ethnography, hunter-gatherer studies, and the anthropology of landscape, space, and place. — Thomas F. Thornton, (Trinity College) ― Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 60, 2004

Material Cultural and Sacred Landscape has gained a considerable word-of-mouth reputation among circumpolar scholars, which is more than borne out on closer inspection. . . . Peter Jordan’s book makes a fundamental contribution to the literature on Siberian peoples. It provides a deep anthropology that belies its modest trappings (at first glance it looks a rather unassuming book), and I have little doubt that in the future it will be counted alongside other insightful works such as Shirokogoroff’s Psychomental Complex of the Tungus (1935) as a classic of northern spirituality. More importantly from a broader perspective, this volume presents a challenging meditation on the archaeology of belief and its role in society. — Neil Price ― Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Vol. 14.1, April 2004

This is a sorely needed addition to a few English ethnographies on Siberia. It provides fascinating new information and insights. ― Canadian Journal of Archaeology

Offers a fascinating and theoretically rich examination of the Malyi Iugan Khanty’s appropriation of, engagement with, and ongoing reproduction of the landscapes in which they dwell. ― Slavic Review