Summary: | This article approaches Nenets sambadabc, shamanic ritual songs, bringing together current understandings about Tundra Nenets language, folklore and singing with discussions about reindeer herding. The research material consists of ten texts gathered by Toivo Lehtisalo in the beginning of 20th century. The analysis concentrates on the Nenets language ideologies and the ways singing is objectified and commodified; on Nenets honorific registers and the ways in which spirits are interacted with; and on the interrelationship of the ways spirits and reindeer are interacted within the frames of sentient ecology. As a result, the article draws a spectrum of differing materialities that are inherent in understanding the performance and revoicing of the sambadabc and in informing the interaction between human and variable non-human others. Peer reviewed
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