A Native Anthropologist’s View on Covering the “Altai Princess” Problem

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores conflicts between the Altai community and archeologists due to the discovery of a woman’s mummy, the “Altai Princess,” found in a burial mound of the Pazyryk time (5th–3rd centuries BCE) in the south of Siberia, in the Republic of Altai (Russia). It is argued that a “Native anthropologist” studying her own people and a “visiting anthropologist” illuminates the problem each in their own ways. Attention is drawn to facts indicating the importance of using Indigenous methodologies and research approaches from within a given ethnic culture to understand folk interpretations adequately. Key positions concerning the Altai are outlined on the basis of the author’s field materials. It is emphasized that the demand to (re)bury the “Altai Princess” is based on the tradition of observing the “border” between the earthly and the other world. This corresponds to a key idea of Burkhanism in ritual and everyday life. Discourse about the “Altai princess” can be understood through Altai traditional sacral concepts and practices. Outsider anthropologists’ abstract assertions claiming that the Altai national intelligentsia is responsible for social conflict with archeologists are questioned.