The Chicago area, despite its urban character, is home to significant biodiversity. Situated at the intersection of the northern boreal forest, prairie, savanna, and dune environments, Chicago is a crossroads for more than just our own species. Here the great eastern tallgrass prairies met oak-hickory woodlands as well as wetlands, savannas, swamps, and other associations, forming a complex mosaic of environments. The long history of human habitation in this region has significantly transformed local environments, but not all pre-contact environments have vanished and local efforts at restoration and conservation have begun to make a significant difference in the extent and health of indigenous plants and animals. Our logo is derived from the Hickory (Carya); local oak-hickory forests are dominated by Shagbark Hickory (C. ovata) and Bitternut Hickory (C. cordiformis).2008
May 9 & 10, 2008
The Franke Institute for the Humanities
The University of Chicago
1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL
OVERVIEW
This workshop will bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines (anthropology, linguistics, musicology and environmental science) to explore the interrelations between culture, language and environment in Siberia and to investigate ways for the academic community to respond to the accelerating pace of change.
Climate change and its influence on the social, cultural, and political dimensions of the North is an area of critical societal importance in our time. Nowhere is this clearer than in Siberia, where ecosystems and peoples are experiencing unprecedented change as this region warms and as globalization alters traditional ways of life. While the links between language, culture and land may not be obvious to outsiders, they are deeply embedded in the daily life of Siberian indigenous peoples.
Those Siberian natives who maintain their language (and there are some 30-40 languages represented in the region) also maintain traditional culture, including music and art forms, and they are generally at least in some part animistic/shamanistic. Similarly, for many groups sound and music form part of a spiritual relationship with the natural environment that has endured in the face of social and political challenges. Language, culture, and the relationship to the land have been key parts of a fragile and yet tenacious Siberian indigenous identity. These traditional relationships are threatened with catastrophic changes owing to global warming and resulting pressures of globalization. While some resources–such as caribou herds and natural lakes–are already vanishing, the combination of newly available resources and navigation routes that result from the global warming means that not only will greater economic development occur in the North but also a host of strategic and security issues will arise. Both will inevitably result in an influx of outsiders, and all of this threatens indigenous human and natural ecosystems in the North in unprecedented ways.
Funding and support for the conference are provided by CEERES, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Norman Wait Harris Fund, and the Program on the Global Environment.
SCHEDULE
| FRIDAY, MAY 9 | |
| 2:30 | FILM SCREENING The Linguists |
| 4:15-5:00 | REGISTRATION/RECEPTION |
| 5:00 | KEYNOTE ADDRESS “Sea Ice, Permafrost, and Climate Change in Siberia” David Archer Department of Geophysical Science University of Chicago |
| 6:00-8:00 | DINNER |
| SATURDAY, MAY 10 | |
| 8:30 | CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST |
| 9:00-10:30 | PANEL 1 William Fitzhugh Director, Arctic Studies Center Smithsonian National Museum of National History “Climate and Culture Change in Siberia and Other Northern Regions: Deep-Time and Today” Lenore Grenoble Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Department of Linguistics University of Chicago “The Siberian Linguistic Landscape” |
| 10:30-10:45 | BREAK |
| 10:45-1:00 | PANEL 2 Marjorie Balzer Research Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology & Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies Georgetown University “The Intertwined Nature of Ecological, Political and Cultural Change in the Siberian Far East” K. David Harrison Department of Linguistics Swarthmore College “Vanishing Knowledge Systems Among South Siberian Herders and Hunter-Gatherers” Theodore Levin Department of Music Dartmouth College “Music and the Land” |
| 1:00-2:00 | LUNCH |
| 2:00-3:45 | PANEL 3 Nadezhda Jakovlevna Bulatova Senior Researcher Institute of Linguistic Research Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg “Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: A Personal View” Florian Stammler Senior Institute Associate Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge University “And if the tundra turns into a desert, we start herding camels, but we have only one planet to live on, so let's save it now together” Gary Cook Director, Baikal Watch Earth Island Institute “How can Siberians influence the decisions that are made in Moscow?: Do public interest groups really have any influence on the policy-makers and oligarchs in Russia?” |
| 3:45-4:00 | BREAK |
| 4:00-5:00 | FILM SCREENING Hunters Since the Beginning of Time |
| 5:00-5:30 | POST-FILM DISCUSSION Director Carlos Casas Independent filmmaker |
