"Les usages politiques du corps". Université d’été du 25 au 30 aout 2014 en Albanie. / Ming-Hui HUANG

Dilemma of Distinction : Making Inorodets an Inseparable ‘Us’

The definition of inorodtsy(1) evolved over the course of the nineteenth century along with Russia’s eastward expansion and encounter with native peoples including Finno-Ugric, Samoedic, Turkic, Tungusic, Mongolian and Palosiberian language groups. As far as the Russian state was concerned, an inorodets, a person ‘of other origin’ (ino = other, rod = birth, origin), was generally supposed to become more like a Russian who in fact, associated inorodets with a referent who is a ‘congenital and (...)