A Review of Laur Vallikivi, Words and Silences: Nenets Reindeer Herders and Russian Evangelical Missionaries in the Post Soviet Arctic. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2024, XVII+336 p.

Abstract

This review critically examines Laur Vallikivi’s monograph Words and Silences: Nenets Reindeer Herders and Russian Evangelical Missionaries in the Post-Soviet Arctic, a detailed ethnographic study of religious conversion among the Nenets of the Russian Arctic. The book analyses the transformation of concepts of personhood, ethics, linguistic practices and spirituality among a particular group of Nenets who were never integrated into most of the social and economic changes and political system of the Soviet Union, but who in recent decades have witnessed the conversion of a significant part of the community to Protestantism. The author explores the tension between the Nenets’ cultural ideals of independence and relational reciprocity and the hierarchical dependencies of Protestant ideology. He provides a multi-layered analysis of events ranging from the burning of sacred objects to the reinterpretation of speech and silence among the Nenets, in order to shed light on the ontological and epistemic shifts brought about by conversion. The review examines how Vallikivi uses theories from religious studies and anthropology to understand the implications of conversion for identity and worldview. The book offers a compelling narrative of how religious conversion catalyses a reconfiguration of relationships with humans, non-humans and the environment, marking it as a significant contribution to the anthropology of religion and Arctic studies.