[Ura-list] New two-volume publication: The Eastern Udmurts in a Changing World (Tartu 2025)

[Eva Toulouze]

Dear colleagues,
A new two-volume English-language collection, “The Eastern Udmurts in a
Changing World”,
edited by Eva Toulouze, Laur Vallikivi and Liivo Niglas, has just been
published (ELM
Scholarly Press / University of Tartu, 2025). In addition to the editors,
the contributors include
Udmurt scholars Nikolai Anisimov, Ranus Sadikov, Tatiana Vladykina and
Irina Pchelovodova.
The volumes are based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in
Bashkortostan between 2013
and 2024 and present extensive material on the Eastern (Trans-Kama)
Udmurts, whose cultural
life has developed in a multilingual and multi-confessional setting and
whose animist ritual
tradition remains strikingly vital today.
Volume I, “Society and Creativity”, offers a broad overview of Eastern
Udmurt society and
culture. The chapters address historical change and the development of
schooling, the language
situation and literature, as well as folklore and singing traditions,
festivities, mythology, and
present-day healing practices. The final section reflects on fieldwork as a
collective experience
and on the use of film as both a research method and an ethnographic record.
Volume II, “Animist Rituals”, focuses on living ritual practice. It follows
the annual cycle of
sacrificial prayers, examines sacred places and the organisation of ritual
groups, and discusses
Soviet-era disruptions and the revitalisation of sacrificial groves since
the 1990s. The volume
also introduces sacrificial priests and prayers addressed primarily to the
sky god Inmar,
providing a detailed view of how rituals function and how ritual knowledge
is transmitted across
generations.
Both volumes are richly illustrated with maps and numerous colour fieldwork
photographs.
The set can be ordered via Krisostomus here:
https://www.kriso.ee/db/9789916742433.html

With best regards,
Eva Toulouze, Laur Vallikivi, and Liivo Niglas
Department of Ethnology
University of Tartu
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