Beyond Wild and Tame: Soiot Encounters in a Sentient Landscape. By Alex C. Oehler. 2020. Berghahn Books, New York, NY. 214 pp.

Abstract

describes the Oka-Soiot household, which in Soiot cosmology is a mirror image of spirit households of the taiga (Chapter 1). What is domestic for humans is a game for spirits and vice versa. In Soiot perspective, the “domestic” is an outcome of negotiation within the environment, rather than an outcome of solely human actions. Regarding spirituality and cosmology, Chapter 2 describes the historical influences of shamanism and Buddhism, resulting in Soiot herderhunters’ adaptation of both perspectives and contextual movement between shamanic and Buddhist perceptions of the landscape according to the needs of people and animals.