Introduction: rethinking the frontier in Amazonia and Siberia: extractive economies, indigenous politics and social transformations

none3siThe adage that anthropology is comparative if it is anything at all has been tested in recent years to great effect, particularly on the theme of the body (Gregor & Tuzin 2001; Lambeck & Strathern 1998), and with greater confidence than a decade previously (Holy 1987). The body provides a useful starting point for cross-cultural comparison because there can at some level be said to be a common factor: the physically existing, universal human body. While this apparent universality and constancy of the body may be questioned in the light of ethnographic evidence, and the body can be politicised in differing ways, when politics and history themselves are made into the points of comparison a new and somewhat different challenge is set. To compare frontiers, as the theatres in which cultural difference is played out, constitutes a doubly comparative scenario, as each case being compared involves the meeting of social groups and their own mutual comparison as an exploration of mutual similarity and difference. The comparison of frontiers thus involves the comparison of sets of political relationships, as the variable ways in which subjects relate to others.openBrightman, Marc; GROTTI, VANESSA; Ulturgasheva, OlgaBrightman, Marc; GROTTI, VANESSA; Ulturgasheva, Olg

On Round Table Session of VI International Contest “Sibiriada” (December 9, 2017, Myski, Kemerovo region)

The results of the “round table” held on December 9, 2017 in Myski, Kemerovo region within the framework of the VI International Competition “Sibiriada” are presented. The round table was devoted to actual problems of protection of traditional culture, genres of musical creativity (song, instrumental), and also production of national musical instruments of indigenous peoples of the Sayano-Altay uplands and southern Siberia on the basis of modern technologies. The problem of grant support for research and projects aimed at the preservation of traditional cultures in national cultural centers, the study of unexplored issues of the history of indigenous peoples of Siberia was also discussed