08/04/2026
Welcome to watch the recording of
Arramat T5 Káffidit - Online coffee talks - webinar: Throwing a Lasso into the Future
Eveny reindeer herders’ lasso-making in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
Presentation by Anastasia Ulturgasheva, Ewen/Lamut scholar from Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), PhD, Uppsala Univ, Cultural Anthropology, 2026.
First comments by Elle Eriksson, Lule and Forest Sámi from Váhtjer community, Swedish side of Sábme, PhD student at SLU, Umeå
Summary of talk:
Dominant technosciences often advance “one-world” logics, it is universalizing assumptions that treat technoscientific description as reality, while reducing Indigenous world-making as cultural perspective.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Eveny reindeer herders in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia (northeastern Siberia), this presentation challenges dominant technoscience approach through maut (Eveny for lasso): a lasso made from reindeer hide that reindeer herders insist one must always carry in the taiga.
I argue that the lasso is not a relic from the past, but a future-making technology that gathers humans, reindeer, materials, and place-spirits into reciprocal obligations.
The making of a lasso is slow and relational process. Because this knowledge is learned through embodied apprenticeship rather than written instruction, it pushes for a different knowledge order – a challenge to the hierarchy that treats technoscience as the only rigorous way of knowing.
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Anastasia Ulturgasheva is an Indigenous (Ewen/Lamut) scholar from Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), she earned PhD degree from Uppsala University in cultural anthropology, and her scholarly inquiry lies at the intersection of museum anthropology, human/other-than-human relations, Indigenous futurities, and the impacts of climate change in Arctic and Subarctic regions.
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The project ⴰⵔⵔⴰⵎⴰⵜ Ărramăt: Strengthening Health And Wellbeing
Through Indigenous-Led Conservation and Sustainable Relationships
With Biodiversity is funded by Gov of Canada's New Frontiers in
Research Fund (NFRF).
The Arramat Biodiversity (T5) Decolonize Science and Education Arramat Global Transformation Pathway 5 aims to build a network and create a space to
address the challenges and opportunities for Indigenous-led science,
technology, and society research and education.
Within this framework, we are organizing "Káffidit" - a series of
informal online sessions. Káffidit means “ making and drinking coffee
and conversing together” in Lule Sámi.
In Eveny - chayu kolram - as well as in Mongolian - Цайлах - the
practice is to drink tea.
What is the word in your language for this type of inclusive and
relaxed social event, and how does it inspire you to think creatively?
We wish to in relaxed ways in an Indigenous context discuss - learn
from each others and hear of examples on how to decolonize science
and education.
Questions: please email us at [email protected]
Organised by Arramat Pathway T5 Decolonizing Science and Education,
at Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University; Univ of British Columbia; Univ of Alberta; Univ of Minnesota
Co-leads of T5 are May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University; Warren Cardinal-McTeague , University of British Columbia; Kim TallBear, University of Minnesota.
Arramat T5 Káffidit - Online coffee talks - webinar: Throwing a Lasso into the FutureEveny reindeer herders’ lasso-making in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)P...
