Yuri Vella on the Move: Driving an Uazik in Western Siberia
Yuri Vella on the Move: Driving an Uazik in Western Siberia

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I want to demonstrate how modern technology can be employed in the sustainability strategy of an indigenous person who is trying to hold on to a traditional mode of existence. In the case of Yuri Vella, who is the main research subject of this study, modern technology is not only used for carrying out everyday domestic and economic activities. For him it is also a tool to withstand corporate pressure on traditional sources of livelihood. Yuri Vella has incorporated a wide range of modern technological devices into his forest universe. I will argue that one of the most crucial technological items he is relying on in his daily struggle for economic, cultural and political survival is a car. Paradoxically, the extraction of oil that is needed to sustain his “automobility”, is a principal factor that is threatening his indigenous way of life in this oil-rich region of Western Siberia.

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