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On Presence
of view, dealt with such mundane and everyday affairs as the sewing
and tanning of animal skins and hides, in particular, those of reindeer,
but with the aesthetics and exchange practices. The theme of this arti-
cle had emerged out of two particular experiences. First, since my ar-
rival in Tymlat, I had worked in the local masterskaia, a small work-
shop that was part of Tymlat’s collective farm where women skinned,
tanned, and sewed the hides that brigade workers in reindeer-herding
camps in the tundra sent to the village. Second, I had spent a great deal
of time in those camps and the tundra and wanted to find a way to ar-
ticulate the love and care with which people referred to animals, and
the ways in which they articulated that love to refer to themselves. By
and large, the argument was set against the rather functionalist frame-
works that, at that time, were still prevalent in Russia-centered an-
thropology to explain the architecture, clothing, and foods of north-
ern Russian reindeer herders. I wanted to give expression to the feel,
sense, and smell of fur and hides, to their palpability. I also wanted
to give expression to the experience of their touch. To the symmetri-
cal, carefully thought-out, and outrageously beautiful patterns with
which people, in particular women, arranged and sewed fur. In this
sense, “Skins of Desire” was as much the outcome of Koriak desires,
as perhaps it was the outcome of my own desires.
In, and beyond, the intellectual circles in which I then moved, the
article was well received. But a funny thing happened. It was, some
said, too romantic. The idea of romance was rarely elaborated, but
I think what people meant was that it was too loving, too extraor-
dinary and idealistic. “Skins of Desire” built on my visceral sense of
living in the tundra but also on the experiences, feelings, and words
of Koriak women and men who clearly loved the animals with and
by which they lived. This was new territory in northern Russian re-
search. It flew in the face of a historical materialism that posited evo-
lutionary stages and organizational features as the ultimate in explan-
atory logics. It forced analysts to think about animals as more than
vehicles for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, and instead as
both subjects and objects of aesthetics, art, and desire. It provided, I
thought, a more encompassing view of both animal and human lives
in the northern Kamchatka tundra.
