Bob Newman's Reviews > Nomads of South Siberia: The Pastoral Economies of Tuva

one of the few translated works of Soviet anthropology

For centuries, Tuva languished unknown to the outside world. It became an independent country for about 25 years, until the Soviet Union swallowed it up in 1944. Before that, as a remote part of the Manchu or Mongol Empires, it had hardly impinged on the world's consciousness. Since 1991, it has been a (remote) part of Russia. If you want to read about Tuva in English, you really have a choice of four books. First, Ralph Leighton's "Tuva or Bust", second, Otto Manchen-Helfen's account of his trip in 1929, third, Theodore Levin's book on Tuva and its music, "Where Rivers and Mountains Sing", and fourth, the book under review here, NOMADS OF SOUTH SIBERIA, written in Russian in 1972 and published in English eight years later as part of a well-respected Cambridge University anthropology series. Of the four, this one is the most difficult to read because of two reasons. First, because it is an extremely detailed work of economic anthropology full of local terms, arcane details on herding, crafts, tools, hunting, and seasonal migrations, to name just a few topics. It is a painstakingly researched essay written with skill and patience. The second reason it is difficult is that the life of a Soviet anthropologist was frought with pitfalls. You couldn't say certain things; on the other hand you HAD to say certain other things. Therefore, you have to read between the lines to some extent.

I have given the book four stars because of the impressive research and assembly of data, not for readability. Vainshtein ties in his work to work among similar groups in Siberia and Central Asia (Nenets, Evenk, Kirghiz, Kazakh, Altaians, Oirot, Kalmyk, Mongols of various kinds). He tries to develop some ideas about origins of reindeer herding, about nomad life in general, nomads' relation to agriculture and craft production. It's a very thoughtful book, but definitely only for experts. Though he quotes Marx, Engels, and Lenin, he does not evince the slightest knowledge of any Western anthropologist writing on any topic. I believe such references would have been dangerous, if not for his life, at least for his career. Or maybe the books were unavailable to him. Though Vainshtein lived among the Tuvans, knew their language, and had many informants, Tuvans do not come through as people at all--they have almost no voice. It is all about their "system of production", down to whips, number of sheep and goats, saddles, fish traps, summer encampments, and collection of lily bulbs. A Soviet framework is placed on his data---questions about whether nomads can be considered `feudal' or not, whether exploitation existed, whether capitalism had begun or not, stem from this framework. Such Soviet phrases as "higher cultural level" may turn you off. Are the peoples of the world arranged along some Darwinian ladder ? This is really 19th century sociology.

What is most indicative of the political reality behind this narrowly-excellent work is that although Vainshtein spent at least 20 years getting to know the Tuvans, his book deals exclusively with the times before Tuva became part of the Soviet Union. He constantly refers to a 1931 census and conditions around the turn of the 20th century. He does not talk about his own impressions or experiences at all because he is an honest man. If he reported on what he saw in Tuva in the Fifties and Sixties, and it did not mirror the official Soviet line (Progress), he could have jeopardized his career. If he didn't tell the truth he would have lost his credibility. On the very last page (in a chapter called "Social Relations" that did not appear in the Russian edition), he states that everything he writes about has become "part of history" because Tuva has been transformed. He quotes that well-known anthropologist, V.I Lenin, once more, and then says that "an extremely successful transition from nomadic to settled forms of life" has taken place. It would be interesting to know how true this is. That a transformation took place is without doubt, the whole world has changed immensely---its success may be open to question. I wish we could read a later work by Vainshtein, a memoir, an extension of the present work, a revision. Does it exist ? I have no idea. This work is a guarded attempt to share a huge wealth of data gathered over many years.