“Urbanites without a City”: Three Generations of Siberian Yukaghir Women

Female roles as promoted among the Siberian Yukaghirs today, favouring ideals of beauty, autonomy and above all a modern urban lifestyle, are not as clear-cut as they may seem at first glance. Superficially, it appears that there has been a complete reversal of what went before: the Soviet ideal of the strong working-class woman has been thrown out and replaced with Western models of femininity. Dip a little deeper below the surface, however, and we see that things are not so different after all. Many aspects of today's ideal of womanhood are firmly rooted in the traditions of the Soviet period. What is different, however, is the inability of today's Yukaghir women to leave for the urban centres of Siberia. They are stuck in the remote village, although their mindset is truly urban.