<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Yuri Vella (1948-2013) was a well-known personality in Western Siberia’s indigenous world. Unlike most Western Siberia indigenous inhabitants, Yuri Vella was exceptionally skilled with words. He used words in everyday life in order to achieve his goals, among which the main one was to protect his kin and neighbours in the forest from the destructions induced by the oil industry. He was able to hold his own in discussion with the oil industry representatives and to have the last word with them. But how did Yuri Vella use words in private life? That is what months of fieldwork sharing the hut he lived in with his wife allowed me to ascertain. I shall concentrate on patterns of speaking - how? with whom? - and silence in everyday life, outside the attention of an audience. Or was my presence in the hut enough of an audience to change his patterns? These reflections are what this article is about.</p></abstract>

Yuri Vella (1948-2013) was a well-known personality in Western Siberia’s indigenous world. Unlike most Western Siberia indigenous inhabitants, Yuri Vella was exceptionally skilled with words. He used words in everyday life in order to achieve his goals, among which the main one was to protect his kin and neighbours in the forest from the destructions induced by the oil industry. He was able to hold his own in discussion with the oil industry representatives and to have the last word with them. But how did Yuri Vella use words in private life? That is what months of fieldwork sharing the hut he lived in with his wife allowed me to ascertain. I shall concentrate on patterns of speaking - how? with whom? - and silence in everyday life, outside the attention of an audience. Or was my presence in the hut enough of an audience to change his patterns? These reflections are what this article is about.

A Man of Words and Silence: A Siberian Intelectual’s Mixed Patterns of Communication

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Yuri Vella (1948-2013) was a well-known personality in Western Siberia’s indigenous world. Unlike most Western Siberia indigenous inhabitants, Yuri Vella was...

A Man of Words and Silence: A Siberian Intelectual’s Mixed Patterns of Communication

Published Online: Jan 18, 2019

Page range: 79 - 94

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2018-0012

Keywords
Siberia, Forest Nenets, silence, speech, gender, intercultural communication, dialogue, monologue

© 2019 Eva Toulouze, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

A Man of Words and Silence: A Siberian Intelectual’s Mixed Patterns of Communication

Published Online: Jan 18, 2019

Page range: 79 - 94

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2018-0012

KeywordsSiberia, Forest Nenets, silence, speech, gender, intercultural communication, dialogue, monologue

© 2019 Eva Toulouze, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Siberia, Forest Nenets, silence, speech, gender, intercultural communication, dialogue, monologue