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The Altai Republic in southern Siberia is renowned for excavations of frozen mummies from high-altitude burial sites. Less well-known is the fact that it hosts fallout zones for the second stages of rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Local inhabitants blame ‘evil spirits’ released by archaeological work and toxic fuel from rocket debris for their misfortunes. This book explores the divergent fates of such claims when confronted with state-fostered ‘rationalisms’ of science and governance.
“At the core of this text is the single best message that anthropology has always delivered: that there is much at stake in not just learning how to listen, but in how to hear what people are trying to tell us, and how to be fully open to new worlds.” • Bruce Grant, New York University
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Chapter 1. Between Ancient Graves and Modern Rocket Junk
Chapter 2. How to Read a Letter
Chapter 3. Souls and Their Predators
Chapter 4. Property and (Non-)Human Personhood
Chapter 5. The Comparison Impossible
Chapter 6. Towards Strict Ontological Continuities
Conclusion
References
Index