On ethnographic grounds alone, Ziker's book is a unique and valuable contribution. Despite increased fieldwork
opportunities for foreigners in the former Soviet Union in recent years, much of Russia and Siberia remains terra
incognita to Western scholars, except for specialists who know the Russian literature. Ziker's account of the Dolgan
and Nganasan peoples of the Ust Avam community is a fascinating analysis of how people adapt their hunting, fishing,
and herding not only to the demanding Arctice environment but also to enormous economic and political adversities
created in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. In this sense, the book fills a gap in the ethnographic literature
on Siberia for Western students and, at the same time, serves as a microcosm of the devastating changes affecting
rural communities and indigenous peoples generally in a disintegrating former superpower; that is, increasing isolation
and a shift to nonmarket survival economies.