Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov gave Key Note Address at the opening of the X Siberian Studies Conference

October, 24 Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov gave Key Note Address “Headman's outrage: towards the anthropology of emotions and affect in Northern Siberia” at the opening of the X Siberian Studies Conference "Passion for Life: Emotions. Feelings and Perception in the North and Siberia” 
The conference is organized by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Science (Kunstkamera) and Russian Geographical Society (24-26 October 2016)

The key note addresses the “affective turn” in anthropology and draws on new directions in this field and on ethnographic fieldwork material from the north of Krasnoyarsk region, Siberia. The key note introduces some of the main themes and questions of the conference. While is has been conventional in Siberian ethnography to focus on indigenous knowledge of the land, communication with the invisible world, and technologies and rationalities of these engagements, what has not been sufficiently explored is what it means to laugh or cry, to hysterically scream or whisper. How are emotions and affections conceptualised by people living in the North and Siberia? How do those who live and work in the North talk about and perceive senses? The conference addresses these previously neglected and attempts developing new approaches anв languages of description. 

Passion for Life: Emotions, Feelings and Perception in the North and Siberia

How does anthropology usually describe indigenous cultures of the North? It is not uncommon to find in anthropological books and papers descriptions of the indigenous deep knowledge of the land and communication with the invisible world, and even discourse around technology and rationality. With this conference let us take a different direction by asking what it means to laugh or cry, to hysterically scream or whisper, in the North. These questions are often neglected by anthropologists working in Siberian and Northern Regions. We still do not have a proper academic language to describe affection or dislike, love or hate. How are emotions and affections conceptualised by people living in the North and Siberia? How do those who live and work in the North talk about and perceive senses? How can we answer these questions without resorting to psychological and metaphysical interpretations, but rather opting for ethnographic analysis? It is equally important to analyse how the emotions associated with movement, such as nomadism, and with technology and/or environmental change. We raise these questions at the upcoming X International Siberian Studies Conference.