"A masterpiece! . . . Words and Silences presents an unusually rich ethnography on a part of a community in Europe's farthest Arctic Northeast, with a focus on an extremely difficult topic to do fieldwork on."—Florian Stammler, author of Reindeer Nomads Meet the Market: Culture, Property and Globalisation at the "End of the Land""Vallikivi foregrounds speaking and communication in his analysis of the transformation from 'pagan' to Christian. . . . This is by far the most polished and impressive study I have read."—Alexander D. King, author of Living with Koryak Traditions: Playing with Culture in Siberia"Words and Silences: Nenets Reindeer Herders and Russian Evangelical Missionaries in the Post-Soviet Arctic is a valuable contribution to the literature on religious conversion and itt offers significant insights into the situation of the indigenous peoples of Northern Russia. I am therefore pleased to recommend the book whole-heartedly to all my colleagues."—Kirill Istomin - European University of Saint Petersburg, Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics
