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Dessislav Sabev is a PhD student in anthropology at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.  He has conducted fieldwork in Eastern and North Eastern Europe and the Eastern Canadian Arctic. 

Following pictures are from 1999 fieldwork (under the supervision of Yulian Konstantinov) in reindeer herding camp no.1 of Krasnoschelie, in the tundra of the Kola Peninsula.  Herders go to the spring camp while their wives stay in the village, caring for housework, children and potato garden.  Because of Krashoschelie's tundra camps' extreme remoteness and deteriorating infrastructure,  the herders' wives have not been joining their husbands in the camps since 1993

 

Time for sledge reparation: Pasha takes the stuff from the warehouse.

Valery, the tent helper (chum-rabotnik) prepares his handmade refrigerator for stocking reindeer meat for subsistence.
Roman with Ljapka, his 'hunting dog' (lovely but not really useful for hunt), resting  after geese hunt on a 'dead' tracked vehicle nearby the herding camp.

Reparation and preparation on the Iokanga river.

           

Kolya (left) making a herder's knife. At his feet the brigade's new born dog enjoys the early June sunshine.  The wood material is very rare in the tundra, hence extremely precious
It's always good time for a 'Prima' cigarette. (The new knife is already in its place, on the left side of Kolya's waistband.)

The deputy brigadier, Vasil Kanev, with Pasha, the youngest member of the brigade.

June 11, 1999: Finally, the Iokanga river and the much anticipated fishing season has started !
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